I am still in the process of transitioning parts of membership to Susan Lembo.

My plan is to split the membership responsibilities into two parts to make it more manageable.

Last year at this time membership was at 223 paid memberships with a total of 353 total members

I have worked to grow the membership base this year with several initiatives including reaching out to people whose membership lapsed over the last 10 years with an email campaign that is still ongoing.  

With the help of people like Gary, Mark, Tina, and Jay, to name just a few people who emcee our shows, we have more actively urged audience members to join the Folk Project. 

With everyone's effort we have grown the membership base to 319 memberships with a total of 424 total members.

I have received over 350 emails this year in the membership inbox that required action of some type.

My plan is to offload some of the work to Susan and focus on transitioning the actual membership management to an online solution.

Thank you for your efforts in growing our membership base.

Please address all questions to IHaveAQuestionAboutMembership@Folkproject.org

Later!

Todd

Newsletter Committee Report 2023-02

Things are proceeding as usual with the invaluable help of Kathi Caccavale, Pat Brangs, Bill Henderson, Gary Pratt, Susan Lembo, and Todd Dennison.

George Otto

Folk Project Newsletter Editor

newsletter@folkproject.org 

Publicity Report for the February 7, 2023 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, February 6, 2023

Publicity Committee Members

Alicia Weimer, George Otto, Howard Goldman, Jean Scully, Jim Gartner, Joanne Cronin, Kathi Caccavale, Liz Pagan, Loretta Brooks, Mark Schaffer, Michael Mitsch, Mike Rauchwerk, Olga Alvarez, Pat Brangs, Paul Fisher, Ralph Pedicini, Rebecca Rydell

Web Team Members                                 

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2023 be as good as we hoped 2022 would be.

Ø  At last month’s Board meeting, I reported that I had met with Todd Dennison, Mark Schaffer, and Mike Agranoff to begin drafting a survey and anticipated sending it out sometime in January. To-do lists intervened. We’ll be getting that project back on track now.

Ø  The WNYC on-air spots promoting the Troubadour began airing in January. We’ll have a week later this month promoting the 2/17 “Dead to the Core” show. But, at Mike’s suggestion, the last ¼ of it has been rescheduled to support our 4/7 Christine Lavin show.

Ø  Publicity still needs more helpers.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Here’s Mark’s e-Communications Report for February 2023 Board Meeting.

·         40,198 Total Sends for the Music Alert

·         14,154 Opens … 38.9% open rate, up from 37.5% last month

·         534 Clicks … 3.4% click rate, down from 4.2% last month

·         Project-wide, we had a total of 47,171 email Sends in January. This includes newsletter, volunteering, membership renewal requests, dance, poster   distribution, etc.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

From Kathi and Sam:

Folk Project Page:  4,707 people Like this (up from 4,645 last month). 5,898 Followers (up from 5,823).

Folk Project group: 1,821 members, up from 1,786 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 620 members; up from 611 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 255 members; Up from 251 last month.

Content Overview:

Kathi says, “This month’s biggest issue is that Facebook is giving us an error message when we try to start livestreams. We have gotten free livestreams to work – eventually – and test streams work, but we have not found a workaround for online paid events. I blame on it on some internal Facebook conflicts as they move to the New Pages experience, which has a different way of managing Pages. For example, I cannot share an event from the Facebook page using my Folk Project profile, I have to share it using my personal profile even though the end result is that shows up as a Folk Project post. This has caused problems and delays in my usual routine of posting reminders of upcoming events and pinning those posts to the top of the page or to the Featured section in the group.”

1,860 Facebook Page Visits in December were by far the highest they’ve been since last May. (Page Visits tend to get their biggest numbers on Streaming Tuesdays and Open Stage Fridays.) And our 63 new Page Likes for December were the most since last February.

Row Labels FB Page Visits FB Page Likes

2022.01 2,750 70

2022.02 2,592 83

2022.03 2,094 57

2022.04 1,625 60

2022.05 2,111 38

2022.06 1,171 31

2022.07 1,621 55

2022.08 1,485 56

2022.09   958 40

2022.10 1,403 46

2022.11 1,546 48

2022.12 1,030 22

2023.01 1,860 63

Grand Total 22,246 669

Our biggest Event of the month was Troubadour 1/6 with Gathering Time (reach of 5316, and 99 responses). As noted above, Troubadour Paid Events at the end of the month didn’t work.

Streaming Tuesday 1/24 with Andrew Dunn and Todd Dennison had 64 Responses.

Vance Gilbert Inside the Song had 79 Responses.

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Sam says:

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

·         Instagram followers: 374, up from 358 last month.

