Folk Project Future Planning Committee

May 2023 Board Meeting report

Co-chairs:  Bob McNally and Robin Schaffer

1. The committee submitted an application for an Investor Foundation grant.  The grant’s focus is to enhance arts and culture, as well as provide education and other community support.  We submitted a proposal for four special concerts, requesting approximately 50% of the $45.2k budget.
   
   The intention of the concert series is to hire better-known – hence, more expensive – performers that will draw new audience members into the Folk Project’s network of programs.

   The Investor Foundation reviews grant proposals quarterly, so we expect to hear back in the next few months. 

2. The committee will meet again on May 8 and continue to evaluate other turnaround ideas and prioritize those to pursue.

Newsletter Committee Report 2023-05

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 

I am pleased to provide you with an update on the recent developments at Open Stage. 

Last month, we made the decision to bring back featured acts, and the response from our attendees has been overwhelming. Many of our regulars have expressed their excitement and appreciation for the return of this popular feature, and we will be able to showcase members and up-and-coming musical talent in the area. The return of featured acts has created a buzz around Open Stage and has helped to solidify our reputation as a leading venue for local music.

This month, we are excited to announce the opening of the Terrace Room. This space is perfect for small gatherings and intimate performances, and we are confident that it will be a hit. 

Come on out and make some music.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely, 

Todd Dennison

Open Stair Chair and Foot Rest.

Publicity Report for the May 2, 2023 Board Meeting 

Sam Edelston, May 1, 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

Our biggest push in April was for Songwriters Day. MaryLynn Schiavi drafted a press release and sent it to several newspapers and websites, hoping to get the article picked up or, better yet, a feature. We also tested ad buys for Songwriters Day at the end of March (4 Users clicked) and the April 7 Christine Lavin concert (14 Users). Interestingly, 8 of the 18 Users were from outside of New Jersey – in some cases as far away as Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, and North Dakota. (I wonder if most of these distant ones were just bots indexing the Patch website, because all of the distant states except Texas showed 0 seconds on our website.)

For Songwriters Day, it appears to me that we probably sold one or two registrations and possibly a concert ticket, through the Patch ads. The web log also shows a Lavin order for four concert tickets that might have come from our Patch ads. So this is a medium that appears to be worth further testing.

Special shoutout to our Facebook page surpassing 6,000 Followers this month. I continue to be amazed by how many things Kathi Caccavale does for the Folk Project.

E-communications – Mark Schaffer 

Mark has been very busy. I don’t have his April stats, but recent months have been generally consistent, so I’m not worried. The Music Alert continues to be excellent.

Facebook – Kathi Caccavale 

Folk Project Page:  4835 people Like this (up from 4,799 last month). 6,035 Followers (up from 5,948). 

Folk Project group: 1,918 members, up from 1,891 last month.

Swingin’ Tern group: 631 members; up from 627 last month.

NJ Uke Fest group: 263 members; Up from 261 last month.

This is Sam, covering for Kathi this month: We continue to post Streaming Tuesdays, Inside the Song, Open Stage, Troubadour and Special Events on the Folk Project Facebook page and group, as well as sharing the Swingin’ Tern event posts. People continue to ask to join The Folk Project group at the rate of several per week. Likes continue to increase for the Folk Project page as well. We also continue to share the email Music Alerts twice a week as social posts to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Our Facebook Page visits were down by about half compared to March, which had several big days associated with Troubadour shows:

Instagram – Ralph Pedicini

Sam says:

Content Overview (from Facebook/Instagram reports):

• Instagram followers: 404, up from 393 last month.

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

  • Reach: 197 … down from 202 last month, but 243 and 293 in the two months before that

  • Profile visits: 49 … down from 55

  • New Likes & Followers: 16 … up from 15 last month 

• Instagram posts (90-day results)

  • Reach: 298 … down from 348

  • Engagement (likes, comments, shares): 2 … up from 225

• Instagram Stories (90-day results)

  • 21 Story posts.

  • Reach: 114

  • Engagement: 2 … up 100% over last month

Ralph says:

• Continuing with posts regarding

• Streaming Tuesdays

• Troubadour Events

• Special Events (i.e., Getaways)

• Improving on Cross Promotion with Artists

• Looking to start quick IG Reels consisting of

• interviews/clips with performers

• Interviews/clips with members

• This is an effort to show viewers what the community is like and promote interest

Twitter – Jean Scully 

No report from Jean.

Web – John Lamb 

Here’s John’s writeup: 

April was an average sort of month for the web team.

