feature Sempre Appassionato – The Path to Community Support for
Your School Music Program Kristopher Ulrich, Oshkosh
E Ever Better
For those of you who got a chuckle out of the title of this article right away, good job. Always with passion is truly the founda- tion of any strategy for growing support for your music program. I’m fortunate to find myself in a situation where I can be a third party to examine the best practices for success that I’ve observed in educa- tors, without being one myself. During my professional career I’ve served as executive director for newVoices Choir of Appleton, volunteered on arts boards and granting committees, and worked for a community foundation. Most importantly though, my wife, Bridget Duffy-Ulrich, is the choir director at Oshkosh North High School, and music department head for the Oshkosh Area School District. It’s been through her successful endeavors and the winning efforts of her contemporaries that I’ve been able to boil down what I think are the key strategies for developing com- munity support from the perspective of an engaged community member.
Outward passion is key. It’s infectious; a beneficial virus that will grow among your students, spread to their parents, and expand to their colleagues and friends until suddenly the whole community has been touched. I truly believe that the success of any music program starts with a talented and passionate educator who’s driven to develop the joy and beauty of music in their students. At the end of the day the altruistic goal of teaching is to educate and better the lives of students, and that’s where this should start. My wife has a motto1
for her classroom: meliora – ever
better. That rings true to her student’s ac- tions with one another, their knowledge of music, performance and citizenship, and that’s why her program grew from 75 to 145 students within her first three years at North.
Identify Your Advocates
Community members are drawn to the magnetism of a charismatic leader and engaged students. They like to see students
grow and rise to the musical challenges that you put forth. Take note of the parents and other community members who come to your performances and start identifying the ones with special skills and influ- ence – those are your first constituents to engage.
In my experience, a targeted approach is better than casting a wide net when it comes volunteers. Odds are you want help on a variety of fronts. Time to del- egate. Music educators don’t need MORE ideas added to their plates – they need tasks taken off their shoulders! Find one community member to head up each task you need help with, and then have them coordinate a subcommittee of volunteers. If you find yourself starting to feel like a CEO running a business, that’s good! You might have an engaged parent who works as a car salesman – perfect, now they’re in charge of selling ads for your musical program. How about that retired teacher who comes to all of your concerts – nice, now they’re your advocate at their Rotary & Kiwanis meetings, and that one coffee shop they seem to live out of these days. Got a stay-at-home mom who’s a wicked seamstress? – well now they’re your point person for uniforms and madrigal outfits. We all have “those people” with niche talents who love what you do and will be willing to lend their expertise. Support their desire to help by sharing your list of volunteers who can help with whatever, and give your point people the green light to engage them and accomplish the goals you’ve set forth. When it comes to volun- teers, take what you can get with gratitude. These fine people are giving their time, talents and treasure out of the goodness of their hearts. Take note of their interests and follow up with them every year.
Volunteers help make outfits, polish handbells and coordinate setup and food contributions to the annual Madrigals at the Masonic concert and dessert event.
16 April 2018
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