Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

The Airlines Strike Back

Wed, Sep 9, 2015
Adaptistration People 127
Apparently, it doesn’t matter how many laws are passed, orchestra musicians are going to get hassled over bringing instruments on board as carry-on baggage. The latest incident involved British Airways and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), or at least three of its musicians. The 9/6/2015 edition of The Boston Globe published an article about a

There’s A Lot That Goes Into Making It Look Easy

Tue, Sep 9, 2015
Adaptistration People 120
Coordination in six easy steps; at least, according to Chattanooga Symphony & Opera concertmaster Holly Mulcahy, that’s how many it takes to get the string section bowings sorted out and ready for prime time. Mulcahy recently published an article at her blog, Neo Classical, describing how the process works and it’s already racked up several

Happy Labor Day!

Mon, Sep 9, 2015
Take a moment to treat yourself today and get to learn about ins and outs of orchestra management from a humorous perspective by binge-reading all 157 episodes of  Who’s Minding The Score?, a satirical cartoon that provides a behind the scenes look orchestra life. It’s the ideal way to spend some of your Labor Day, really, just take

It’s Better To Be Busy Than Bored

Fri, Sep 9, 2015
Adaptistration People 017
The last few weeks have been busy. Extraordinarily. Busy. While that’s certainly no reason to complain yet it does prevent spending as much time feeding the blogging monster as I prefer. Nonetheless, much of the latest round of work is close to being wrapped up so in addition to some overscale negotiations, an institutional due

Would Full Time Composition Departments Revitalize Orchestras?

Thu, Sep 9, 2015
Adaptistration People 164
Mark MacNamara published an interesting interview with Louisville Orchestra music director Teddy Abrams in the 8/26/15 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice where the conductor advocated for a full time composition staff within existing Us orchestra organizational structure. “All major arts organizations should not only have musicians on staff but there should also be a

Five Job Description Phrases We Should Have Stopped Using Years Ago

Wed, Sep 9, 2015
Job description (JD) boilerplates are a double edged sword; on one hand they save a tremendous amount of time by providing crucial statements such as Equal Opportunity disclosures but if you aren’t careful, they can project a less than desirable image or even keep candidates away. Vu Le has an excellent post over at Nonprofit

Only You Can Affect Real Change In Workplace Satisfaction

Tue, Sep 9, 2015
Adaptistration People 001
Regular readers know that the topic of Workplace Satisfaction is one of the more popular here at Adaptistration and even though it continues to remain firmly swept under the rug for the field as a whole, that doesn’t mean we’re without options to begin taking some measurements. To that end, GlassDoor.com serves as a useful

Get To Know The ArtsHackers

Mon, Aug 8, 2015
ArtsHacker.com
It was a weekend of platform updates at ArtsHacker.com and one area that benefitted from a major makeover are the contributor profiles. You can now click through to either individual bio or article archive pages for each author right from the main contributor page. Andy Campbell: bio | articles Ceci Dadisman: bio | articles Jonathan

Win-Win Friday: Elevating Hiring Practices

Fri, Aug 8, 2015
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It’s no secret that finding qualified applicants for incredibly demanding positions within the ranks of middle and entry level orchestra administration is no simple task but are we making this already difficult task even more difficult thanks to unrealistic expectations or failing to use applicable criteria? Joe Patti posted a terrific article on this topic

Ack! Early-Bird Registration (AND DISCOUNTS) For #NAMPC 2105 End This Friday

Thu, Aug 8, 2015
NAMPC 2015
The early bird deadline for the 2015 NAMP Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah is right around the corner; this Friday, August 28th to be precise, so if you haven’t registered already then get in gear or you’ll miss out on those sweet early bird discounts. As mentioned back in May, I’ll be leading a session titled Click.
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