Another year blew by in no time! As of this report, 11 settlement bulletins were produced for distribution and posted on the ICSOM website, Delegate-L and Orchestra-L. Six mailings were sent throughout the season that included ratification materials to approve the increase of the chairman’s honorarium to $3,000, ICSOM, ROPA and OCSM bulletins, Union Steward and PCC newsletters, delegate changes and roster updates, replacement pages for the ICSOM Delegate Manual, conference information and other issues of importance. The board and I continue to periodically update ICSOM governing board policies. I also send letters and updated rosters to all new delegates, welcoming them to the ICSOM family. Please be sure that whenever there is a change in delegate status, you inform me right away.
My one regret is that a few orchestras required multiple reminders and a few never sent anything. This is most distressing because we all count on having up to date information that keeps us up to date on changes that occur in our contracts, and it allows us to refute arguments at the table when misleading or incorrect information is presented as “gospel”. Please be sure to get bulletin information to me as soon as possible.
By the time you receive this I will have produced 11 sets of minutes for the Governing Board (which includes minutes from before, during and after the Conference, and the mid-winter meeting in Kansas City MO – just getting there was a momentous feat!) All minutes from the Conference as well as Governing Board calls and meetings are posted on the ICSOM website thanks to my Nashville Symphony colleague, Bruce Christensen (who serves as webmaster). The Conference minutes (with proof-reading assistance by Bruce Ridge and Paul Gunther) were completed in November and mailed out in early December.
I also submitted multiple articles for every issues of Senza Sordino this season. My final article this season comes from my attendance at the recent Major Orchestra Librarians Association (MOLA) Conference that was held here in Nashville. My favorite article this was year was a compilation of submissions from delegates and some I wrote or heavily edited about our colleagues that have served in their respective orchestras for over 50 years. I delighted in their stories and in their reminiscences – our histories are very important and deserve to be celebrated and shared.
As a member of the ICSOM Electronic Media Committee, I have made numerous trips this past season to New York and Chicago to attend discussions with the managers regarding the negotiation of a new integrated media agreement that would incorporate the Symphony, Opera, Ballet Audio-Visual agreement, Live Recording agreement, Internet agreement and a new national radio agreement. Bill Foster has also updated the Media section of the ICSOM Delegate Manual. This would replace the AV agreement that has currently been extended, and would hopefully make it easier to do media projects (or “activities” as the managers would wish to call them) in multiple mediums and allow for a simplified, more flexible agreement. During our June 30 meeting, the managers finally agreed to negotiate such an agreement and will now put together a team of management representatives that will most likely be ready to meet in late September with the hope of completing the task in just a few months.
This past month or so I have contacted contributors and am preparing updates in the ICSOM Delegate Manual (that will also be updated on the ICSOM website). The officer reports enclosed in this final pre-conference mailing should be placed in the Officer Reports section of the Manual. Further updates will be forthcoming during and after the Conference.
An entire year has passed since we made efforts to reinstate the ICSOM/Major Managers Liaison committee. Sadly, too many other issues began weighing down our season and so this got pushed aside. I hope we can try to find time next season to open that dialogue and discuss such issues as setting up a Code of Ethics regarding touring.
I continue to marvel at how people can put things off until the last minute (or not respond at all), which makes my life infinitely more difficult, especially when preparing to leave town, and this year the country! I continue to sweat whether delegates and guests will make hotel reservations in time, and wait breathlessly for the return of the information sheets that are due around the time this report will be mailed. All of these delays make my job more difficult. I hope there are few absent delegates this year and I know there will be a number of observers from our member orchestras. I’m very much looking forward to this conference that will focus on various forms of education from the AFM International Executive Board to “continuing education” regarding the pension fund to Arts advocacy to education about bylaws and players-fund incorporations to the education programs of our own orchestras. It is shaping up to be an exciting and interesting conference.
While we have our procrastinators, I must comment you all on the responses to our Call to Action campaigns for Jacksonville and Columbus this past season; they have been incredibly heartening. To see our orchestras respond so generously when one of our own members faces what we all hope never to face ourselves, is truly gratifying. I am also pleased that 40 of 50 orchestras have sent their bylaws which will be shared with your colleagues this summer. I know I’m pretty consistent in my message to you that ICSOM is about communication and we are only as effective as the information we have - it only works if delegates communicate with the board and their colleagues.
Unfortunately, again this year we’ve had another wonderful colleague, James Nickel, depart from our board his summer. James inspired me with his ideas and impressed us all with his involvement and commitment to his duties as a member at large. Between all of his ICSOM activities he managed to begin a family (2 children so far) AND win a position in the National Symphony. He’s a dynamo and we will miss him. I know his colleagues in Dallas will miss him but his new National Symphony colleagues are in for a very pleasant experience. I wish James the very best in the future and hope he will return to ICSOM in the future to represent his new “band”.
Lastly, I cannot begin to express my thanks and admiration for my colleagues on the Governing Board. They impress me and they make me laugh – I so look forward to our calls and face to face meetings. Cathy Payne has been a great addition to the board this year and Matt Comerford has stepped in ably to fill James Nickel’s shoes. I also cannot let my report end without saying something about my friend and ICSOM’s chairman Bruce Ridge. This man works tirelessly (and to his own detriment I fear) to support our individual member orchestras as well as dealing with issues that concern our entire industry. Each orchestra’s success or difficulty becomes Bruce’s personal issue. His on-sight visits this past season and his undying support for our troubled orchestras inspires those of us on the governing board and, I suspect, all of you as well.
Laura Ross
July 2008