What gets measured gets rewarded.
Our Society has a great system to find and honor the groups that put the best product on stage every year -- and there are a million good reasons to continue to honor these achievers. We're also getting better at recognizing the best recruiters among us. (When Roger Lewis was Society president, he recognized the best recruiters on the international stage, something I'd like to see return.) But those are easy: add up the scores or run a report and there are your winners.
Then there's the hard stuff to track that matters at least as much. I currently have nothing other than anecdotes, emails here and there, and the occasional stumbled-upon tidbit to help me track down the people and groups do great things for which there's no scoring system. Here's your chance to help change that.
Here are a few categories off the top of my head that interest me:
- Which are some of the top chapters in community service?
- Who has the most stimulating chapter meetings?
- What directors are producing the most with the least?
- What chapter leaders are doing amazing things, and how are they pulling it off?
- What non A-level choruses know how to pack the seats for a chapter show? (I might add, not every A-level chorus knows how to do this, either!)
- Who's keeping the highest profile in their community? (PROBE tracks PR officer achievements, but community profile isn't always just a PR and Marketing issue.)
- Which men are the best background movers and shakers, the guys who make things happen but never get the credit?
These folks need to be recognized and emulated every bit as much as our top musical performers. We may never have a scoring system for these kinds of achievments, but here's a challenge to all y'all out there:
- What categories of recognition are most needed in our Society? (Including the above or others you can think of.)
- How do you propose we track or uncover the achievers in these areas?
- What kind of recognition would be most appropriate? (Either publicity or awards, and if so, in what form?)
Your input is greatly appreciated! (And yes, these questions are more than philosophical to a guy in charge of editorial content!)