So Good, It Makes Me Angry

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Joe Patti doesn’t seem to be capable of writing a bad blog post. Cases in point, two of his recent posts rise to the level of must-read status.

The first article went up at his blog, Butts In The Seats, and it addresses one of my growing pet peeves as of late in the form of poorly written job descriptions (JD). In this case, Patti takes aim at the trend among executive JDs that place a seemingly ridiculous amount of emphasis on fundraising. Sure, fundraising is always going to be a key element of an executive’s responsibilities but Patti uses a recent JD to calculate the amount of time for everything non-fundraising related.

I won’t spoil the post but suffice to say, it not only provides some practical insight for those crafting an executive JD but to candidates as a savvy way to determine if a group is going to be a good fit.

Patti’s next post went up at ArtsHacker this morning and touches on something I find myself constantly talking about and working with via my consulting work. Moreover, this is one of the few items that works its way into a wide range of stakeholders, nonetheless, I’ve completely failed to mention it here as a discussion topic.

What we’re talking about is Most Favored Nation clauses and having dealt with this item on both sides of the fence I can say there’s never one “right” way to approach these terms.

The article does a good job explaining what these clauses are and how they intersect with the performing arts field. Moreover, it is an ideal resource for getting started on a path to better understanding. To that end, I should really publish a companion piece to this one that dives into more detail where this item tends to appear.