·         Instagram – Down from December, but up compared to November.

o   Reach: 243 … down from 293 last month

o   Profile visits: 42 … down from 51

o   New Likes & Followers: 18 … down from 20

·         Instagram posts (90-day results)

o   Reach: 451 … up 117%

o   Engagement (likes, comments, shares): 192 … up 44%

·         Instagram Stories (90-day results)

o   25 Story posts.

o   Reach: 107

o   Engagement: 4

Twitter – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s writeup on both October and November, since he didn’t have a chance to compile his usual full report last month:

January was a moderately busy month:

·         we updated several individual pages, including the Administration page, the Swingin' Tern page, the COVID policy page and the Inside the Song Video   Archive Page

·         we updated the board@folkproject.org and boardplus@folkproject.org mailing lists and forwarded the current lists of recipients to the members of those   lists

·         we added an adult language notice to Amy Englehardt Troubadour appearance

·         we added events to the calendar for Inside the Song and the Getaway Songwriters Day

·         we assisted the Membership Chair with his CiviCRM login

·         we advised the Troubadour Chair concerning replacement of the computer used at Troubadour events and pointed out a potential grant source to pay for it

·         we discussed adding a new Job Description section to the Volunteer page with several interested parties.  Work is still under way on the page design.

·         we assisted the Newsletter Chair in getting the most recent edition of the e-newsletter online

As always, many thanks to Lori, Allan, Charles and Liz.  Please send questions, comments and suggestions to webmaster@folkproject.org.

John Lamb, webmaster

Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new.

February 2023 Special Events Report to Board:

January’s Evening of Music was wonderful. 25 in attendance and some great music all night long. February will also be at our home.

The Bill Hall House Concert with Rachel Marie opening was fantastic. Almost 60 with staff, great show, great music, great food. The Project profited $100.

So far April 15th's Songwriters Day with concert sold nine tickets to the full day and two for the concert only.

Getaway Songwriters Day is on track for April 15th. It features Dan Navarro and Abbie Gardner leading workshops during the day and a concert in the evening that will be open to the general public. 

Spring Getaway:

On the theory that only bigger names are drawing crowds in this post-COVID era, I aimed too high and failed to secure the bigger-named artists I aimed for. We’ve reserved MUUF for Friday and Saturday, May 19 and 20th. I expect Sunday, May 21st to be a Getaway@Home members event. The first Folk Project Acoustic Getaway was 50 years ago this May according to our founder Laurie Riley’s history on line. We will celebrate this landmark by  reflecting that in our Getaway programming. Two main acts will be preceded by Folk Project member performers chosen to reflect both our historical and our current crop of excellent artists. Frank Vignola and Vinny Raniolo will lead workshops and perform Saturday.

The format will be:

Friday and Saturday evening concerts will also be open to the public. Saturday workshops at MUUF. Sunday in Rockaway, members concert and music making workshops.

Fall Getaway:

Stoney Point did not have my correct email address, so I didn’t receive the contract for the Fall Getaway 2023 in time for the meeting. We previously sold out at 150, often in weeks.   We will never get close to that number this year. They emailed with a contract for an October 6, 7 & 8 Getaway. The contract was for 100 guests and the prices were substantially higher than last time. The 100-guest minimum seemed too big a risk for too huge a loss. I requested a new contract for 76 guests, 38 rooms. We will be sharing the camp because we can’t possibly fill it. If we charge $364 and get 76 guests, we will have enough budget for a smaller, but substantial, performer’s budget.

IMPORTANT:

By agreement with Stoney Point, the financial risk is minimal if we only get 61 guests.  Below 61, the Projects risks $364 for every guest less than 61.

Please send comments, concerns, and suggestions to Mark.Schaffer@FolkProject.org

Yours in song,

Mark

Folk Project board members,

Since the beginning of January, we have been unable to stream Facebook paid online events. This is most likely due to a major update Facebook is the process of implementing. Kathi Caccavale has submitted trouble tickets to Facebook, but has so far not received any reply from them. Refunds have been made to paid online ticket purchasers. Until this is resolved, we have created a workaround by streaming Troubadour shows as free events. 

We are also researching other streaming platforms in the event that we are unable to resolve this problem with Facebook. It also may turn out that moving to a different streaming platform may be beneficial to The Folk Project regardless of whether the issues with Facebook can be resolved. 

This is the top priority for the Streaming Committee.

Gary

Swingin' Tern January report

We have a good trend with another good month. First, some news about our vaccination policy. At our most recent dance, I noted that from what I understand, vaccinated people are generally more protected against the virus to the extent that not infrequently they are asymptomatic when they do contract the virus. As a consequence, they could be less likely to know when they are infected.

Following on that, I jokingly announced that in order to protect our dancers, vaccinated people will not be permitted at the dance starting in March. Obviously ridiculous, as the  people currently attending our dance are vaccinated -- though many vaccinated people have been jabbed so long ago their shots don't much matter. And even if vaccinated people are more of a risk to others, the difference is doubtless small.

So... starting in March we will not be requiring vaccinations unless Morris County is in the "orange" zone.

As for last month, at our anniversary dance on January 7 Bob Isaacs led a group calling to Squirrel's Chair. On January 21, Michael Karcher called to Torrent.

Finally, we finished $123 in the black for the month.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Attached are three Profit & Loss statements.

P&L ytd 2023 Our current statement. It is showing negative numbers because we have paid some of our Insurance invoices for the year.

