Sunday Afternoon Breakout Sessions

Festival 8: Logistics

Festival 8, July 12 - 19, 2008 is quickly approaching! How do I get my members registered? What about hotel reservations? How will we get around the "Festival Village"? These any many other logistical questions about Festival 8 will be answered in this interactive session. If you are the coordinator for your chorus, you won’t want to miss this informative session.

Reading Sessions

Conductors, are you stuck trying to find new music for your chorus to perform? Repertoire reading sessions for SSAA, SATB and TTBB choruses will provide new repertoire ideas for you to program. Each director is asked to bring copies of 10 pieces to be read and discussed during these sessions. The number of copies each director should bring will be announced at a later date. CD recordings of the pieces would be helpful, too. Don’t miss this opportunity to discover new repertoire and programming ideas for your chorus.

Festival 8: Artistic/Production

Okay, you’re the Artistic Director of your chorus and you have many questions about production issues for Festival 8! Will my chorus have rehearsal time in Miami? What are the acoustics like in the performance halls? What if I want to hire instrumental musicians? Many questions may be flooding your head as you prepare your chorus for this incredible experience. You won’t want to miss this opportunity to ask your questions and find out more details about your choruses performance at the festival.

Secrets of Effective Planning

Presenter: John Niec, Board Member, GALA Choruses Inc.

Geared toward: All levels

Do you spend time wishing you could "pull it all together?" Do you despair because all the information you need isn’t available to you? Taking best practices from the world of project management, this workshop will examine what constitutes an effective plan, how to create that plan, and the tools that can be used to execute the plan.

Benefits:

1. Learn new insights into planning that you can use immediately with your chorus
2. Gain an introduction to the types of tools and software that can be used for planning

Board Member Nominations and Education: Foundation for Excellence in Chorus Governance

Presenter: Sharon Heinlen, Professor Regis University, Masters of Nonprofit Management Program

Geared to: Entry and Mid-level

Sustaining excellence for governance requires your organization’s board of directors to focus intentionally on the nominating process for board membership, and then on your efforts to insure that they have the educational opportunities to understand their roles and functions. Managing this can be easy if you organize processes that guarantee optimum participation and commitment based on educational opportunities for board members. This session will present very practical practices to build your chorus board’s capacity for governance.

Benefits:

1. Understand key ideas and concepts that are fundamental to a high functioning and excellent board of directors for choruses.
2. Leave with practical applications of board education practices that other arts-focused nonprofits use for excellence.
3. Be able to improve the recruitment and education processes for their organization’s board of directors by utilizing materials they receive in this session.
4. Have reviewed case studies for governance excellence in chorus leadership and management.

The Business of Music-Making: Effective AD & Administrative Communication

Panel Discussion Facilitated by Jane Ramseyer Miller, Artistic Director, One Voice Mixed Chorus

Panelists: David Monseur, Artistic Director, Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus; Paul Feeney, President, Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus; Bill Loper, Artistic Director, Harmony: A Colorado Chorale; Bill Inama, President, Harmony: A Colorado Chorale; Pamela Blevins Hinkle, Artistic Director, Indianapolis Women’s Chorus

Geared toward: mid-size choruses

This discussion is designed for small to mid-sized choruses with volunteer or part-time administrative staff. The workshop explores effective communication strategies between artistic staff, administrative staff and board members, offers creative ideas for small choruses to effectively utilize volunteers to cover administrative roles, address longevity and volunteer/board burn-out, and ideas for leveraging the funding community to support administrative help for concert projects.

Benefits:

1. Explore communication strategies (and pitfalls) between artistic staff, administrative staff and board members.
2. Explore creative ways that small choruses can effectively utilize volunteers to cover administrative roles.
3. Gain ideas for working at longevity and retention of board members.
4. Learn how to leverage the funding community to support administrative help for concert projects.

Attracting and Keeping New Single Ticket Buyers

Presenters: Jill Robinson and Rick Lester
Target Resource Group

Retaining audience members is an often forgotten goal of growing audiences, but will save time and money. This session will examine the state of single ticket buyer retention in the national arts community. TRG will share its findings from migration analyses and other database analytics that will provide a national context on customer retention and attrition rates. We will provide best practice strategies that some of the nation's leading arts organizations are utilizing to find and retain single ticket buyers.

Geared toward: Mid and Senior level

Benefits:

1. Gain a working understanding of the concept of patron loyalty.
2. Understand how to use direct mail more effectively to attract new customers.
3. Be armed with cost-effective, easy-to-execute e-mail strategies to retain first time ticket purchasers.
4. Move forward with tips on building an effective customer database.

Research Possibilities and GALA Choruses

Presenter: Dr. Joseph Nadeau, Artistic Director, Heartland Men’s Chorus

The GLBT choral movement has been described as the fastest growing movement in choral music today. Part of our legacy to future generations is to document this powerful movement through research into various areas of GALA choral music: What makes GLBT choruses different from other community-based choruses? How is the music performed by GLBT choruses unique? Why do people sing in GLBT choruses? What issues do artistic directors of GLBT choruses deal with? Join this facilitated conversation about current and future research possibilities, including the topics of repertoire, artistic director leadership styles and motivations, and membership make-up of GLBT choruses.

Geared toward: all levels

Benefits:

1. Learn about existing research that can help shed light on common problems and issues
2. Share in the discussion about future research needs

Creating Effective Youth-Adult Partnerships

Presenter: Hope A. Wisneski, LCSW, Director of Youth Services, The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center of Colorado

Geared toward: all levels

Participants will have an opportunity to discuss the importance of creating a true partnership with youth and learn the steps needed to create safe space for meaningful youth involvement. Issues around parental consent and boundaries will be addressed.

Benefits:

1. Discuss the importance of creating a true partnership with youth.
2. Gain an understanding of steps to take to create a program inclusive of youth and tips on making inclusiveness happen.
3. Discuss boundaries and parental consent.
4. Discuss the importance of creating safe space where youth can express themselves.