Perhaps Chairman Smoot STILL Wants A Strike

Drama seems to be the status quo in Philadelphia these past months.  Yesterday, the musicians and management agreed to extend the recent contract negotiation extension another 10 days. Philadelphia Inquirer critic and columnist Peter Dobrin has been doing a great job keeping everyone informed of events over the past few days.  One of his recent articles reports that the Philadelphia Orchestra Association (management) turned down a recent offer by musicians to …

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Maintaining The Quality In Milwaukee

Last Monday evening, the 18th, I found myself listening to a live radio broadcast of the Milwaukee Symphony performing Mahler 1.  I have to say that it was a fantastic concert; the interpretation was poignant, the strings were tight, and the wind solos were superb.  Even the sound mixing was excellent; it was obvious that none of the sections or players were artificially enhanced to “compensate” for a dead spot on …

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A Good Comparison Between NonProfit and ForProfit

In yesterday’s article, I spent a good but of time ripping up what I thought was an inaccurate comparison between for profit and non profit organization.  But there are some rules the for profit industry has to follow that the non profit industry is exempt from; but if managers were required to follow these same rules, nonprofits would be forced to adopt better financial practices and procedures.

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Diminished Philosophy

Andrew Taylor posted a really provocative piece last week about whether or not the nonprofit industry is “overbuilt”.

His piece really got me thinking.  Actually, it made me furious at first, but after a few minutes I started into the thinking part.  I wasn’t upset with Andrew; I thought he wrote a great piece that should cause any reasonably level headed individual with at least two active brain cells to think about.

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Reader Response: Racist Nonsense II

Shortly after publishing the last Reader Response to this article, I received an email from Jerome Harris, a 50-something professional jazz musician: black American, native Brooklynite, working-class background/Ivy League grad/middle-class income, omnivorous listener.  He wrote in to comment about some passages in that article as well as the ideas from the original piece.

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