The survival of the Pasadena Folk Music Society is at stake. We need to expand our Board of Directors by adding at least 3 new Board members. We’re looking for people who have a passion for folk music and can commit to keeping things running, helping to solve problems that come up, and who can work as a team. Perhaps you will bring us new ideas in this changing world. You work for free, but you get into the concerts without buying a ticket and you know that you are keeping a long tradition of live acoustic music in an intimate setting alive.
Who are the officers on the Board of the Pasadena Folk Music Society? The Board includes 4 officers, President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. We need a Treasurer as soon as possible, preferably with accounting experience. We’re going to be needing a Secretary soon. We’ll also need a new Vice President. And we’ll need one or two non-officer members to broaden our base, individuals who might become officers when future changes occur.
How much of your time will it take? Hard to say, but a guess might be 5-10 hours a month, though at times it can be greater. And it depends on how many shows we’re able to have. In the future, we may have meetings every other month, or even monthly, as we go through this re-organization. We need Board members who are engaged and ready to face a few challenges.
What are some of the tasks that Board members share? Collectively, Board members participate in the selection of performers, share in the management of operations, including bookings, accommodations for performers, and things like that. The Board needs to ensure that basic functions are covered- room set-up, hospitality for the audience (refreshments) and performers (fetching restaurant food & providing eating space at the venue), hiring and communicating with qualified sound engineers, logistics of sound equipment, overseeing publicity efforts (working with publicity volunteers, or original writing/sending of emails, press releases, website management, social media), and helping to manage the PFMS budget. Volunteers already help with some of these tasks, but good communications between Board members and volunteers is essential. There are, no doubt, other tasks, but this gives you an idea of what we do.
A bit about the officers. The President runs the meetings, strives for consensus, makes final decisions on bookings (and negotiates the contract), and interacts with the Ticket Office. The Vice President’s role is mainly to run meetings when the President is absent, but this person gets involved with many of the collective tasks listed above. The Treasurer keeps the books, writes the checks, pays the performers and other bills, sets up the cash boxes for both the performer’s merchandise sales, and the show ticket sales, and, very importantly, files State of California and Federal IRS forms. There are other responsibilities, and as you can see, this is a key position, and some accounting experience is essential. The Secretary calls meetings, takes minutes during meetings and distributes them, manages documents, like bylaws and previous minutes, and, again, helps with the collective tasks. Non-officer Board members help with the collective tasks and all Board members attend meetings and share their ideas.
If you want to get involved, please respond by Oct. 15. We need to move quickly, and we plan to set up a Zoom meeting shortly after that date to answer questions and get an idea of who might be able to help us. If you want to help, email us at [email protected], giving us your name, phone number and email address. It would be great if you can tell us just a bit about your skills and experience, too. If you cannot make the zoom meeting, but are interested in applying, we’ll get in touch with you. After the meeting, we’ll likely send a brief questionnaire that allows you to introduce yourself so that we know a bit more about you. Then, we’ll have an informal interview, probably on Zoom. Thank you for considering getting involved!
