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The weekend of June 8/9th, the AMCA leadership under the expert guidance of professional "Facilitator", Glenn Hageman, a member of the 3M Male Chorus, gathered to discuss AMCA's vision for the future and to set specific goals to better serve our membership. I am pleased to report that there were many great ideas that can be implemented immediately and others that require more planning and preparation will be addressed over the months ahead. The sessions were intense and Glenn set an exhausting pace making sure that everyone stayed on the subject at hand. In this report I shall set forth a list of the group's conclusions - by category and priorized with the first item given as the top priority in each category.
Common Issues
The focus of our discussions was on the role that the International body should play in bringing to our member choruses programs that would be perceived as having value. Some common issues became apparent as the discussions proceeded.
- An obvious one is that we need to survey our member choruses to find out what their expectations are of AMCA - that is, what benefits and services are we not providing that we should provide.
- Secondly, we need to examine our leadership structure and organization with a view to encourage potential leaders with expertise in various areas to participate in our effort to make the AMCA an even better organization.
- Many of our plans require funding and a third issue would be to investigate ways and means of increasing revenue to finance initiatives without the necessity of raising membership dues.
- Just as we need leaders, we also need workers who will commit time in working towards the initiatives listed.
Although the following two issues were not part of our mandate for this meeting, it was noted that we need to address them at some future time as part of AMCA's vision
 (a) addressing the problem some choruses are experiencing of membership decline and
(b) examining the relevancy of AMCA's aims and objectives in today's environment.
Male Chorus Music
What are the ways that AMCA can help provide new music?
- Contact other male chorus associations with a view to forming a link in order to create a larger market base to interest publishers in publishing male voice music.
- Hire our own arrangers.
- Create an AMCA publishing company and sell on the Internet. Hal Leonard, we were told would support this method of sales provided royalty fees were paid - AMCA would charge the purchaser a fee. Details would need to be worked out to protect against dishonest users but the potential is huge.
- Adapt SATB and SA to TTBB and TB. (Again, Hal Leonard Publishing would support the arrangements provided application were made and a royalty fee paid. (One dollar per copy was mentioned as an example)
- The AMCA "Music Contest" process should be reviewed and the contest advertised more widely to attract more entries. We need to find ways to encourage a variety of music beyond the sacred that now seems to be predominant.
- Publish collections on a specific theme in booklet form. eg. songs of the sea, love songs, songs suitable for memorial services, etc.
- Research the entertainment value and audience effectiveness of our selections.
- Establish a partnership of individuals wishing to invest in the creation of new and newly arranged male voice music. They would own the rights and share in the benefits.
- Do an exhaustive inventory of current offerings of male voice music.
Transferring Knowledge & Information
How can we accomplish this?
- Survey chorus needs and establish a data base in the categories discovered.
- Establish district "Troubleshooters/Disseminators" to work with choruses.
- Publish manuals in the categories identified by the chorus survey. Consider using a variety of media - CD, printed text, Internet.
- Search out and use available resources on the subjects identified.
- Find or hire experts who will do the styling and writing of the manuals.
Communication
How do we connect with our membership?
- Assume regular publication of the Chorister.
- Ensure that a copy of the Chorister gets to each singer by hard mail or email.
- Encourage choruses to use the Chorister to share their successes, membership news and calendar of events, etc.
- Use the web site more to share information.
- Link our International leaders to each District President on a regular basis to dialogue and share information.
- Advertise our activities such as the Music Contest and Scholarship Program regularly to our membership.
- Encourage each chorus to have an email address to facilitate communication.
Recruitment
Strategies for growth
- Set up procedures to identify all male choruses in North America.
- Contact former AMCA choruses with a survey to determine why they left.
- Review our "Marketing Package".
- Organize male chorus festivals/Big Sings outside our districts to interest non member choruses in our association.
- Market AMCA at all music conventions.
- Have the District follow-up on potential member chorus leads.
- Provide some sort of incentive to districts to bring in new choruses.
- Become proactive in forming new choruses assisting with financial aid, music, etc
- Expand our offerings to include church male choruses and others.
Funding
A look at how AMCA can finance some of the actions listed
- Seek Arts grants from organizations and government. This would likely require the services of members either skilled as grant writers, or prepared to become knowledgeable in doing so.
- Derive income from selling our output. For example, we should be doing our own publishing and selling our arrangements, possibly using our web site to publish their availability. (Nb.Ms. Emily Crocker of Hal Leonard Publishing informed the Board of their company's willingness to cooperate with license agreements upon application and payment of a reasonable fee.)
- Encourage members to make AMCA a beneficiary in their will, consider bequests and memorial donations to the general fund to help finance projects.
- Review current income and how it is being spent.
- Seek corporate sponsorship and income from naming rights.
- Create a mechanism for encouraging and accepting donations from individuals and groups that are tax deductible since we are a registered not-for-profit organization.
Manpower
How do we obtain people to work on the actions?
- Define the jobs to be done.
- Survey the membership in order to inventory the skills and expertise available.
- Set up a system for managing the various projects undertaken (eg. flow chart).
- Establish a recognition program to give encouragement for work done.
- Seek professional "pro bono" services where and when needed.
Next
Our plans for stage two
We have determined what we would like to do for our member choruses - a new and more inclusive "Blueprint for Progress". The task now is to put in place a plan of action in order to accomplish the initiatives in our long list. Toward that end the attendees listed the initiatives in order of priority so that we can begin with what is seen by the group as the most important start points. We will begin immediately by involving the leadership in devising this plan and I will keep you posted as progress is made.
Most important is grass-roots involvement in this process. As the leaders organize their plan of action, I urge each of you to come forward and indicate your willingness to serve on a committee of your interest. Please get involved and show your support by making contact either by direct email to the AMCA office or through the feedback response to this column.
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Bill
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