The meeting was called to order at 8:22 PM on October 7th  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, Jeff Jonas, Allan Kugel, John Mahon, George Otto, Elizabeth Lachowicz, Tina Ross, Mark Schaffer, Robin Schaffer, Jean Scully 

Absent: Christine DeLeon, Bob McNally, Sandie Reilly, Pamela Zave  

Guests:  None

MOTIONS MADE

• The minutes of the September 2025 monthly meeting were approved with one abstention.  Motion by Jeff Jonas, second by Loretta Brooks.

• A motion to adjourn was made at 9:57 PM and approved unanimously.

ADMINISTRATIVE OVERVIEW 

• Secretary

  • A motion was entered to accept the minutes of the September 2025 meeting.  It was approved with one abstention.    

• Treasurer

OLD BUSINESS

• Nominations Committee

  • There is a written report.  

  • Two Trustee vacancies need to be filled.

  • Two Trustee vacancies need to be filled.

    • Allan and Christine are stepping down.

    • Elizabeth thanked them for their service.

    • Looking to new volunteers, Open Stage and Swingin’ Tern.

    • Some possible candidates have been identified.

  • Secretary

    • Paul has asked to step away.

    • Jeff Canter has offered to take the job.

    • Jean is also available if Jeff can’t do it.

  • Acoustic Getaway

    • Mark would like to step away from Getaway as his plate is full with Troubadour.

    • Paul asked if there was a job description that could be shown to possible candidates.

      • Mark said no and it would take longer to write it up than to talk to a candidate.

    • Mark thinks Music Alert (see below) was a lot more work than Getaway.

    • Getaway cannot happen without a champion.

    • Jean talked to Dave and she would consider doing the job if nobody else is willing to take it on but she knows nothing about booking artists.

      • She thinks Getaway is one of our defining features.

      • She has Project Management experience.

      • She would rather take it on than see it disappear.

    • Paul asked Jean if, given her Project Management experience, there is any reason why it can’t be an actual committee rather than a large job for an individual.

      • Jean agreed and mentioned a lot of the people who took on jobs under Mark

      • Mark said he found that committees take too much time to make decisions.

    • Jeff Canter pointed out that the Board size is under the limit define in our by-laws and Getaway could move out from Special Events and become a Board level committee again.

    • Music Alert (not a Nominations Committee item but relates to Mark’s changes).

      • Jean has taken over Music Alert from Mark.

      • Elizabeth thanked Mark for all of the work that went into putting out the Music Alerts twice a week for all these years.

NEW  BUSINESS

• Future Planning update

  • Robin shared the results of Future Planning’s audience survey (analysis included in written reports).

  • 800 people who had been added to the Music Alert list in the past 12 months were sent the survey, which consisted of 10 questions.  59 responses were received.

  • The full analysis report is included in the published minutes.

  • Highlights:

    • Friends and family and Facebook were the biggest draw for first timers.

    • Troubadour was the biggest venue attended multiple times, followed by Open Stage.  Streaming concerts and Evenings of Music also had significant numbers.

    • When asked about volunteering, most had not volunteered but a good number that had not volunteered were interested in learning about volunteering.

    • 43% of the respondents were members.

    • When asked about their age, there were few younger respondents, with 43% 61 to 70 and 41% 71 or older.

      • Conclusion: we are old!

    • Mark mapped the zip codes of the respondents, with most coming from the populated areas east and southeast of Morristown.

  • Jean pointed out that most younger people are not on Facebook, where we have placed a lot of our effort.  They are on TikTok and Instagram.  We need champions for those outlets.

  • Mark pointed out that piggybacking on artist’s posts to their followers is also useful.

  • There was also discussion about how we can improve our operations at MUUF.

  • Sam pointed out that we need to be in the customer retention business to get people to come back more often.  Also, regulars need to meet and greet newcomers or people by themselves at events to get them more connected.

  • Jeff Canter offered to work on TikTok but needs a more streamlined way to get performer content to post there.  Getting permissions takes a lot of effort if it is just for TikTok.  Mike suggested adding it to performer contracts.

• Question on quorum for Board Meetings

  • Jeff Canter brought up concerns about the definition of a quorum for Board meetings.  There was some discussion and Jeff agreed to consult with Steve Humphreys about the interpretation and report at the November meeting.

