What You Should Know About Contracts
Wed, Oct 10, 2016
by Drew McManus
Unless you plan on making it your career path, you should not expect to become an expert on legal agreements; at the same time, that doesn’t mean you should be unaware either. Fortunately, Joe Patti authored a pair of articles at Arts Hacker this week that go a long way toward a healthy indoctrination on
Some Good News On Efforts To Save Military Music
Tue, Oct 10, 2016
by Drew McManus
It’s time for another update on current efforts to help block a proposed funding amendment in the 2017 Defense Appropriations bill designed to gut military music programs. If you’ve been keeping up with what has been going on, you already know that the latest step in the process was to get the amendment removed from the
How To Look Like The Smartest Person In The Room When Talking About This Season’s Labor Disputes
Mon, Oct 10, 2016
by Drew McManus
The weekend saw some extraordinary events as the musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and Philadelphia Orchestra Association (POA) went on strike. Since that news broke on Friday, 9/30/2016 there are no shortages of presumptions floating around so in order to provide a clear frame of reference, let’s examine some of the key points
Crowdsourcing Labor Disputes
Fri, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
Norman Lebrecht pointed out an interesting development in the ongoing Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) strike in that the musicians recently received a donation from the crowdsource funding platform they’ve been using to raise money. Specifically, GoFundMe.com decided to donate $1,000 to the FWSO musicians’ GoFundMe project, which helped put them over their $25,000 goal.
We’re Still Our Own Worst Enemy When It Comes To The Online Buying Experience
Thu, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
While attending the 2016 Arts Midwest conference in Milwaukee last month, I noticed one of the sessions was a pro/con debate on the subject of subscriptions. Instinctively, I let out a big sigh then furrowed my brow for a good five minutes. Despite how much time the field spends debating subscriptions, it never ceases to
The Most Creative People In Arts Administration
Wed, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
One of the best parts of working with such a variety of culture publications is working with some genuinely amazing people. To that end, Ceci Dadisman (my fellow contributor at ArtsHacker.com) came up with an absolutely wonderful idea a few months ago to highlight wonderfully creative arts administrators and their projects and I’m extraordinarily pleased
How Much Did That Meeting (Or Rehearsal Error) Really Cost?
Tue, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
In 2007, I published an article with this very title so as to highlight a handy online tool designed to calculate the cost of meetings. Unfortunately, that tool faded away over time but something new from Harvard Business Review (HBR) has more than filled that void. HBR’s Meeting Cost Calculator is a wonderfully simple and
All About Orchestra Negotiations
Mon, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
Last May, we examined some new capacity at Adaptistration which provides the ability to package several articles on related content into an easy to find resource. Fortunately, metrics made it easy to determine what readers are looking for and for the past year, the most searches focus on how orchestra negotiations work. As a result,
Why Yes, Genuine User Endorsements Do Exist
Fri, Sep 9, 2016
by Drew McManus
Every now and then, a fun project falls in your lap and last fall, I had the pleasure of shooting a promo video for the email client I use, Postbox. They ended up shooting the entire thing on-site in my office and talking shop with the Postbox Founder and VP of Product Management, Sherman Dickman,
Pittsburgh Symphony Labor Dispute Continues Down A Dark Path