• We added the usual entries for Inside the Song and Open Stage.

• We provided  more than the usual level of support for Songwriters Day and the Golden Jubilee events, as the events evolved and some of the people organizing them have not worked with the web team on these kinds of events before.  We are all learning how to help one another and make the process easier for each other.

• The new WooCommerce plugin continues to work flawlessly without requiring the small number of manual interventions per month that had been needed to complete online ticket purchases with the older version.  This is very welcome.  As we receive more and more orders, we have more confidence that this rather complex process is working as expected.

• We assisted the Troubadour Chair with adjustments to entries for upcoming shows.

• We assisted the Newsletter Chair in getting the most recent edition of the e-newsletter online.

• We performed the usual maintenance on email forwarders, including creating a new one for obituary distribution, obitnotices@folkproject.org, that we can now update centrally.  This list had previously been implemented as a private email list on a member's personal email account.

• We assisted Horses Sing None of It by correcting entries on their broadcast schedule that had been entered incorrectly.

• We assisted the Publicity Chair in tracking online ticket orders as he attempted to determine the effectiveness of paid media ads.

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)

For once a Merch update.  Sam and I took a look at the inventory at MUUF.  A few mugs, a bunch of Rise Up Singing! and Rise Again!  books, some a little worse for wear, others still in plastic. The Pete Seeger songbooks. Not much else. Maybe we should use it for door prizes at the 50th events and liquidate the whole thing. Or at least the mugs. Then I could retire.

 Sound Reinforcement Committee Report May 2023

We provided sound for the four Friday night shows scheduled in April. All proceeded normally, without technical incidents. This is the first month that we are using the new streaming service. We found that all the streaming interruptions ended last month with the cessation of streaming over Facebook. We also found that the login/initiation procedure is easier to do with the new service.

This month also saw the resuming of the three-camera broadcast in the Sanctuary. The long delay in this restoration of the third camera was due to the failed camera being lost for a protracted time in shipment for warrantee repair.  The restored camera system has performed flawlessly this month.

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

 John Mahon

Committee Chairperson

April 2023 Special Concerts Report to Board

MEMBER HOSTING

Jay’s doing a great job.

The April Evening of Music in Rockaway was a success. Over 20 people attended and the music was particularly first rate. The May Evening will be in Rockaway.

We predict a good time and great music enjoyed by all. 

EXPLORATORY SPECIAL EVENTS SUBCOMMITTEE

This subcommittee was formed to explore grants to facilitate an attendance turnaround post-COVID. It has been reconstituted under the Future Planning Committee with Sub Chairperson Robin Schaffer now a co-chair with existing chair Bob McNally. They will no longer report to or under the Special Events Committee

SONGWRITERS DAY

Songwriters Day was great — a tremendous success. The surveys came back overwhelmingly positive. Although it lost about $900, this is not characteristic of pre-COVID Getaway days. The Songwriters Team considers this an investment in our attendance turnaround, and, with Board approval, plans on doing it again next year.

The workshops had about 40 attendees, the number expected. The concert-only attendance was 39, well below the number expected for a concert with the likes of Abbie Gardner and Dan Navarro. With one more year past COVID, similarly excellent artists, and additional concert-focussed publicity the event should attract the 40 more concert-goers needed to break even.

Going forward, Diane Polledri and Tina Ross would be the Songwriters Day subchairs. The Board should discuss their team becoming an independent, full committee, which would conform with the Folk Project’s traditional structure than a subcomittee.

SPRING GETAWAY / 50th Anniversary

Plans are moving ahead for the Golden Jubilee. The opening cavalcade of performers and MCs will accommodate and honor 48 members by following the model that works so well at the Valentines Extravaganza.  Unfortunately, Project Founder Laurie Riley cannot attend, but she has sent a statement to be read by our MCs. Spook Handy will lead a sing-along workshop, and Scott Rovner and Peter Fischman will perform in the opening cavalcade. We are adding a few more performers.

The Friday's Mocktail Hour from 6:30 to 7:30 is meant for conversation among new and long-time members. We will serve special drinks and hors d’oeuvres, and the Jazz Ensemble will provide mood music. Foodmasters Bob Cole and Jean Scully are also planning a fabulous dinner for guests coming for both the Saturday  Afternoon workshops and the evening concert.

FALL GETAWAY AT STONY POINTY & NJ UKE FEST

No action to announce. Hiring artists continues.

