Re: Navy Band AND ITEA!


[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ TubeNet BBS ] [ FAQ ]

Posted by Rick Denney on April 02, 2001 at 12:26:00:

In Reply to: Navy Band AND ITEA! posted by Marty Erickson on April 01, 2001 at 22:33:18:

Marty, thanks for your comments. With all due respect, however, I wish to debate one or two of the fundamental concepts that weave throughout your post.

It seems to me that polls or pleas to existing members attempt to improve an organization to encourage growth by talking with the people happiest with the status quo. Professional marketers spend most of their time researching non-customers--because that's where the growth potential lies.

Your post also reflects a common response amonst organization activists when challenged by complaints from non-members. You ask the complainers to do the work of changing the organization. While I have no doubt that it was said with the best intentions, it comes across as condescending. "What, you don't like our organization, then pay us the money and then change it yourself!" This argument, in its various forms, pushes people away rather than drawing them in. Most folks in the previous threads about ITEA have provided a list of issues they have with the organization. These issues must be addressed by the leadership, not by new members who will rightly have little standing within the organization when they first join. After all, if I was a member for 20 years, and then a bunch of new upstarts came in demanding (and effecting, through their activity) a lot of changes that I didn't like, I might myself leave or fight them. You and other leaders in ITEA must find a way to make the existing members embrace this change, and that cannot be done by new members however active or noisy.

Also, it is a bit ungracious to say, "thank you for your dues, now work your butt off to do what we haven't done in years of leadership." New members join groups because of what those groups provide to them. Eventually, they think of ways to give back to the group, but that should not be an entrance requirement. If the long-time members cannot find ways to serve new members, being familiar with the workings of the organization, then how can you expect new members to do it for themselves?

For example, nobody doubts Jerry Young's commitment to the Journal. But he has an editorial perspective based on his position within the profession and the traditions he has established for the journal. If I wrote an article for the Journal, how would I go about getting it published? I'd send it to him, and he would perceive that I as a second-rate amateur don't have much to say to the professional academics that he knows and works with, and the article will likely be rejected. In his shoes (and I have been in his shoes) I would do the same thing. The only way to fix that is on purpose--with a decision to devote some portion of the Journal to the needs and views of second-rate amateurs like me. I can't do that either by submitting such articles or by joining the group. But the leaders can, if they listen.

If you and other leaders seriously think of ways to feel and show respect to the average tuba player (i.e. neither academic, profession- or academia-bound student, or professional), then those sorts of folks will swell the membership. When they perceive that the organization serves others and not them, then they won't. It really is as simple as that.

I won't write you a letter, though it would not take any more work than this post. My reason is that I cannot meet the requirements you set forth for such letters: I propose no solutions and am not willing at this stage in my life to take on another volunteer effort. I am only offering a diagnosis (and possibly a wrong one, at that), it is up to the leaders to effect the cure. That's why they are the leaders, right?

Rick "respectfully submitted" Denney


Follow Ups: