FP Future Planning Committee

June Board Report

1. Branding status

The committee is exploring a refresh of the Folk Project brand and will be building on the work done in 2018-19 to crystalize our target audience, key values, differentiation, etc.  We expect to read out the results of this work at the August or September board meeting. 

2.            Looking for a volunteer
The turnaround committee would like to add someone who represents the audience we are trying to attract - 40-60 year olds.  Please suggest someone who would attend monthly meetings and help us with the turnaround plan.

3.            Social media strategy

Social media advertising campaigns are an essential element for other folk venues for attracting new audiences.  We want to build on the “organic” activities we do today. Along with the Publicity Committee, we are evaluating holistic and specific social media strategies, as well as budgets and volunteer resources. 

We are looking for a social media champion to pull together an overall plan, volunteers and possibly outside paid resources.  Any suggestions??  It is a vision, planning and organization role. SM experience is ideal but more important to have leadership qualities and be willing to learn.

4.            Grant status 

·         The Investor Foundation Grant is awaiting results, which are expected in the next few months.

·         Martin Guitars offers a grant that Mark Schaffer is pursuing for guitar-related activities

·         The team is exploring additional grants to support our programs.

Robin Schaffer

Bob McNally

Hello All,

For our first report with something to Report in quite a long time:

Training for use of the equipment and all of the other necessary hoops have been jumped through so HSNLI is approved to tape shows!  On Friday May 26, We had our first scheduled taping in Brattleboro! Unfortunately, the guest that was scheduled, had a last minute commitment, and had to back out. But the wheels are turning, the systems are set in place, and we are ready to start rolling again In our northern counterpart.

I will be coming into the meeting late tonight as I’ll be working until about 830.

Sandie.

Newsletter Committee Report 2023-06

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 June 6, 2023 Board Meeting

Sam Edelston, June 4, 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, MaryLynn Schiavi

Web Team Members                                 

John Lamb, Allan Kugel, Charles Lamb, Lori Falco

Reports

Chairperson’s Report – Sam Edelston

At last month’s Board meeting, MaryLynn Schiavi asked for volunteers to be interviewed for a short video about the Folk Project. (Originally, it was envisioned as a series of two-minute videos. It is now envisioned as a slightly longer video that will include several members.) Work is progressing. I expect to be able to say something more substantive next month.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer

Mark says:

30-day summary of all emails:

40,037 Sends

14.420 Opens

38.8% Open Rate (Above expectations) (Number differs from “Opens/Sends” because of Constant Contact definitions.)

509 Clicks (Below expectations)

Of interest:

·         97.1% of our opens are on desktops. almost none on mobile devices.

·         Historically, most clicks are for sample songs and live webcasts.

·         An exception is ticket sales for the 50th Anniversary.

 Facebook – Kathi Caccavale

Folk Project Page:  5,977 Followers (down from 6,035 last month). “4.8K” people Like this (up from 4,835).

Folk Project group: 1,949 members, similar to 1,948 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 633 members; similar to 634 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 264 members; same as 264 last month.

Facebook Page visits rebounded to 1445, thanks to five days with 100+ visits. Tuesdays, May 2 (Circle Round the Sun on Streaming Tuesday) and May 30 (Daniel Cainer on Streaming Tuesday) led the pack by a good margin.

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Sam says:

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

·         Instagram followers: 419, up from 404 last month.

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

o   Reach: 165 … down from 197 last month, but 202, 243, and 293 in the three months before that

o   Profile visits: 23 … down from 49 last month and 55 the month before that

o   New Likes & Followers: 15 … similar to 16 last month

·         Instagram posts (90-day results)

o   Reach: 292 … down from 298

o   Engagement (likes, comments, shares): 182 … down from 214

·         Instagram Stories (90-day results)

o   22 Story posts.

o   Reach: 117 … up from 106

o   Engagement: 3 … down from 4

Twitter – Jean Scully

No report from Jean.

 Web – John Lamb

Here’s John’s writeup:

All is well with the website.  Due to a stint in the hospital (had an infection that required IV antibiotics, all now well) and its aftermath in early May, your webmaster did not have as much time as usual to work on the site and is filing an abbreviated report this month.  A full description for May and June will be available next month.  Interestingly, our numbers while down in the old Google Analytics format were a bit down for May, they were actually a bit up in Google Analytics 4 which purports to filter out more of the non-end-user traffic.

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

John Lamb, webmaster

 Merch – Paul Fisher (acting)

Nothing new to report.

Sound Reinforcement Committee Report June 2023

We provided sound for the five Friday night shows scheduled in Mayl. All proceeded normally, without technical incidents. The new streaming service continues to provide incident free service.

One evening the setup process revealed a drop-out of the internet connection. I investigated the wired connections to the wifi modem and confirmed positive mechanical connections of the power and signal connections. The streaming for this remained uninterrupted for the entire night.

This is the second month for the restored three-camera broadcast in the Sanctuary.  The restored three camera system continued to perform flawlessly this month.

The stage equipment restoration is still in process. The list is growing and will cover the mic stands, the micorphones, and the mic cables. Once the entire collection is evaluated, I will put the refurbish, replace options into action.

John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

Special Events Report to the Board for June 2023 Meeting:

Special Concerts by Mark Schaffer

The 50th Anniversary Golden Jubilee was very successful on multiple levels.

• Many thank-you notes were sent to so many volunteers and members. Here we will single out Chris Bukata, Bob Cole and Jean Scully.

• The concerts and workshops were well-attended and were excellent from entertainment and educational and fun standpoints.

• The main acts, the member artists, and the member announcers all performed excellently.

• The historical messaging was continuous and was effective from a nostalgia standpoint for old timers, and also from a bonding perspective in connecting newer arrivals to our long history and to our many past contributors.

• According to event bookkeeping (not the Quicken bookkeeping which ultimately rules), the event made $941.

• It should be noted that our landlords, the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship, gave the Folk Project a generous break on rent in honor of our 50th anniversary — a $1,000 discount. The charges came to less for the entire weekend — Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night — than we would normally pay for Friday night only. This is a reminder of our discussions about value of the great relationship between the Project and the Fellowship. 

We intend run a similar weekend again in 50 years.

Future Special Events events in 2023:

• A Beatlemania house concert featuring Elaine Silver on Saturday, August 19 at Mark & Robin Schaffer’s home.

• NJ Uke Fest on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, September 8, 9 and 10, again at our home.

• The Fall Acoustic Getaway on Columbus Weekend, October 6, 7 and 8 at Stoney Point.

The Future Planning Committee headed by Robin Schaffer and Bob McNally is exploring, among other things, grants to ameliorate the risks in hiring more-expensive acts for Special Concerts, and for educations/concert days like Songwriters Day or Guitar Days, and for Getaway weekends.

Event Hosting - Sub-chair Jay Wilensky

(Mark’s Report for now)

The Year of Schaffer Evenings of Music continues successfully.

(Reminder: This is a temporary measure for 2023.)

Attendance hovers around two dozen and more,

and the music is excellent every month.

Mark your calendars for the July 4th picnic at Lewis Morris Park in Morristown.

It gets better and better every year.

Enjoy your music,

Mark

Mark Schaffer,

Folk Project Special Events Chair

Board members,

A big thank you to Todd Dennison for filling in with Streaming Tuesdays performer stream tests while Kathi Caccavale was on vacation. Stream tests are done with each performer a few days before their concert to ensure that they are able to successfully stream to our page and also allows us to provide feedback about their video, audio, balance, lighting and framing. 

Streaming Tuesdays will move from Facebook to Afton starting July 11. We are in the process of creating documentation for performers and will begin training with July performers later this month.

If you haven’t attended an Afton show yet, please try to do so. Your feedback and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Here's the link for Folk Project shows on Afton: https://aftontickets.com/thefolkproject

Respectfully submitted,
Gary Pratt
Folk Project Streaming Chair

Swingin' Tern Report - May 2023

Two excellent dances vast month. On May 6 we hosted Peter Stix calling to French Toast, and on May 20 we hosted Sue Gola and Christie Riehl calling to The Contra Rebels. Christie recently took Bob Isaacs's caller workshop, and Xander Kastan has booked her for a full evening.

We had good attendance with many newcomers, clearing $255 -- our best result since coming back full time. The month-by-month results have been irregularly trending up.

We had a volunteer meeting on May 6. We'll dance on New Year's Eve, with Virginia Nordberg organizing. We have regular contact with the church and a good relationship with them. We're delighted with this venue.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Lots to talk about today and things to point out and explain. I'll start by saying all the numbers are rounded to the nearest thousand to make it easier to understand.

The time has come to where I will need to take money out of the Vanguard Account. There is only 6K left in the Money Market account. I suggest approximately 15K. Here are the reasons:

1. Historically we have always generated enough profit to have the funds available for the stipend for Both Getaways and more recently the Yuke Fest. The average award is around 2K for each event. That is why there is the General Portion part of the Vanguard. Its an IOU to general funds for using the available funds in the Money Market that makes no interest as apposed to taking the stipend money out of the Vanguard account.

2. Since Covid has struck we have been loosing money on top of the average 6K we have been awarding to Special Events. It only been a matter of time.

If you look at the P&L statement you will see a huge loss of $22K to date, and you will say YIKES what happened??? Well....

