Why Are We Doing This?? 

This month’s column deals with a more serious matter than last.  Recently the GSLV Board of Directors had our first ever annual planning retreat which included 2-½ hours of serious discussion about the future of GSLV and what we (the board) should do to strengthen the Society and give our members a reason to belong.   

One of my responsibilities since joining the Board has been to schedule and promote concerts and special events.  These activities consume the majority of our modest annual budget and a lot of volunteer time and donated money.  Over the last two years  we have spent literally thousands of our dollars recruiting serious guitar talent to perform for our members and the general public.  We have hosted international guitar talents like Ed Gerhard, Alex DeGrassi, Richard Smith, Brad Richter, and some fine professional local talents like Gary Queen and Bill Moio.  In addition we average two to five requests a month from various nationally recognized artists asking to play a program here (I guess there is still some value in having “played Vegas” on your resume).  Our concern is that few of our members ever seem to participate, so why are we doing this???? 

Here are some cold hard facts.  The best turnout we have ever had at a Winchester Center concert was our July 11, 2003 jazz guitar program which drew 105 paying seats.  The next best turn out was the Chet Atkins tribute concert featuring Richard Smith (another world class player) that sold 65 seats.  The worst was the Las Vegas Classical Guitar Ensemble which drew less than 30 paying seats of the 275 available at the Winchester Community Center.  We usually need to fill 75 to 100 of those seats just to break even. Attendance at the master classes has been embarrassing to say the least.  The best attendance at a master class was the Ed Gerhard class with 10 paying students.  Only four signed up for our master class with Alex DeGrassi!  

So why are we doing this???  Well, we (the Board) thought our members wanted to

experience live performances and get a chance to meet these world class performers in a live acoustic music setting.  Further we had decided to try and reach others besides the classical player and offer a variety of guitar music to our membership.  Unfortunately we simply cannot continue to subsidize each performance, and expect the County to do the same by allowing us to use Winchester Center, especially when it appears that our members aren’t really interested.  While we are a bonafide nonprofit organization, it’s not a prudent business decision to continue spending our limited financial resources on programs that seem to interest so few and return so little.  Further, if we don’t improve our attendance we run the risk of losing our access to the Winchester Center. 

So here is our plan for next year. We have restructured our concert ticket-pricing program to provide a real incentive to belong to the Society and reward those that do.  The 2004 concert season will feature four concerts with only one nationally recognized performer, an act that has not yet been selected (suggestions are welcome). 

We will have two member concerts, one of them a program of holiday music late in the year, to offer our members the chance for public performance.  Our jazz concert will feature local world class guitarist Hap Smith.  Even though the Winchester Community Center seems to be made for our concerts, we will explore other venues with the idea of improving attendance and finding cosponsors for our concerts.  And our membership meetings will feature one guest artist program a quarter (every third meeting) with all other meetings being organized as “open mike” nights.  

What can you as a members of GSLV do?  Well first and most importantly communicate with your Board regarding what you expect for your membership dollars.  Simply go to our web site and e-mail our president or me and tell us what you’d like to see and hear in our programs next year.  Or send us a note via regular mail.  It’s simple to do but we seldom hear from any of our members regarding our programs.  Some of the questions asked by the Board at our retreat include the following:

Do we need to offer more or fewer programs?  Is our primary member interest in jazz,  classical, finger-style??  Is there interest in continuing our live guitar music concert series?  Would our members like to participate in master classes with the artists who perform here?  Do our members have suggestions for a different format for our monthly membership meetings?  Would you be more likely to attend a concert if it were held at another venue besides the Winchester Center?    

Apathy is a dangerous thing to an organization like ours.  Without hearing anything different we have to assume that what we are doing is what the membership expects. However next time you receive our invitation to renew your GSLV membership we don’t want you asking the question,...................“why are we doing this??”  

Hope to see you all at the next GSLV event!