More than an individual personality
by STEPHEN P. BROWN
The local not-for-profit organization I am involved with, the Dunedin Music Society, is a true community group.
Our flagship program, the Dunedin Concert Band is one of the groups I conduct on a regular basis.
But instead of one person doing, well, everything, it is actually run by several teams of people!
And they are incredible people, too.
- The Board of Directors oversees everything we do to make sure we stay legal and accountable.
- The Executive Committee runs the organization and makes sure the DMS connects local communities with live music.
- The Program Managers ensure each program is safe, effective, efficient, and actually profitable!
- Then the larger programs have their own teams as well. Sometimes that’s a committee (such as the Pinellas Festival of Community Bands Committee), and other times it’s something else.
For the Dunedin Concert Band, we have a team of Section Leaders.
These are not necessarily the best players, as it is an administrative role (it says so in their Expectations document!). Being Section Leader is making sure all the Performers in the section are made to feel welcome, get a variety of parts to play, and have what they need to bring live music to their circles of influence.
And every year the DMS wants to treat the Section Leaders to lunch, to say thanks for volunteering, making our Performers feel special, and for being committed and loyal to the DCB.
This year, we met for lunch at Hew at the new Fenway Hotel in Dunedin, and had a great time socializing and talking shop.
THANK YOU FOLKS!
It is truly an honor to work with such a fine collection of Performers, so that every week we can learn together, and regularly perform for our local communities.
With the help of our intrepid Section Leaders, over the past year the Dunedin Concert Band has served more than 78 performers, given live concerts for 1,800 audience members, and generated $6,800 of direct and $24,300 of indirect economic activity.
Thank you to everyone who makes that happen 🙂
Stephen P Brown is a Conductor of orchestra, choirs, concert bands and musicals, as well as a composer. He is the General Director of the Dunedin Music Society, Head Spark Plug of the Concert University, and a Professional Artist Grantee of Creative Pinellas. You can find his concert schedule here, a sample of his compositions here, and listen to his podcast Classic Jabber here.