P&L ytd 2022 The general Profit & Loss. P&L byClass 2022 Is the same year with more detail. This is last years numbers. We are almost ready to close the books.

Numbers to pay attention to and numbers explained.

The first important number to notice is the loss in our Vanguard account due to the stock market corrections we are experiencing. -($34,329.88) the total value is currently $173,636.55 which is down from its value in 2021 of $202,518.62.

We show an operations profit of $2,251.98. That is not completely correct. $10,000.00 needs to be deducted for the pass-through WNYC donation we received but did not spend in 2022. We will be spending it in 2023. We also need to add in and additional $6,000.00 for both Getaways and the Uke fest for using unrealized gains (The Vanguard account). If anyone needs an explanation just let me know. That brings us to an operating loss of -($2,251.98). This is excellent news.

This is in part due to some generous Donations throughout the year. If you look at the report you will see $25,110.33 in donations. The biggest number is the pass-through donation to WNYC for $10,000. The next biggest donation is Mike Agranoff for $6,203.91 followed by a grant for Mid Atlantic for $3,000. Other donations to mention was the Loose Cannons concert who donated their income. Others to mention are Scotty Rovner and Pat Brangs. Added together with a lot of smaller numbers it comes to $5,906.42

Another big advance was in Membership. We went from $5,487 in 2021 to $9,350 last year almost double, thanks to all of Todds efforts.

The last big number to notice is our Bookkeeper Karen Buchanan. Her expense last year was $5,883.75. It should have been $4,000. This was in part due to all the things we needed to straighten out to get our books correct. Plus new federal rules for filing 990ez tax forms became more difficult and took us a while to figure out. Had we hired an accountant it would have cost more. I have been talking with Karen about ways to cut some of the costs by me doing some of the data entry. I will inform you when I have more details.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr Treasurer

From: The Troubadour <mike.agranoff@folkproject.org>

Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2023 5:19 PM

To: boardplus@folkproject.org

Subject: Troubadour Booking Report, February, 2023

Well, things are at last looking up a little bit.  Our average paid attendance for lesser-known acts is still hovering around 30 – 40, but at last the better-known performers are drawing closer to their pre-COVID levels.  So although we still haven’t regained our previous “house audience”, more people seem to be willing to venture out for their favorites.  Average paid attendance for January was 50.7, but Tracy Grammer drew 85, which compares well with her 2016 draw of 95.  Fans of opener Michael Arthur helped swell those numbers as well.  That show actually made a profit of $187.  However January as a whole ran $160 in the red.

We received a generous donation of $200 from Bill Cox and Cathy Ballard.  And I am continuing to cover the Troubadour’s losses.

Performers’ pay has been pretty decent, averaging $765 for the Feature Act since we resumed shows in April of last year, plus another $77 in online tips from streaming viewers.  But recently, those online donations have dwindled considerably.  Since the beginning of October, they have only averaged $33.80, from an average viewership of 22.5, or only $1.50 per viewer.  So we are now asking our emcees to extend our “Creel” pitch to our online viewers, as well as our in-person attendees. 

That situation has not been helped by the fact that would-be streaming viewers have not been able to connect to the FaceBook Live webcast for the last two shows of January.  Kathi Caccavale, Bill Henderson, John Mahon and Gary Pratt managed to create a free webcast for those two shows, so some of the disappointed viewers with the patience to wait were able to watch the shows eventually.  But that has also created a revenue loss for the Folk Project as well, because all the tickets for those shows had to be refunded.  The fault lies with FaceBook, not with any failure of our equipment or procedures.  Gary will cover this subject more fully in his Streaming Committee report.

*I will not be able to attend the February meeting.

New bookings since last report.

1.   March 17:  Folk Project favorite Glen Coleman opening for No Fuss & Feathers

2.   March 24:  Another FP favorite Andrew Dunn opening for The Kennedys

3.   April 7:  General populace favorite Christine Lavin

4.   May 5:  Enrico Granafei  A name previously unknown to me, and most of you as well.  But an act well worth attending.  He is one of the best players of the chromatic harmonica in the world, and known world-wide to Jazz aficionados.  He is also a virtuoso guitarist, and has a hands-free harmonica that allows him to play guitar and harmonica simultaneously.  He sings too.  Don’t miss this show.

5.   October 6:  Up-and-coming singer songwriter Sam Robbins.

February highlight:

1.   February 17:  Dead to the Core:  A collaboration of top notch acoustic musicians and songwriters presenting acoustic songs of the Grateful Dead, spearheaded by Jeffrey Pepper Rogers, who is also a music journalist.  He has interviewed Jerry Garcia and Bob Wier, and will be presenting readings from those interviews and other stories about the band

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org

Addition by John Mahon:

I also wanted to highlight the hard work that Kathi Caccavale is doing to get to the bottom of the problem caused by Facebook. They frequently change the screens used to operate it in an obscure manor with no explanation and no apparent method to sort out a solution. Kathi is dealing with Facebook with "trouble tickets" to get a response from the techs "behind the curtain". This can be a frustrating and time-consuming task. Kathi, thank you for your work here.

John Mahon