Annual Report, Minutes, Accomplishments and Announcements

Focus Meeting – Annual Board Meeting and Elections
1/31/2010

Scott called the meeting to order at 2:25.
· Introduction – Scott gave an overview of what Focus is since there were many new faces present. The current board members in attendance were introduced, followed by everyone else introducing themselves.

2009 Accomplishments –
Focus presented more than 30 shows and came close to breaking even. The Focus March show with Holly Near and Emma’s Revolution raised more than $1000 for the nonprofit group RPJ Housing.
Focus was a coordinating sponsor of two concerts in honor of Vic Heyman. Over $5000 was raised for the Heyman Foundation and for Parkinsons research.
Focus co-sponsored the Grove Stage at the Takoma Park Folk Festival.
Focus presented three nights of campfire showcases at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
Focus presented two nights of showcases at the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance conference, featuring Focus members/performers and other performers that have played at Focus venues.

Venue change – after five years of presenting at O’Brien’s BBZ, Focus began the transition to a new venue, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville.
Goals for 2010: We want to increase the audience size. We have an average of about 35 people, with the high attendance of 86 and a low of 12. Another goal is to spread tasks to others and not overload the board members. We would also like to increase the visibility in the communities, for example having more fliers available, and spread to a wider audience. We would like to do more in the educational arena, presenting workshops on songwriting, performance, etc.
Board member elections: the current board members were re-nominated. Additional members nominated – Steve Gnadt, Paula Moore. The proposed board was elected unanimously by voice vote.

Scott Moore, president
Steve Gnadt, vice president (skg17@aol.com)
Herb Cooper-Levy, treasurer
Paula Moore, secretary (paula@mooremusic.org)
Kevin Bennett, membership
Kay Coyte, Alexandria venue mgr.; publicity chairman
David Spitzer, Rockville venue mgr.
Cindy Broome, internal promotion/emails
Karen Tupek, website

Scott adjourned the meeting at 2:50.

The next board meeting is tentatively 2/13/10 11am.

A song circle followed, continuing to about 5:00pm
Many attendees also took advantage of this time to fill out membership forms.