By Laws Continued:
     Continuing the series on the new By Laws should include a look at the new Executive Director position, the Executive Council Chair and Vice Chairman. I will also spend some space on a few other officers just to raise some appreciation.

Combining Positions:
     Discussions of revamping our organization had started when Bill Bates was still in office, indeed Bill wrote about some very considered thoughts he wished to present to the Association. One of those ideas was to couple some of the duties together for certain positions. (We are still reviewing some further considerations in this area.) The idea of one person, capable to do secretarial and financial duties, would be a good position to cover daily operation and be contact for the public. Thus we attempted utilizing the Executive Director. The plan holds merit but we found it has difficulties also - training is important!
     We need to adjust to new methods for a period of transition, as we will need for some other combinations when used. Jim Egan, our new Executive Director, and Norb Lehmann, Treasurer, will work together while Norb trains Jim in the finances.
     Also, your executives must find a method of accountability when combining responsibilities into one office, the system of “checks and balances” for good business practice. Meantime, lend whatever assistance to Jim when communicating with him - such as placing as much information in emails as pertinently required but not anything more to cloud issues, and allowing sufficient time to produce results. That's just reasonable advice when interfacing any of our fellow officers anywhere in the AMCA, too.

     Executive Director: The ED (Executive Director) is the “go-to” man for many folks, so Jim expects to be busy. Any number of simple and compound questions will go to the ED in a given month. Consider if: someone wants an article posted, but doesn't know if it goes to the web or our CHORISTER - contact the ED; non-members wish information on AMCA, choruses seek changes in rules, somebody is bothered by lack of information on a subject - many items will fall upon the Executive Director first to be “directed” to an appropriate source for considerations. Then the daily duties of recording membership, notifications to choruses, filing reports, and eventually doing finances, all will become the duties for our Executive Director. We may require adjustments to our aspirations, this asks much of any one man, but we are determined to give it a worthy try.

     Chairman: The new position of the Chairman, and the Vice Chair also, of the Executive Council may be a curiosity for members. Why not stay with President and Vice President(s)? First, that little “(s)” was an abundance of officers to back up the head office and just ended up requiring bodies that seemed to have no real necessity (and still carried the expenses). Not to say all the past officers failed to carry their weight, but we incurred needless costs with variable results. Better to cut back to a minimum and find what we can accomplish with volunteers.

     The title of Chair seems better to describe that person as supervisory to a group. It implies better that the group is a fully functional entity over it's given tasks but this Chair represents the expected reporting, the directing of inquiries, and the general coordinator. The Vice Chairmen will accommodate the support of the Chairman as needed. Also, a different title aids to break the pattern of expectation, which had carried a negative connotation from recent feedback connected with our Association (prior to the new By Laws). Another point considered was from my training chairman and facilitator background while working. Teamwork was central to activities, emphasis on “team”, so I placed importance on those ideals while writing By Laws.

     Evolving Roles: Other criteria will be required of our Executive Director and the Executive Council Chairs, and perhaps validate these roles more clearly. The finite list of the classifications may continue to evolve for a long time as the Association makes adjustments for long term considerations. Ask questions if a lack of understanding persists, because we need to make clear our intent. For the most part, consider the Executive Director the first line of communication to the Association, the scheduler for events and resource for information among choruses, districts and the AMCA.

     Feedback from the Webmaster, Dave Thomas, and the CHORISTER Editor, Ed Armbruster, have sent me the message of a lack of participation. Now I am certain that many of the same contributors we had earlier, when there were still more than a half dozen publications per year, are still capable to write a paragraph or two about something the rest of us find of value to the newsletter - likewise commentary on the website is off. Your contribution is key to our success to get affiliation practiced, these offices depend heavily on the membership for correspondences - communications is their assignment.

     Don Crouch needs some time to develop more of his ideas for the new framework of his Music Committee, but I am certain he appreciates any assistance from members at large to find new music, music sources and ideas we might find useful to AMCA. While communication is his main assignment, it is centered on the subject of music, and it also includes a few other areas. We feel fortunate that Don has returned to working with the Association and anticipate he has ideas to reconfigure activities, suggested prior to his earlier departure.

Scholarship Applications: Having asked for written materials for the newsletter and the website, let me remind all that Bob Torborg is seeking applicants for the Scholarships and there are likely some candidates in your chorus area. Time is short.

Best regards Ric Addenbrooke