Does this sound familiar, has it happened to your club? How can we avoid this happening?
'The other big problem is the apathy of existing members. We struggled to manage for several years with just a handful of committee members to do everything and it has not been easy. One committee member has had to leave and despite having advised our members of the consequences if nobody volunteered to join the committee - at every concert this year - guess what, no one has. After lots of thought and discussion the committee was left with no alternative but to close the club. We have had to close bank accounts etc., everyone was very sad but the club cannot exist without volunteers.'
Try to persuade younger people (relatively speaking) to join the committee to tackle internet matters, somebody may be happy to be a committee member to only do this.
Problem: Difficult to get new members on the committee:
1) (Implement UK wide) - provide a set of template letters and/or emails that can be used to run the club (i.e. statement of accounts; membership lists; letters for requesting prospective organist of availabilty on dates; letters for booking organists; player contracts etc). The idea being that the letters are a guide and should be photocopied locally - not used directly. (Is anybody willing to do this?)
2) (Implement UK Wide): Provide a paper/web guide to running an organ society.
3) (Implement UK Wide) It ought to be possible to implement central booking of organists. So - clubs and organists register with a web site. The club says we want organists on these dates. The organists look at the web site and say "I am available..". The booking and related paraphenalia take place electronically. This would make the whole business of running an organ society slicker - and would be less demanding on committees and may mean that organ societies stay open a bit longer. The big problem - of course - is creating the web site - but its not rocket science and there would be lots of college IT students who might be interested in the task.
4) Negotiate a central deal for insurance etc.
5) Maybe merge local societies - so that they are run by a single committee. Organists booking would be done centrally for all the clubs in the group. This would have the benefit of all concerts in the area being more coordinate - i.e. not having Mr Bloggs play at two nearby clubs a month apart.
Problem: Core member dies/leaves, meaning the club lacks skills to continue
1) Make sure that the skills of key committee members are shadowed (i.e. deputy treasurer, chairman, program organiser etc ) - so that if someone 'leaves' suddenly then the skills/knowledge are still available within the club.
'The other big problem is the apathy of existing members. We struggled to manage for several years with just a handful of committee members to do everything and it has not been easy. One committee member has had to leave and despite having advised our members of the consequences if nobody volunteered to join the committee - at every concert this year - guess what, no one has. After lots of thought and discussion the committee was left with no alternative but to close the club. We have had to close bank accounts etc., everyone was very sad but the club cannot exist without volunteers.'
Try to persuade younger people (relatively speaking) to join the committee to tackle internet matters, somebody may be happy to be a committee member to only do this.
Problem: Difficult to get new members on the committee:
1) (Implement UK wide) - provide a set of template letters and/or emails that can be used to run the club (i.e. statement of accounts; membership lists; letters for requesting prospective organist of availabilty on dates; letters for booking organists; player contracts etc). The idea being that the letters are a guide and should be photocopied locally - not used directly. (Is anybody willing to do this?)
2) (Implement UK Wide): Provide a paper/web guide to running an organ society.
3) (Implement UK Wide) It ought to be possible to implement central booking of organists. So - clubs and organists register with a web site. The club says we want organists on these dates. The organists look at the web site and say "I am available..". The booking and related paraphenalia take place electronically. This would make the whole business of running an organ society slicker - and would be less demanding on committees and may mean that organ societies stay open a bit longer. The big problem - of course - is creating the web site - but its not rocket science and there would be lots of college IT students who might be interested in the task.
4) Negotiate a central deal for insurance etc.
5) Maybe merge local societies - so that they are run by a single committee. Organists booking would be done centrally for all the clubs in the group. This would have the benefit of all concerts in the area being more coordinate - i.e. not having Mr Bloggs play at two nearby clubs a month apart.
Problem: Core member dies/leaves, meaning the club lacks skills to continue
1) Make sure that the skills of key committee members are shadowed (i.e. deputy treasurer, chairman, program organiser etc ) - so that if someone 'leaves' suddenly then the skills/knowledge are still available within the club.
