Governance

Because You Know I’m All About That Board

by

Washington Chorus Executive Director, Stephen Beaudoin, published an engaging post at his LinkedIn feed yesterday with five steps aspiring board members should consider that generated quite the conversation. Here’s the original post, with his permission: To all my friends and colleagues considering the service opportunity of joining a nonprofit board – Here are five steps you might want to consider before approaching a nonprofit organization to express interest in exploring potential …

Read more

#TBT Polarization And Governance

by

Back in July, 2014 I published a post about what I defined as the end of the golden age of orchestras and opera. I came to that conclusion, in part, because of the sharp increase in neoreactionary dominated culture. Within that context, neoreactionaries were those who cast themselves as victims within a larger operating environment and believe they are somehow tasked with a principled responsibility to right the wrongs for a secure future …

Read more

#TBT Good Problems To Have

by

I had a good laugh yesterday after realizing how much I’m hearing some of the traditional pre-pandemic gripes from colleagues. My first thought was “how wonderful it is to have such great problems” and that was followed up by a desire to share an orchestra admin diagram I update every few years. Originally designed to poke fun at the woe-is-me crowd, I’m starting to look at it as more of a …

Read more

I Wish I Could Say Things Are Better

by

Back in 2014 I wrote an article about the emergence of strategic decision making that was defined more by extreme voices at either end of a political spectrum than anything else. Keep in mind, this was a full year and half before the 2016 national election. At the time, those extreme voices were still moving from the status of fringe voices, to the tail that wags the dog, to the whole canine. …

Read more

Sorting Out Religious Discrimination Vaccination Exemptions

by

Among the numerous details to work out when crafting required vaccination policies is when an employee cites religious objections and requests an exemption. Recently, the 8/30/21 edition of starnewsonline.com published an article by John Staton that reports on the Wilmington Symphony’s decision to deny a musician’s religious exemption to their required vaccination policy. The article includes the following statement about when an employer isn’t required to accommodate religious belief requests: At …

Read more