Conductors

Posted: 19 September 2023

A big thanks to all the lovely conductors who turned up on Friday for our Zoom Catch Up. We were small in number, but HUGE in spirit and wisdom!

There was a great exchange of information, songs, and warm-up pieces, including these solid bangers:

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Please reach out if you have anything to add to the library, and keep scrolling for some older contributions.

Thanks, Chris

Posted: 28 October 2022

Thanks to those who joined me for the October Conductor Zoom Check In. Our quantity was small, but our quality was great!

Some key messages for Conductors this month:

• Enlisting the help of volunteers is not just about increasing efficiency for the choir. It is also about empowering people with purpose and meaning in their community. As conductors we are used to doing everything ourselves, in the way that best suits our outcomes. But our main outcome here should be COMMUNITY and sometimes that means taking a side step, allowing people the time and space to make the same mistakes we had the luxury of making in our careers to date.
• Along the same vein, it is important that the choir doesn’t only exist because of US. As much as our singers love us and come to be part of the beautiful energy we are creating, we must plan for life beyond any one individual. Empowering the choir to exist without us is imperative for its ongoing success. That means taking the time and energy to make sure things move towards decentralised power and responsibility.

A recording of the Zoom session is hosted here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HhrSw3ZW2O3L5Q1SNNC7nEmWdNRa1HCL/view?usp=share_link

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See you next month for another catch up 🙂

Posted: 20 September 2022

A big thanks to everyone who came to the September Conductor Zoom Check In. It was a wonderful chance to reconnect with so many of you, share some experience and wisdom, and hear tales form afar!

Here’s a rough summary of some of the items we discussed:

• WhatsApp seems to be the leading platform for internal choir communications. It enables us to quickly and easily communicate with our members in real time. We recommend having at least two channels: one for important comms (lock sending capabilities to just yourself and the committee), and the other for community chat (facilitating connection is what we do. You can always mute the channel if you don’t want the distraction!)
• As conductors, we are employees of, and servants to the committee. Communication between us and the committee / volunteers is imperative, and we should actively and openly encourage their input. If we don’t give them a chance to develop their skills, we will be forever charged with administrative duties that take us away from the music.
• Some choirs have had some good results using Meetup to increase membership enquiries. Yell out if you’d like some support to use this platform to advertise – CA has an idle account but if there’s interest we can get it active again.

I am keen to get working on building a proper resources depository for conductors (and members, volunteers, policies & procedures, etc). Somewhere you can go and search for information and materials to make your lives easier. In the meantime, I will post what I have here each month to start building a library. Please let me know if you think of anything specific you would appreciate being added that you would use, and I’ll see what I can do.

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A massive thanks to everyone who contributed this month. See you all again soon 🙂