1. Last year we got a 10K pass through donation for WNYC and didn't spend it last year, we're spending it this year. The 10K helped us show a profit of 2K and not a loss of 8K

2. We have a $5,766 deposit for Stony Point in the fall.

3. Several Venues are loosing money.

4. The Vanguard stipend I discussed earlier.

5. The cost of our Bookkeeper. I don't see a way around that, especially with the new Stripe and Afton accounts along with PayPal, Keeping the books straight is not a simple task anymore.

There is no cause for alarm. That is why we have the Vanguard account. However we need to be mindful in how we spend the money and this is my wake-up call. There are no right or wrong answers but its important that everyone is aware. The three most obvious methods are below. The not so obvious way is to invest in advertising or new & better events. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

1. We can go on like we have been keeping in mind there is a limit to how long the Vanguard will last depending on how we spend it.

2. Look at raising some of our ticket prices.

3 Cutting expenses.

For those Venues who do not keep up with their finances, it becomes more critical to at least see whats going on. It is hard for me when people don't send their receipts in or keep me up to date with deposits and expenses. I will become more of a "pain-in-the-ass" in the future and will gently nudge those people when necessary.

I am apologizing ahead of time...

Peggy Karr / Treasurer

Hey guys, get a load of these numbers!  Average paid attendance in May:  77.0 (98.5 total attendance).  Profit in May:  $417.  Profit YTD: $544.  Troubadour is getting back on its feet!

Only 2 Troubadour shows this month:  one with a widely known act, and one pretty much unknown to our audience.  The well known act, Buskin & Batteau, packed the house with 98 paid, and a $485 profit.  And the unknown act, Enrico Granafei, held its own pretty well with 57 paid, and only a $68 loss.  (He brought in a goodly number of his own fans to the Troubadour for the first time.)  Still not up to pre-COVID levels yet, but pretty healthy.  The streaming fees from our new Afton streaming platform are helping a lot with our bottom line.  If we start making too much money (I’ve always maintained that you can’t have too much money, but you can have enough.), I may start apportioning some of the Streaming income to the performers, which would allow me to offer higher guarantees.

Just this past Wednesday, Bill Buttner, who was scheduled to open for Stories, Songs, and Art on June 2 informed me that due to a personal emergency, he would be unable to do the gig.  I told him I understood, and would rebook him at the first opportunity.  I booked Ken Galipeau to substitute for him.

The Birthday Show is scheduled for July 28, and will be run it the traditional fashion with groups of randomly-matched member-performers being assembled at the July 4th picnic.  An article went into the June newsletter with information on how to sign up.

The “Masks Required” seating section has become somewhat less populated of late, and on well attended nights like the Buskin & Batteau show, the other section is starting to approach its full seating capacity.  I’m pondering dropping that segregation of our audience, but I’m still concerned about the comfort level of those who are still nervous about sitting in close proximity to unmasked people.  To help in making that decision, starting with last night’s show, and continuing through the month of June, I will be taking a poll of the people sitting in the masked-only section as to how many of them would be uncomfortable to come to the Troubadour if that reserved section were no longer available.  The numbers last night were 9 of the 21 people in the Masks Required section reported they would feel uncomfortable without the sanctuary of the reserved section.

On that same subject, I had an interesting conversation with a patron last night that I think might merit some action on our part.  He approached me during intermission and introduced himself as an epidemiologist of considerable standing in the country.  He said he had been a frequent attendee pre-COVID, and was reluctant to resume attendance due to lingering COVID risk.  However he was a big fan of Buskin & Batteau, and decided to risk it last night.  He was delighted at our system of a separate masked-only seating section, and highly praised it  as a novel and effective idea.  He said he might have resumed attendance earlier, had he known of that arrangement, and suggested it might be advisable to note that on our website.  So I have asked John Lamb to replace our ongoing COVID risk level notification with a notification that a masked-only seating section would be available for those who would wish to sit there.  If our attendance continues to increase, we may limit that section to a limited number of rows, although that may be difficult to implement.  We’ll see what happens when and if we run into that situation.

New bookings since last month

1. July 21:  Vance Gilbert singer-songwriter with a powerful voice and entertaining stage presence, with Carole Wise opening

2. August 18:  Joe Crookston singer-songwriter with a spiritual bent.

3. April 26, 2024: The Tannahill Weavers  Holy smoke!  One of the legacy Scottish supergroups that has been around since the 70s.  I got them for a ridiculously low (for them) guarantee because we were so convenient to their routing.  No opener for them.

Highlight show in June

1. June 16:  Matt Nakoa  Young singer-songwriter approaching (in my humble opinion) the levels of a Susan Werner in all categories:  songwriting, instrumental prowess, vocals, and stage presence.  Put him on your calendars

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org