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Flint Folk Music Society (FFMS)
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Flint Folk Music Society
Newsletters
Winter, 2010 A
Note from the President… The
FFMS begins its 12th season of concerts with the 9th
annual Hard Times Banquet on Saturday, January 16th. The
Hard Times Banquet is our annual fundraiser and will feature a
showcase performance by FFMS members Bob Marr, Bob Miller, Johnnie
Jones, and Jim Balcerski. The event is potluck so bring a food item
to share. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks will be available. There is
no admission charge but, since this is a fundraiser, a $5 donation
(or more) is requested. We’ll hold our usual 50-50 raffle and
drawings for door prizes. The potluck banquet begins at 5:30 and the
musical performance begins at 7:30. All proceeds go to supporting
FFMS concerts and activities. Not
much happening on the building search. The Board continues to look
at sites but the fact remains that we need a bigger building fund
and a sustainability plan. We’ll keep working on this and hope
something develops this year! I’ll
end with a couple reminders. First, the non-member concert admission
increases to $15 at the January 30 concert. Member admission remains
at $10. So join or renew your membership and save money when you
attend the best folk music concerts in the area. Second, the dates
for the 2010 Flint Folk Music Festival are Friday, July 30 and
Saturday, July 31. For festival news and all other FFMS concerts and
activities visit www.flintfolkmusic.org.
The
FFMS Board December’s
FFMS board meeting brought a couple of changes to the board and its
committees. We accepted the resignation of Bob Marr. We thank him
for his two years of service on the board and while he is no longer
on the board, he continues to serve by keeping our networking
websites up to date! We also welcomed a new board member, Julie
Adams expressed her interest in becoming a board member, and we were
happy to vote her in. She will be serving as the publicity committee
chairperson. While Linda Jordan is still active on that committee,
she requested that someone else take over the chairmanship. The rest
of the board and its positions stayed the same and are as follows: President – Jim McTiernan Vice
President – Gail Woods Treasurer
– Ed Hendricksen Recording
Secretary – Sherry Miller Correspondence
Secretary – Bob Miller Chairpersons
of the following Committees are as follows: Festival
Committee – Jim McTiernan (810) 238-4096 Volunteer
Committee – Gail Woods (810) 653-3695 Publicity
Committee – Julie Adams (810) 487-1983 Membership
Committee – Bonnie Pobocik (810) 234-5720 All
Committees are open to volunteers. If you have an idea and you want
it to be implemented within the FFMS, be sure to be heard! Join a
committee and become an active participant in the planning and
execution of our events. Thanks
for the Donations The
board accepted a $2500 donation from board member Linda Jordan.
Thank you Linda!! She’s requested that her donation be dedicated
to efforts to increase community awareness of the FFMS through
advertising and other publicity activities. Many
others of you have sent donations throughout the years and they are
also greatly appreciated! We are a non-profit organization and as
such your donations are tax deductible. If you too have a desire to
see your donation put to work in some specific area, please specify
that when giving. A
Couple of Concert Notes from the Board… I look back at the 2009 concert season with fond memories of
great music - every thing from the joyful sounds of bands like
"Steppin' In It" and the "Blue Water Ramblers"
to that of veteran folk performers like Roy Book Binder and Joel
Mabus.
We just want to send along wishes for
a happy and healthy New Year. And we wanted to thank all of you who
have been an important part of our wonderful audiences for the
2009 performances. We had great shows from old friends Mustard
Retreat, Neil Woodward, and Joel Mabus, along with Lynn Miles and
Steppin' In It, to name just a few of our favorites this past year.
And we had a great turnout for our 10th annual Flint Folk Music
Festival in July featuring Michael Smith and Shout Sister Shout
among other artists.
A
Note from the Volunteer Committee… The
first few months of the year will have a couple of stand-in
organizers for the volunteers due to the southern exodus of our
regular Volunteer Chairperson. Julie Adams and Bonnie Pobocik will
be gathering commitments from volunteers for the first 6 or so
concerts. We’re looking for people to handle a couple of the tasks
in setting up. We’ll need strong arms for hauling equipment and
setting up before each concert as well as people willing to set out
and man the snack tables. This will require you to arrive a little
early for each concert and be willing to do what needs to be done
for the set up. I’m hoping you’ll be able to pitch in!! We’ll
be asking in the near future. Memberships… We’re
in a quandary about memberships. Our membership price of $10 is…
well, cheap! Especially when you consider at this point it’s for
your entire household! We’d like to see all of you that are
getting this newsletter become a member. At some point, you had been
a member or shown an interest in the Flint Folk Music Society but
perhaps let your membership lapse. We want you back!! In this coming
year, you’ll be saving $5 per concert by joining so your
membership fee will pay for itself by attending only 2 concerts.
That sounds like a deal to me! If
you have renewed your membership, thank you! Your membership card
will be in this mailing. We hope you’ll all enjoy the coming
season of great music we have on tap!!! Community
Sings… We’ve
had a blast at the Community Sings although they haven’t been
heavily attended. As was seen at the New Year’s Eve Party, we all
love to sing and listen to music!! These take place as is noted on
the concert flyer on the third Monday of each month, September
through May. They are located at the Unitarian Universalist Church
of Flint on Ballanger Rd. just off Miller Rd. and start at 7:00. We
have pizza, soft drinks and coffee and just a wonderfully fun time.
Try to make it to one… you just might get hooked!! If you’re
interested in leading a set of songs, contact Jim McTiernan to let
him know. |