2010 Compensation Reports: ICSOM Executives
Mon, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
If you were the CEO or Executive Director for an ICSOM orchestra in the 2007/08 season, odds are you enjoyed the largest single increase in compensation in recent history. Taken in context, the 2007/08 season was the height of the economic bubble and clearly, most orchestra executives didn’t miss out on the benefits associated with
AFM Poll Results
Fri, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Last Wednesday’s poll asking readers if they thought orchestra musicians should leave the AFM produced an enormous response rate; at the time this was written, it had over 500 unique reader responses. The results were fascinating on several levels and since this poll allowed users to select multiple responses, it provided some equally fascinating opportunities
Context, Urtext, Or Just Plain Perplexed?
Thu, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Ron Spigelman managed to churn up the cultural blogging waters a bit in a recent post entitled It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!! wherein he pushes some tried and true artistic hot buttons. Nothing inspires passionate debate (A.K.A raises the hackles) quite like discussions of artistic nature and the comment thread has taken
Should Orchestra Musicians Leave The AFM?
Wed, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Yesterday’s post on the recommendation by the American Federation of Musicians’ (AFM) International Executive Board (IEB) to give officers an unaudited $10,000 discretionary spending account has generated a considerable amount of feedback throughout social network sites and private email messages. One item that repeatedly pops up is whether or not orchestra musicians would be better
Things That Make You Go Buh?!? AFM Leadership
Tue, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
What do you call a $10,000 discretionary spending account over and above existing annual compensation, travel expenses, and departmental budgets? Oh, and did I mention that each executive with the mad money privileges will not be required to make an accounting of what or how they spend those funds. If you’re the current leadership of
Happy Memorial Day
Sun, May 5, 2010
by Drew McManus
Whether you’re home enjoying the day with family and friends or your orchestra is putting on a performance today, try to take a few moments to remember the reason for the holiday. Also remember that the single largest employer of full-time professional musicians is the United States Armed Forces and get this: the Armed Forces
Who Else Doesn’t Like To Wait?
Fri, May 5, 2010
by Drew McManus
The good news is you don’t have to wait until June 7 for the 2010 Orchestra Compensation Reports; they’re available right now at Adaptistration Premium. The great news is the new and improved data management tables that were designed especially for the compensation info are in place and fully operational. There is no bad news.
Michael Kaiser Couldn’t Be More Right
Thu, May 5, 2010
by Drew McManus
I have to fess up and admit that I haven’t been keeping up with Michael Kaiser’s blog at Huffington Post even though I know it would be for the best. But that’s been turning around as I’ve been wading through Michael’s archives and one item that caught my attention was a post from 1/4/2010 titled
More On Louisville’s Resource Center
Wed, May 5, 2010
by Drew McManus
Since January of this year, we’ve examined the Louisville Orchestra’s idea to increase local demand by way of building a resource center. The first instance came via my real-time blogging from the American Orchestra Summit and later, Louisville Orchestra’s CEO, Rob Birman, provided much more detail as part of his 2010 Take A Friend To
Tasty Transparency Treats
Tue, May 5, 2010
by Drew McManus
The 2010 Orchestra Compensation Reports are only two weeks away but that doesn’t mean you can’t get in on some of the data goodies ahead of time. Following in the successful footsteps of the 2009 Orchestra Website Report pre-publication tweets, I’ll be tweeting an ongoing string of compensation review tidbits along with a number of
