By Richard Sandals
Nobody is born understanding how to serve on an orchestra committee. Some people enter the profession with some of the raw materials, and some people quickly pick up a lot of the nuances once they get their first job. Still, nobody starts out knowing everything they will need to know — but everybody can learn.
The problem, of course, is that very often, the only opportunity to learn is by doing, and that can be an intimidating prospect. This is why the Symphonic Services Division offers training for orchestra committees and Locals… sort of. This training has been available for some time, but at least in recent memory, it has only been provided in the US. This is about to change.
SSD Director Rochelle Skolnick and I are working on creating a version of the training module that is tailored to Canadian orchestras. We’ll be running a kind of “beta test” of that training module at the OCSM Conference this summer in Winnipeg. Once we’ve incorporated the feedback we get from delegates, committee members, and Local officers, this training module will be available to Locals and orchestra committees across Canada.
One thing we particularly want to emphasize is that this training is intended to be delivered to Locals and orchestra committees together. We can also include other “committee-adjacent” participants, like OCSM delegates and negotiating committees. Committees and Locals have to work together to represent members, so it’s critical that they share a common understanding of what needs to be done, who needs to do it, and why.
We also want to make sure that this training will be useful for new members, experienced veterans, and everyone in between. None of us are too old to learn some new tricks! We will make sure that the training is tailored to the participants and to the particular challenges they’re facing.
More than simply imparting information, we hope that this training can be a chance for meaningful dialogue among all participants. A lot of the time, we don’t think very much about the relationship among the orchestra committee, the Local, and SSD — it just kind of “is,” often because it’s always worked (or not worked!) a particular way, or because it can be awkward to ask somebody to do more, or to do less, or to do things differently. Rather than getting locked into a particular way of doing things, I think we should all be open to finding ways to put everybody in a situation where they can make the best contribution with the best chance of success.
We’ll be reaching out to committees and Locals about this training program once it’s ready to implement, but if you’re interested, please reach out to me at