Some Early Details About San Francisco Symphony’s New Real Estate Equity Sharing Clause

Adaptistration People 102Back in November, 2018 we first heard about a new component in the recently ratified San Francisco Symphony collective bargaining agreement (CBA) designed to offset the cost of housing in San Francisco.

According to inside sources, the exact language for that term were to be worked out post-negotiation. At the time, details were scarce but we’re starting to see some information emerge, such as this description from the musicians’ settlement bulletin (a document that provides an overview of changes to their CBA).

Real Estate Equity Sharing – To enable the purchase of a new home in San Francisco’s sky-high real estate market, a musician may now share a portion of their equity with the SFS, managed through an independent third party, through which the SFS will fund up to 10% of a 20% down-payment to a maximum of $200,000. This will relieve the pressure to come up with a full down-payment, a major obstacle for most young SFS musicians. This also serves a stated goal of the management to invest in the lucrative real estate market.

We’ll take a deeper dive once the full CBA language and realted details become available.

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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