• Halloween Show

  • Elizabeth reported that we are light on performers this year.  Only 10 of 20 slots have been filled.

  • Elizabeth told Mike she wants to take him up on his offer to perform.

  • Members are encouraged to sign up and/or bring people to the show.

  • Tina suggested allowing people to play two songs instead of one.

  • Plans are in place for a great finale with a “time warp band”.

  • Jean said we should consider if having the show fall on the actual holiday could be an impediment to participation.

COMMITTEE REPORT HIGHLIGHTS 

Swingin’ Tern

• Doug stood on his report but added that they had a great turnout for the double dance.  He also told us that for the November 1st dance, they are bringing down the Moving Violations for their only gig outside of New England.

• Sam said there would be an ad for the Nov 1 dance.

• Allan asked about the attribution of the double dance turnout.  Doug said it was a good caller and a popular band plus promotional videos.  Good attendance means Swingin’ Tern has a financial cushion that allows getting better know bands from further away.  They have also been retaining new dancers that came to us through Meet-Up.

Newsletter

• George stood on his report but wanted to that for the last Newsletter there was some confusion event information was coming from multiple sources and not just Mike for Troubadour and Gary for Streaming Tuesdays.  With member shows and Special Concerts, it is easy to miss something.  Mike does a good job filtering wording and such for the Troubadour events, but other organizers may not be used to providing the information.  George promises to make an effort to look ahead and let people know what they owe him for the Newsletter and the flier that go with it.

• Mike added that he sources info from the Troubadour web page and edits it down.

Open Stage

• Todd was not at the September Open Stage, so could not give a report on it.

• October Open Stage is coming up this week.

Membership

• Todd said that membership has grown from about 320 to 522 in the time he has been committee chair.  He doesn’t take credit for it, he is just the guy that keeps the records and reminds people to renew.  He gives a lot of credit to Robin and the other people working the front desk and asking if people are members.

• Allan asked about updated membership rosters not being provided to the Board, causing problems when trying to contact Board members.  Paul suggested that the Secretary compile and distribute phone numbers and email addresses for all Board members to the whole Board.

Publicity/Web

• Sam was missing the Facebook report from Kathi, which he received this morning and will send out tonight.

• John’s web report will be changing format going forward, focusing on one or two big subjects each month rather than all of the little ones.

• John also encourages the Board to read the report on the new ticketing system, which he explains how things are going to work.

Future Planning

• Robin stood on her report and her presentation.

Sound Reinforcement

• John stood on his report but added that he had received several very nice complements on the quality of sound at our concerts

Special Events and Troubadour

• Mark  said people should read his report.

• Troubadour and Special Events have been operating as a single committee and maybe should become one officially.  

• He is getting phone calls from very good performers looking for slots at Troubadour but he is already booked solid through May or June of 2026.  

• Mark wants to work more with Publicity to focus on first-timers.

• His goal is to focus on filling empty seats and the committee and volunteers are working on that continually.  He thanked Paul for his work on the slideshow at MUUF because that information means less talking by the MC.

• Mark thanked John Lamb for the new ticketing system, which should save a lot of money in bookkeeping fees we are currently paying.  Robin has tried it twice now and found that it worked really well.  Our event pages have been changing and Loretta has been working hard on them.

Troubadour Staffing

• Jean is very happy with the new volunteers that have been recruited.

• She assembled the locking cabinet that had been purchased to hold our coffee pots and other items.  She still needs to label where things go so everything has its place.

• There will be a memorial service for long time volunteer Geri Silk on Sunday, October 19th at 2 PM at MUUF.  Normally, Jean would attend but she will be out of state.  Someone should represent the Folk Project in her place.  Pat Brangs also received a call asking if we could make coffee for the event using our coffee pots.

Horses Sing None of It

• Sandie was not present.

LAST MINUTE DISCUSSIONS

• None

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting  was adjourned at  9:57  PM.  Next month’s meeting is November 4th, at 8:15 PM, via Zoom. 

Submitted by Paul Fisher

FUTURE PLANNING

NEWSLETTER

NOMINATIONS COMMITTEE

OPEN STAGE

PUBLICITY

SOUND REINFORCEMENT

STREAMING CONCERTS

SWINGIN' TERN

TROUBADOUR AND SPECIAL EVENTS