The meeting was called to order at 8:17 PM on February 6, by President Elizabeth Lachowicz. This meeting was held via Zoom.

ROLL CALL

Present: Mike Agranoff, Loretta Brooks, Jeff Canter, Todd Dennison, Sam Edelston, Paul Fisher, Doug Heacock, Peggy Karr, Allan Kugel, Elizabeth Lachowicz, John Mahon, Bob McNally, George Otto, Gary Pratt, Sandie Reilly, Chris Riemer, Tina Ross, Mark Schaffer, Robin Schaffer and Pamela Zave 

Absent: Jean Scully

Guests: Andrew Warner and John Lamb

MOTIONS MADE

• Sam requested a small clarification in the January meeting minutes, which can be seen by the revision marks in the published version. No further changes were requested, and the board accepted the minutes as amended.

ADMINISTRATIVE OVERVIEW 

Secretary

Jeff suggested that the various email reports be published to the wiki as they arrive, since that would let the board review them in one convenient spot. Chris agreed, in theory, but they often arrive too late to process before meeting time. Publishing them in the new Google Site template is also more fiddly than it used to be, and that takes more time.

Some emails went missing this month, failing to reach everyone in the distribution lists. If that happens in the future we should notify webmaster John Lamb. There was also some discussion about text items that appeared to be links, but in fact were not. Perhaps a cut-and-paste issue? Some other odd glitch? Various ideas were floated to improve the efficiency of our internal communications, touching on the use of bookmarks, recurring calendar entries, spam folders, trusted domain lists and other techno things. Also PostIt notes.

That led to some discussion of the protocol for minutes distribution. Once they are ready for review, the Secretary sends a link to the BoardPlus mail group. If changes are requested, the Secretary will make them in the published copy, using font effects to show deletions and additions. Mike felt he’d like to get a second reminder email after changes were made but before the meeting proper, and also asked that the secretary consider a third memo, which would summarize the changes made. Chris felt that was impractical for a number of reasons, and doesn’t plan on changing his traditional practice. However, Elizabeth may start including a link to the minutes in her agenda memo.

Treasurer

Peggy had nothing to report, beyond what she'd included in her email. She’s going to start doing some data entry directly in QuickBooks Online, with Karen the accountant providing guidance. That will be easier than sending the data to Karen via email. Gary wondered if he might be able to do the same thing, but there are some logistical limits on the number of seats our license allows. We need to keep write-access priviliges to a minimum, although we can have an unlimited number of reports-only users.

Allan said the admissions income for January’s Swingin’ Tern appears to be missing, and that skews the numbers. Peggy felt it was just a processing lag problem. Allan also had some questions about the Fixed Assets that appear on the Balance Sheet. What are they and where are they? Chris said the Fixed Assets represent things we’ve purchased over the years, mostly audio and video equipment. We should be posting some kind of depreciation in this register as well, but have never quite worked that out. Peggy will talk to Karen about it.

Later in the meeting, Peggy let us know that she’s had some checks go missing in the US mail. She thinks it would be a good idea to consider electronic payment options, like Venmo or Zelle. She want to talk to Karen about that, too.

NEW BUSINESS

A Folk Project Code of Conduct

One of the Future Planning Committee’s initiatives was to develop a code of conduct for all volunteers, which we would also publish for the world at large. Bob thinks it would be a good thing for us. 

He intends to explain further at the next meeting. But he first wanted to get a sense of the Board, and whether we collectively feel the same way. Elizabeth asked for a show of hands from those who think establishing a code of conduct is a good idea. This is a straw poll only; no motion is on the floor.

And in fact, it was a tie. Several of those who did not vote in favor added that they weren’t necessarily opposed, but didn’t consider it a priority. Bob felt enough people were interested for him to develop a more formal proposal. Mike asked Bob to circulate his ideas ahead of time, so we can read and reflect before the next meeting.

COMMITTEE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS 

Newsletter

George stands on his written report.

Publicity

Sam stands (largely) on his written report. However, he’s lost a couple of committee members and could use some reinforcements. He will consider a blurb in the newsletter, and Mark pointed out that the weekly Music Alert emails offer another channel for talent recruitment. However, Sam feels the best entrée to the group is a personal referral. Several people agreed on that point, and Jeff asked Sam to put together a list of what he’s looking for.

Special Events

Elizabeth is sorry that she missed the Valentine’s Day show because she is still visiting her family in Chicago. Looks like it was “a humdinger,” she said.

Robin gave a shout out to Tina for her work on the songwriters program and general networking. Mark added that advance sales for the Peter  Yarrow concert have been very strong, and we’re already at break-even.

Mark believes the riskiest, most expensive thing we do is the Getaway, particularly in a post COVID world. He thinks the next weekend will be “fantastic and outrageous” and he’d like everyone to grab a friend and sign them up. Sam Edelston has seen some of the new performers before and he agrees it’s going to be a smash.

