{"id":2680,"date":"2008-06-10T10:32:10","date_gmt":"2008-06-10T14:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icsom.org\/senzasordino\/?p=2680"},"modified":"2020-02-10T10:34:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-10T15:34:24","slug":"from-the-dressing-room-to-the-boardroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icsom.org\/senzasordino\/2008\/06\/from-the-dressing-room-to-the-boardroom\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Dressing Room to the Boardroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>s a bassist volunteering on the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra board\u2019s governance committee last season, I was both surprised and somewhat alarmed to be designated to chair a small subcommittee charged with developing a procedure for annual evaluations of the orchestra\u2019s music director and executive director. This situation arose out of our governance committee\u2019s desire to be responsive to the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act. That federal legislation protects whistle blowers and requires financial disclosure and accountability in public companies. It also requires boards of public companies to develop oversight mechanisms ensuring high-quality operation. Dependent as orchestras are upon significant donor support, they, too, will do well to ensure demonstrably effective oversight of top leadership.<\/p>\n

Our discussions revealed that fair and meaningful evaluation, particularly of a music director, would not be easily achieved. Perhaps the most striking dichotomy to emerge was that very few board members felt qualified to make value judgments regarding a music director, while anyone frequenting an orchestra dressing room recognizes that many colleagues hold finely detailed opinions. On the other hand, musicians were less enthusiastic about evaluating an executive director, while a number of board members were quite comfortable with this more business-like task. Our subcommittee\u2019s challenge was to corral this panorama of views into a broadly credible process.<\/p>\n

Working with a lawyer\/board member, we cobbled together guidelines for an internal evaluation process with an intentionally flexible structure. The process for the music director could be supplemented by information obtained through ICSOM\u2019s excellent conductor evaluation program. This is a very young process, and it\u2019s expected that it will evolve to achieve its mission. I hope that this sharing of our approach might ultimately benefit any number of ICSOM organizations.<\/p>\n

Essentially, the subcommittee\u2019s report recommends annual, reliable, objective evaluations of the executive director and the music director. The process should be timed to aid in compensation reviews and the renewal of applicable contracts. Highlights of the report and evaluation process follow.<\/p>\n

The evaluation committee, composed of three directors and one musician-elected representative under the direction of the governance committee, should gather and consider information, ultimately making its recommendations to the board chair and the executive committee. Without the musician member, the evaluation committee should also make compensation recommendations.<\/p>\n

The evaluation committee is encouraged to gather information as widely as it wants, possibly involving all of the board, all committee chairs, or the executive committee. The report suggests that it might be helpful to maintain the involvement of respective search committees (or members thereof) in the evaluation process.<\/p>\n

For both the executive director and the music director, questionnaires would be sent to the heads of the operations, development, marketing, and finance departments, as well as to the orchestra\u2019s personnel manager. Additionally, the executive director and the music director would evaluate each other.<\/p>\n

The evaluation committee\u2019s process should be informed by data from the musicians\u2019 artistic liaison committee. That committee will likely gather ICSOM conductor evaluation reports about our music director from our own and other orchestras, taken from ICSOM\u2019s database at Wayne State. Information from other arts organizations and constituencies may be gathered as desired by the evaluation committee.<\/p>\n

Proposed questions for evaluation of the executive director explore issues including whether the executive director:<\/p>\n