As the Villan and some others know, in Juneau Alaska we started a monthly fold club (to use the term loosely) 6 months ago. Only four of us are involved in the running and planning of it but we have friends who jump in and staff the goodies and coffee counter, bring the stage out and put things back.

Amongst the four of us, since we already get together once or twice a week to make music, we on occasion spend a half hour deciding upon policy and go with the concensus. So far it has worked very well.

One person does the venue booking, places publicity on radio and in newspapers, and puts up posters. She also buys the supplies and oversees what happens at the site itself. She is the problem solver.

Another person - me- does the booking: chooses, pursues and persuades prospects (I tell them there are only two givens: each set is 20 minutes, give or take a few, and it's all acoustic); creates posters and blurbs, acts as the money taker on folk night. It is my phone number that's listed for questions. I'm also the one who records the evening's activities and then creats a CD for each set as a memento.

Another of us is the only one with experience on the other side- he tours and has done many house concerts, so he's primarily in an advisory capacity. He is also the MC.

The last person plugs in the gaps.

We have a good arrangement, I think. None of us works too hard, and we're going strong. Last night we had our first Mid-Month twin-bill - instead of five sets we had only two for a two-hour concert. We had 87 paid in attendance. It is also the first time that we didn't charge admittance for the performers or for the founders; otherwise we would have had another 11 paid. We're making enough money.