When An Academic Exercise Becomes Reality

Adaptistration People 136

During the beginning of November, 2006 I had the pleasure of conducting a mock negotiation exercise with the MBA students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Bolz Center for Arts Administration program. That exercise had the future arts administrator’s playing the role of orchestra musicians who were presented with a bargaining proposal from management that called for a 35 percent reduction in expenditures. Although the details of that exercise are fascinating to …

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BREAKING NEWS: Tentative Agreement in Jacksonville

The musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra released the following press release at 2:19PM CT announcing a tentative agreement which provides for Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra concerts to resume this week.  (UPDATE: The Jacksonville Symphony Association distributed a press release about approximately 90 minutes after the musician release. It is included at the end of this post)…

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We Value Your Option (unless it means changing our plans)

Robert Levine, president of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) chairman emeritus, former editor of Senza Sordino (ICSOM’s newsletter), and principal violist of the Milwaukee Symphony [Robert must have an industrial sized business card], posted an intriguing article at his blog about the Jacksonville Symphony negotiations. In his post, Robert compares current events in Jacksonville with his own experiences in Milwaukee when faced with a refusal to move from a pre-set final offer at the onset of negotiations…

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Rhetoric On The Rise In Jacksonville

After a brief hiatus following the holiday season, the Jacksonville Symphony Association (JSA) and Jacksonville Symphony Players’ Association (JSPA) have resumed their respective public relations campaigns via the nine week long lockout. First up, was an opinion piece published on 1/8/2008 by the Florida Times-Union written by JSA past board chair and current board member, Steven T. Halverson…

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