Future Planning

Robin (largely) stands on her report, but wanted to highlight “The Click Clique.” This is a new initiative intended to raise our profile on social media. Each week, Thomas Lachowicz will be sending an email to the board, asking people to click through to the Project's Facebook events listings and share them with their own networks. It’s in the beta testing phase, but Mark and Robin have high hopes for it.

Gary asked Robin to look into her report layout, because he thinks some of the bullets are in a very small font. Small enough to be hard to read.

Swingin’ Tern

We had a lovely 40th anniversary dance, even though the attendance was somewhat reduced by a snowy weather forecast. Doug offered a public thanks to Xander Kastan, who has booked the performers for the last eight years. Jon Justin will be taking over that job.

Streaming Events

Gary stands on his report. He also reminded the group that anyone can obtain a ticket in advance, and that the streaming window stays open for 24 hours after the starting time. George would like to add something on that to the newsletter, and Gary will follow up.

Sound Reinforcement

John stands on his report.

Troubadour

Gary and Todd stand on their report. Mike wanted to add that the show was snowed out on January 19 and he neglected to mention that in his analysis.

Open Stage

As stated in his report, Todd mentioned that he’s planning to raise the admission for Open Stage to $7.00. There was some discussion, but no opposition to this idea.

Troubadour Staffing

No report from the absent Jean Scully

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting  proper was adjourned at  9:24  PM. Next month’s meeting is March 5, at 8:15 PM, via Zoom. 

Submitted by Chris Riemer

NEWSLETTER

From: George Otto <g_otto@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 9:54 PM
Subject: Newsletter Committee Report 2024-02

Newsletter Committee Report 2024-02 

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

After we received reports that the new plastic stickers used to seal the newsletter were difficult for our readers to open, our printer decided to switch over to paper stickers that will be easier to open. These should appear on our newsletters in the next month or so. 

George Otto
Folk Project Newsletter Editor
newsletter@folkproject.org

PUBLICITY

From: sam.edelston@folkproject.org <sam.edelston@folkproject.org>
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 9:04 PM
Subject: Publicity Report for 2024-02-06 Board meeting

Hi, all –

Here’s the February Publicity Report. 

Sorry about the lateness. I was expecting some information earlier, and it only came in ten minutes ago.

Let me know if there are any questions.

Sam

SOUND REINFORCEMENT

From: 'John Mahon' via BoardPlus - Current board, select alumni, key volunteers <boardplus@folkproject.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 7:02 PM
Sound Reinforcement Committee Report February 2024

In January we provided live and broadcast sound for 3 Friday night shows. This included 2 regular shows for Deni Bonet & Chris Flynn on Jan. 5 and Teddy Parker on Jan. 26, and The Open Stage on Jan 12. The Jan. 19 show with Zoe Mulford was canceled due to bad weather.

The recording levels in the video recordings have been re-adjusted and monitored to reveal that that are within proper levels.

The Jan. 26 show featuring Teddy Parker experienced a fault in the video broadcast. The camera system entered a mode where it would reset every 5 minutes resulting in 30 seconds of blank screen every 5 minutes. Later on, in the following week, this was traced to an automatic fault circuit sensor that re-boots the camera controller every 5 minutes when triggered. It was turned off and the fault was eliminated. 

John Mahon
Committee Chairman

FUTURE PLANNING

From: Robin Schaffer <robinjs19@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 5, 2024 at 9:36 AM
Subject: February Future Planning Committee Report

FP Future Planning Committee
February Board Report
Feb 6, 2023

January Accomplishments

• Grant and Sponsorship Status

• • We did not receive the IBMA grant.  (We will still do the Guitar Summit with Beppe Gambetta in October, but it won’t have a bluegrass theme).  

  • Tina Ross has taken the lead on organizing our submission to the Mid-Atlantic Arts, Arts Connect Grant.  We are building a cohort with Caffe Lena and Godfrey Daniels and will be presenting an artist we are in the process of choosing.. Mid-Atlantic Arts will play 50% of the artist fee.  More TBD. 

  • We continue to pursue funding from Sanofi, the pharmaceutical manufacturer, for a special concert.  We have a meeting with them Feb.14 to explore further. 

  • On advice from Eitan Grunwald, who has decades of experiences with grants, we decided not to continue to pursue foundational grants. These are grants offered by corporations or other foundations, where we have no established relationship.  These have a low chance of success and require a great deal of effort to do them right.  

• Presentation Sub Committee  

• The committee provided an enhanced experience for Valentine’s Day with lighting and decor.

• The “uniform” shirts are waiting until we define the new logo (see below).  

• Mark and Bob are approaching MUUF to talk about permanent lighting solutions in the sanctuary as well as the new theater. 

