More and more I read about the new media and the great opportunities they represent for orchestras enabling them to reach many by creating an on-line community of supporters and the potential for personal connections. Not just between the orchestra and their supporters, but between the supporters also. In Springfield we have discussed this without making any firm decisions, and then something wonderful happened, a true audience connection……..
My wife Lisa is a devoted Facebook member with a ton of friends, she is also our Marketing manager and the other day she was surprised to receive a message on her page that someone had created a fan page for the Springfield Symphony which at time of writing has 110 members! Not only that, there is also an event page about our first concert of the season which is on September 13. The biggest surprise of all though was that the page was created by Amanda Leigh Kruger a student at Glendale High School!
Amanda studies Violin with our Principal 2nd Violin Larry Dissmore and she is a volunteer and in fact has organized for others to volunteer with her (they are in the office today doing bowings!). What an extraordinary gesture on her part. She immediately made Lisa an officer for the page so they will now collaborate on recruiting members, updating information, artwork and events. I can’t but help think not so long ago it would have been unheard of that a marketing director of a Symphony and a high school student would collaborate on an ongoing project like this that was created and led by the student!
On Monday night at our board meeting, the first of the season with our new board members present there was a lot of good news to report and yet the biggest reaction came after I announced that a high school student had created our Facebook page. In the meeting we discussed future board vacancies, and our nominating committee chair made a great point that our board should look like our audience having as wide a diversity of members as possible. This might seem obvious now for orchestras and arts groups, but it wasn’t once and who knows, eventually our board might even include one or more high school students and not as a gimmick, but because it’s the obvious thing to do based on their work on behalf of our Symphony!
If you are a Facebook member, click on groups and type in The Springfield Symphony to find us