The League of American Orchestras Conference: An Essential Investment in Troubled Times
Reading over the listservs of the League of American Orchestras (chat groups for administrators of orchestras) I am getting depressed about the number of entries that go something like this: "Our orchestra isn't sending anyone to Conference this year. We can't afford it."
"Conference," for those not in the business of orchestras, means the annual conference of the League of American Orchestras, where representatives of orchestras get together to exchange ideas, to learn from each other, to pick up great innovations that are happening around the country. It is professional development in the very best sense of the term.
I do understand that the current economy is a serious problem--I live in it too--and I do understand that orchestras are looking to reduce expenses everywhere they can. But it is precisely in conditions like these that one should not eliminate opportunities to come together and use the collective wisdom of the orchestra field to deal with problems and solve them, or at least adjust to them.
If ever there was a dictionary definition of the phrase "penny wise and pound foolish," to me this would be it. In the more than thirty years that I have been attending League conferences, I have never not learned something that was of greater value to me, and to the institutions I served, than the cost of attending.
Professional development has traditionally been undervalued in the orchestra field as a whole. The corporate world has always better understood the value of investing in professional training and development, and so has the university world. But when orchestras are facing an economic downturn that is far deeper and more serious than any we have seen in most of our lifetimes, I think wisdom would result in perhaps the greatest attendance at a League conference ever. It is not just administrators, but also board members and board chairs, volunteer leaders, even conductors and musicians, who now more than ever need to learn from each other, to come together and use their collective intelligence and creativity to ensure the survival and health of our orchestras. This is precisely the kind of investment one makes in difficult times. It is not the kind of expense one eliminates.
Sorry for the tone of frustration, but I just had to get that off my chest.
I do understand that the current economy is a serious problem--I live in it too--and I do understand that orchestras are looking to reduce expenses everywhere they can. But it is precisely in conditions like these that one should not eliminate opportunities to come together and use the collective wisdom of the orchestra field to deal with problems and solve them, or at least adjust to them.
If ever there was a dictionary definition of the phrase "penny wise and pound foolish," to me this would be it. In the more than thirty years that I have been attending League conferences, I have never not learned something that was of greater value to me, and to the institutions I served, than the cost of attending.
Professional development has traditionally been undervalued in the orchestra field as a whole. The corporate world has always better understood the value of investing in professional training and development, and so has the university world. But when orchestras are facing an economic downturn that is far deeper and more serious than any we have seen in most of our lifetimes, I think wisdom would result in perhaps the greatest attendance at a League conference ever. It is not just administrators, but also board members and board chairs, volunteer leaders, even conductors and musicians, who now more than ever need to learn from each other, to come together and use their collective intelligence and creativity to ensure the survival and health of our orchestras. This is precisely the kind of investment one makes in difficult times. It is not the kind of expense one eliminates.
Sorry for the tone of frustration, but I just had to get that off my chest.
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