Submitted by Mark Schaffer, Special Events Chair

Mark Schaffer, Folk Project Special Events Chair

Mark.Schaffer@folkproject.org

Board members,

A new era of Folk Project streaming began on April 7. The Christine Lavin with Bill Hall concert from the Troubadour was the first concert streamed on Afton.

As expected with any new process we had a couple of glitches, both of which were quickly resolved with a call to our Afton account manager. We are very pleased with the support from Afton.

The video and sound quality is far superior to what Facebook Live provided.

Streaming Tuesdays concerts will remain on Facebook Live until moving to Afton in late June/early July.

We look forward to continued success with streaming on Afton!

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt

Folk Project Streaming Chair

Swingin' Tern report -- April

A good month, particularly in one way.

On April 1, unfortunately the planned caller's car broke down. So, there was no caller in the house who had more than minimal experience, no one who had called even close to half of a dance.

But! There was someone at the dance who had called just a bit. The first time that person attended a contra dance, she'd worn a Superwoman costume. Me, I just thought it was funny to see someone dress that way at her first dance, and of course I didn't realize it wasn't just a costume.  What happened? Superwoman stepped up and called the whole evening, just as if she'd been calling for a few years. We all loved it.

So, on April 1 Karen Justin (aka Superwoman) called to Rhythmic Heart. Then on April 15, Michael Karcher called to Kingfisher.

We finished a bit out of the money -- down $110 -- exactly offsetting our March number.

On May 20 we are having a volunteer meeting. This month marks a year at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Chatham, and we are very happy there. We've talked regularly with them and have a good relationship, and our rent will be stable for the foreseeable future.

Leigh Walker

Swingin' Tern

Hello Everyone,

Not much to report. We successfully filed our CRI last month and filed for an extension for filing our 990. There are some important numbers in the P&L that are missing and I am working on them. I have included a fun comparison chart to see where we are year to date in past years.

Respectfully Submitted,

Peggy Karr

An interesting month.  We averaged 64.5 paid attendance, and lost $233 for the month.  Year-to-date, we are still $128 in the black with an average paid attendance of 64.3.  I am pleased to say that it has not been necessary for me to reimburse the Troubadour for financial loss since the end of January.  Attendance is still only a little more than half our pre-COVID level, but is slowly rising.  We are holding our own.  

We had two high-profile acts this month with $1,200 guarantees.  Most of our guarantees range between $600 and $800).  One of them, Christine Lavin was well-known with a proven track record, drew 85 paid attendees, and made us a $286 profit, despite our having to kick in $204 to make up her guarantee.  The other act, E.T.E, was virtually unknown in our area, drew 70 paid, and we lost $217, after having kicked in $369 to make their guarantee.  The difference between the two, in terms of profit and loss, was the extra 15 people that went to see Christine.  From talking to people at the E.T.E. show, a major reason we got as many as we did for them was the “Agranoff Imperative” rating I gave that show.  (This is an awesome power I hold in my hands.  I must use it only for good. J)

April is the first month that we have been charging for streaming tickets since FaceBook Live stopped providing that service since the end of 2022.  From January through April, we averaged 21.4 streaming viewers per show.  In April, we averaged 23.0.  While the 3 shows in April are really too small a sample to be statistically accurate, it does seem to indicate that the $7 streaming ticket does not appear to be a deterrent to viewers tuning in.  Our experience with the new Afton streaming service has been relatively trouble-free.  A bonus to our performers is that their tip reporting is very good.  They give a detailed report on the name, email address, amount of tip, and any comments made by each donor.  I can pass that on to the performer so that they can add those people to their mailing lists.

New bookings since last month:

1. May 26:  Buskin & Batteau:  Long-time favorite high-energy singer-songwriter group, recently reconvened after many years’ hiatus.  Opening will be Stacia Thiel, singer-songwriter booked on recommendation from Todd Dennison

2. June 2:  Songs, Stories, & Art:  A very interesting concept by songwriter and artist John John Brown:  The whole show is a 90-minute multi-media story comprised of songs written by him, and performed in front of projected original artwork illustrating the story.  Opening the show will be Bill Buttner, whose songs are often musical stories as well.

3. June 30:  Deni Bonet & Chris Flynn: opening for Toby Walker.  High-energy fiddle and guitar songwriter act.  Possible candidate for a headline act.

4. September 15:  Silk City:  Newgrass, featuring Barry Mitterhoff on mandolin

Highlight in May

1. May 26:  The aforementioned Buskin & Batteau

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ. USA

www.Troubadour.FolkProject.org