A Sneak Peak At The “Special Surprise”

My apologies to everyone who was expecting the 2005 Orchestra Website Review “Special Recognition Awards” and the “Special Surprise” which, according to the review main page, were promised to be up today.

Things got caught up today and I wasn’t able to put the finishing touches to those articles. As such, you can expect them to be published on Monday, 9/19/05 (and maybe spilling over to a little of Tuesday 9/20/05 if my other work doesn’t let up over the weekend).

Nevertheless, I won’t leave you empty handed, here’s a clue for the “special surprise”: it has to do with lessons which should have been learned by others via a situation in Knoxville

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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