Photo credit: Terry Johnston

ICSOM’s online resources are recognized as being important to the arts world today and into the future.

In February 2020, the US Library of Congress contacted ICSOM Chairperson Meredith Snow to inform us that our website was selected for inclusion in their historical collection of online materials.

Their invitation stated that their web archives “… are important because they contribute to the historical record, capturing information that could otherwise be lost. We consider your website to be an important part of this collection and the historical record.”

ICSOM was honored to grant permission for our website to be included in the Professional Organization for Performing Arts Web Archive. We share the vision of the US Library of Congress in believing that preserving Internet materials is important and permitting access to researchers world-wide is significant.

ICSOM’s website is a valuable resource, as it includes current and historical information, settlement bulletins, a news archive (arranged chronologically and by orchestra), online and archived issues of Senza Sordino, and minutes from our annual conferences dating back to 1962. But it is just one of many online resources that ICSOM proudly maintains:

• Activated in January 2018, our online Conductor Evaluation Program has collected dozens of evaluations from ICSOM orchestras and responded to requests by managements. In addition, we recently provided assistance to ROPA while they established an online program for their full member orchestras.
• Last fall ICSOM began using the online platform Phone2Action for political lobbying of legislation that affects our membership. Recently we asked you to participate in our campaign to let key government officials know that the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) is vital to the cultural health and well being of its citizens. A future issue of Senza Sordino will include information about my upcoming trip to Puerto Rico with former ICSOM Chair Bruce Ridge to support the PRSO musicians (in the process of being rescheduled from March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
• Currently ICSOM is in the fourth year of the social media project Featured Orchestra of the Week, which promotes our 52 orchestras on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Thanks to these weekly posts, ICSOM’s followers are informed of the websites and social media accounts of the players’ associations of our membership.
• Last year’s migration of our e-lists from yahoo to groups.io was a success. Orchestra-L continues to be a forum to exchange information and ideas, open to all AFM members and to musicians in ICSOM’s emeritus program.
• Our Twitter account approaches 10,000 followers and generates hundreds of tweets a month. As the curator of @ICSOM, my posts there throughout the day enable me to stay informed about news items as they occur around the world. The tweet that ICSOM generated on March 13, 2020, about emergency arts funding by the German government, set a record for us: within 48 hours, the tweet was liked by 20,000 and retweeted by 6,000!

While I handle ICSOM’s Twitter feed and oversee our online presence, there is an outstanding team in place to assist me in these activities. Without these dedicated folks, ICSOM’s outlets would not be thriving today. Please join me in recognizing and thanking Barbara Corbató (Administrator/Conductor Evaluation Program), Julie Edwards (Chief Moderator/Orchestra-L), Greg Mulligan (Member-at-Large/Facebook), Dan Sweeley (Member-at-Large/Instagram), Martha Warrington (designer/website), Randy Whatley (President, Cypress Media/Phone2Action), Laura Ross (ICSOM Secretary/website) and Peter de Boor (Senza Sordino Editor/website) for all they do to keep ICSOM’s online offerings fresh and active.