• More welcoming culture  

• Bob wrote an article for the January newsletter.

• Networking with other venues

• Tina Ross volunteered to be our networking liaison.  She will build relationships with the major peer organizations to continue to learn, share ideas, and get input.  For her first action, she is building the cohort for Mid-Atlantic Arts. 

• Volunteer needs

• Robin created a new “volunteer pitch” for the Troubadour and Amy Livingston implemented it. We created a new sign up sheet for volunteers. 

• We listed several volunteer opportunities with Sanofi. Sanofi has a policy where each employee can volunteer for a non-profit 16 hours a year. 

Social Media 

• We launched the “Click Clique” weekly email, sent out by Thomas Lachowicz.  This is sent to all board members and other friends.  It provides links to about three FP posts and requests the recipients Like and Share them. This is building our organic social reach. PLEASE RESPOND TO THE MESSAGE EACH WEEK.  It takes about one minute.  

• We built a three-month social media advertising plan.  We listed all events across the venues and determined which will be advertised with approximate budget amounts.  We selected five Troubadour concerts, one special concert, Songwriter Day, one Open Stage and one S&T dance.  The results of these trials will drive the advertising plan for the next three months. 

• Advertising for the first event, the Ash and Eric show on Feb. 16 launched on Thursday, Feb 1. No new tickets have been sold yet.  We will be watching results. 

• Branding. 

• • An ad-hoc logo committee formed to review several logo designs.  Artists Yolanda Fundora, Liz Pagan, and Peggy Karr are working on revisions and we will meet again on February 7 for the next round of review.   Committee members are Robin, Bob, Peggy, Yolanda, Liz, George Otto and Mark Schaffer.  We expect to present a new logo to the Board at the March meeting. We are looking to have several related expressions of the logo for different purposes - banner headlines, t-shirts, web page tags, email headers, etc. 

February Goals

• Finalize Logo

• Transfer the knowledge to build ad campaigns from El Kleiner to Robin and Mark.  We will then engage other volunteers.  

• Secure performer and submit grant application to Mid-Atlantic Arts.

• Bob will discuss the appetite for a formal code of conduct policy at the Board Meeting.

As always, the Future Planning Committee is open to all suggestions and feedback. If you want to learn more about longer term ideas, please reach out to Robin.Schaffer@folkproject.org.

Thanks!

Robin Schaffer
Bob McNally

SPECIAL EVENTS

From: Mark Schaffer <markschaffer100@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 3:38 PM
Subject: Special Events February 2024 Report to Board

SPECIAL EVENTS COMMITTE REPORT
by Mark Schaffer

Event Hosting - Jay Wilensky

Nice turnout for the January Evening of Music at Mark & Robin Schaffer’s. Looking forward to more great music at Mark & Robin’s in February.

Acoustic Getaway - Mark & Robin Schaffer

Peter Yarrow cancelled his Getaway appearance for solid business reasons and we lost the big-draw act we’d hoped would attract first-timers. We will be asking EVERYONE to bring a friend.  This appears to be the strongest program ever booked under our  chaircouple-ship. Honest. The talent is consistently fabulous.  The “knowns” are Joe Crookston and Toby Walker. The “unknowns" are Rob Flax & The Boom Chick Trio, The Pairs, Flamy Grant and Lili Añel. Registration is planned to open next week.

Songwriters Day - Tina Ross & Diane Polledri

A very strong lineup this second time: Susan Werner and Natalia Zukerman. We expect to do better financially than last year by advertising the strong evening concert in social media and the artists’ fan bases.

Special Concerts - Mark Schaffer

The Peter Yarrow Special Concert at the Troubadour are selling well and today broke even eight and a half weeks before the show thanks to solid sales and a lower guarantee.

I’ll finish by saying how excellent everybody is doing and how well everyone is working together.

Mark

STREAMING CONCERTS

From: Gary Pratt <prattdiv@comcast.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 3:33 PM
Subject: Streaming Committee Report - February 2023

Folk Project Board Members,

This monrh's report highlights the benefits of having a dedicated Afton account manager:

• On January 19, the Troubadour show featuring Zoe Mulford with Bernie Drury & Friends was cancelled due to inclement weather. With a quick phone call, our account manager cancelled the streaming show and issued refunds to ticket purchasers. 

• On January 26, after the Troubadour show featuring Teddy Parker and the TriSonics show, the rewatch window was unavailable due to a technical problem at Afton's video hosting provider, Mux. As soon as this issue was resolved, our Afton account manager proactively extended the rewatch window by 48 hours and notified all ticket holders.

Respectfully submitted,

Gary Pratt
Streaming Committee chair

OPEN STAGE/MEMBERSHIP

From: Todd Dennison <todd.dennison@folkproject.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 2:00 PM
Subject: Open Membership Stage Report 2-6-2024

OPEN STAGE REPORT

The Open Stage is very popular and always booked way in advance.  After considering input from other people and looking at the value performers get back coming to the Open Stage I have decided to raise the price of the Open Stage to $7.  The opener this month is Don Sarlin who is an incredibly talented artist who is an Open Stage regular.  He has performed with Van Morrison. David Bromberg, and Mary Travers.  It should be a great show.

MEMBERSHIP REPORT

Nothing consequential to report.  

Dutifully submitted by,

Todd Dennison

TREASURER

From: timpeg@optonline.net <timpeg@optonline.net>
Sent: Tuesday, February 6, 2024 11:10 AM
Subject: Febuary Treasurer Report

Everyone,

Attached is our current to date 1/6/24 Profit & Loss by class and our Balance Sheet. Any questions please ask. Nothing outstanding in the report to talk about. The stock market is doing well so our Vanguard Account looks good. Our bank account is flush because in the upcoming Peter Yarrow concert.

I have been talking with Karen. She is going to teach me how to do some of the data entry. I spend time composing emails to her with information as I get requests for reimbursement and donations. Makes more sense for me to just do the entry myself and save the Folk Project some money and both Karen and I some time.

Respectfully submitted

Peggy Karr / Treasurer

SWINGIN’ TERN

From: 'Doug Heacock' via BoardPlus - Current board, select alumni, key volunteers <boardplus@folkproject.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2024 4:08 PM
Subject: Swingin' Tern Dances January 2024 Report for the Folk Project Board Meeting on 2/6/24

Swingin' Tern Dances January 2024 Report for the Folk Project Board Meeting on 2/6/24

In January Swingin’ Tern held one double dance and one regular evening dance

1/6      Bob Isaacs & Kingfisher afternoon            30 attendees [20 pd/7 staff/3free]      combined below 

1/6      Cavalcade & Kingfisther evening               25 attendees [17 paid/8 staff]            Net loss   -$ 350            

1/20    Deanna Palumbo & Squirrel’s Chair          55 attendees [48 pd/10staff/4free]     Net profit   $ 108  

January total $242 loss   

We held our 40th Anniversary Double Dance on January 6th.  Unfortunately, the hype for the first snow of the season dramatically reduced attendance.  That didn’t dampen/bury the celebratory mood of the dance.  We held an advanced afternoon contra dance for the first time for our anniversary.  The evening dance has traditionally been a Calvalcade of Callers with callers that got their start at Swingin’ Tern.  Their numbers were also reduced by the weather.

The anniversary dance provides a chance to give a more extended thank you to our volunteers.  Karen Justin read the names of three dozen regular volunteers including Andrew Warner and Jon Justin who provide the sound reinforcement.  Karen [who herself runs our MeetUp site] paid tribute to the behind-the-scenes organizers:  Virginia Nordberg for coordinating the volunteers and the New Year’s Eve dance, and Xander Kastan for booking the bands and callers.  Leigh Walker was recognized for his 12 years of service as the outgoing chair.  Doug Heacock was welcomed as the new chair and acknowledged as the founder of Swingin’ Tern along with Don Flaherty.  Doug was recognized for his Facebook and Dance Alert contributions and the 868 dances he has publicized with his wordplay—the first twenty years of fliers were on the back wall.  And there was cake!

We had a rebound with our January 20th dance with 55 attendees.

The booking responsibilities for Swingin’ Tern have been turned over from Xander Kastan to Jon Justin.  We thank Xander for bringing excellent callers and bands to our stage for the past 8 years.  We look forward to continuing fine talent to be booked by Jon.

Yours in dance,

Doug Heacock                    

TROUBADOUR

From: Gary Pratt <prattdiv@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 10:54 PM
Subject: Troubadour Committee Report - February 2024

Folk Project Board Members,

The Troubadour Committee co-chairs have been meeting weekly to review current operations and determine how the co-chairs and the committee can best work together. This review has also generated several new ideas for upgrading and streamlining the processes and logistics involved in running the Troubadour. These ideas will be shared with the committee for their feedback and input this month. 

We have also identified several new acts we will be presenting this year and will continue to review submissions from prospective performers. 

We are excited for the future and look forward to announcing more details at next month's board meeting. Stay tuned!

Respectfully submitted,

Todd Dennison and Gary Pratt
Troubadour Committee co-chairs

January Show Report
Submitted by Mike Agranoff

Not a particularly auspicious start to the New Year for the Troubadour.  We had two somewhat under-attended shows and one show snowed out.  Average paid attendance for January was only 46.5, for a loss of $402 for the month.Over the past 12 months, our average paid attendance was 61.7, and we are $226 in the black for that time period, not including personal.  If we include personal, we are $1,226 in the black.

Mike Agranoff
Troubadour Committee