MERF Day is a very special day. It's the one day in the year our musical community sets aside our differences and works together to help our fellow musicians. We truly become one family!
On Tuesday, November 10, the board of directors, advisers and coordinators evaluated this year's program and these are some of our conclusions.
l. Phoenix Hill was our leader, with $4,443. Congratulations to Mark Maxwell, Londa Crenshaw and Vanessa Snyder for their work.
2. There were four clubs that did less than $400. The problems with these clubs were:
a. the lack of name groups
b. the lack of proper radio support
c. the clubs are too spread out
3. Our total was $11,000, which is good, but we normally do $l3-l5,000. Possibly the $7 admission was too high and we should go back to the $5 admission.
We have received a couple of complaints and I would like to respond to them first. We received calls from a couple of the clubs, upset because they were not selected to be in the community show. We would like to involve more clubs in that show, but we are limited by the number of our volunteers. The clubs involved now are there because they have had successful shows in the past and they have groups and volunteers that are willing to help us. We are in the process of reducing the clubs that aren't productive in the community show. We hope to utilize these clubs for special events throughout the year when they won't have to compete with the larger rooms. This could be the answer for clubs that want to get involved — is to organize a special event with MERF and some of the groups that normally play in that venue.
The other complaint was from a group who felt that the same clique of groups always got to play while worthy groups were left out. This is true to a point; we are an all-volunteer organization and when someone is successful in putting together a show for us we need their experience to help us in future programs. But we are constantly looking for new volunteers, especially program coordinators and host bands. If you can fill one of these positions you could become one of the clique groups.
On Sunday, December 6, MERF will hold our annual elections at the Musicians Union Hall at 3 p.m. We will elect president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and three board members. These jobs consist of meeting at least monthly, sometimes weekly and even at times daily to accomplish the MERF project at hand. We welcome everyone to get involved and help us build the best MERF ever
Sincerely,
Your President
Wayne Young