Unfortunately, the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) labor disputes continues and in the wake of the East Coast tour cancellation, both sides have been issuing statements attempting to strengthen their respective public positions. Moments after the musicians voted against the federal mediator’s proposed 60 day “cooling off” period, the SFS issued a statement confirming the cancellation of the entire East Coast tour.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the focus of the statement was on the musicians’ decision and restating a general overview of their bargaining position.

Read the SFS Press Statement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE / March 17, 2013

SAN FRANCISCO SYMPHONY THREE-CITY EAST COAST TOUR SCHEDULED FOR MARCH 20-23 IS CANCELLED DUE TO MUSICIANS’ STRIKE

Musicians Reject Federal Mediator’s Recommendation for Cooling Off Period

SAN FRANCISCO, March 17, 2013 – The Musicians of the San Francisco Symphony have rejected a federal mediator’s proposal to resume playing concerts during a “cooling off” period while negotiations over the collective bargaining agreement continue. The Symphony’s administration was willing to abide by the federal mediator’s recommendation, based on developments over the past three days of talks.

As a result of the musicians’ continuing work stoppage, the orchestra’s three-city East Coast tour on March 20-23 will not go forward. The tour was set to include performances at Carnegie Hall March 20 and 21, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on March 22, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on March 23. The ongoing five-day musicians’ strike has already forced cancellations of four concerts in San Francisco.

Over the past three days of lengthy negotiations, overseen by a federal mediator, the musicians’ union rejected the latest administration proposals and continued their strike.

Several proposals by the administration have been rejected by the musicians’ union. The most recent proposal offered increases in musician compensation to achieve a new annual minimum salary of $145,979 with annual increases of 1% and 2% for the latest two-year proposal. Contractual benefits also included a $74,000 maximum annual pension, 10 weeks paid vacation, and full coverage health care plan options with no monthly premium contributions for musicians and their families for three of the four options. Additional compensation for most active musicians also includes radio payments, over-scale, and seniority pay which raises the current average pay for SFS musicians to over $165,000.

“We are deeply disappointed that the musicians have continued to reject proposals for a new agreement and that the musicians will not proceed with our planned East Coast tour,” said Brent Assink, Executive Director of the San Francisco Symphony. “We have negotiated in good faith since September, have shared volumes of financial information, and have offered many different proposals that we had hoped would lead to a new agreement by this time. We will continue to work hard to resolve this situation.”

In the current economic environment, the San Francisco Symphony is facing the same challenges that many other orchestras and arts organizations around the country are facing. For all four years of its most recent collective bargaining agreement with its musicians, operating expenses have outpaced operating income. The Orchestra has incurred an operating deficit in each of those years.

As a non-profit organization, the Symphony’s financial statements are audited annually by an independent certified public accounting firm. These statements and related tax filings are publicly available in accordance with the law. Since negotiations began, the administration has been cooperative in sharing financial records and responded to the union’s requests for information in a timely manner. Since September, that includes over 50 formal requests for which over 500 pages of documentation were provided.

The administration has also offered to cooperate with third party financial consultants designated by the musicians to review the audited financial statements. In addition, the administration had offered the musicians the opportunity to have two members join the organization’s Audit Committee of the Board of Governors.

The administration remains willing to continue negotiations with the musicians’ union under the auspices of a federal mediator in an effort to achieve a mutually agreeable contract. The administration will continue to work with the musicians to respond to requests for information, including requests about the Symphony’s finances.

Today’s rejection of the administration’s latest proposal also represents the latest in a series of delays by the musicians’ union in working with the administration on an agreement. While the administration provided its first proposal October 15, 2012 and offered six subsequent proposals, the musicians’ union did not formally respond to any administration proposal until mid-January 2013. The union did not formally respond to any of this information until just over 60 days ago, weeks after the November 24, 2012 expiration of the four-year contract.

Media may contact Oliver Theil, SFS Director of Communications, for more details on the negotiations at (415) 264-1241, by email at otheil@sfsymphony.org, or visit www.sfsymphony.org/press. 

The statement does not address whether or not the mediator’s proposal recommended continuing the full terms of the now expired collective bargaining agreement throughout the 60 day period or if it contained any changes. I asked Oliver Theil, SFS Director of Communications as well as the musicians’ press representative and Theil provided the following reply (at the time this article was published, the musician representative has yet to reply):

Yes, the federal mediator’s proposed cooling off period would have taken place under the full terms of the expired collective bargaining agreement.

The musicians issued two separate statements; the first via their website was informational in nature and announced their decision to vote against the proposed cooling off period.

Read the Musician Press Statement

For the past four days the SFS Musicians’ Negotiating Committee has been negotiating with the Administration in an earnest effort to reach a deal that would allow the orchestra to leave on its scheduled East Coast tour with concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Talks broke down at 4 am this morning. When it was apparent there would be no agreement by the deadline, the Federal Mediator who has been working with the parties for the last several weeks suggested a 60-day cooling off period. The proposed cooling off period required a media blackout but would have allowed the tour to proceed if approved by the orchestra.

Today the Negotiating Committee met with the orchestra and presented the Federal Mediator’s suggested proposal. After a thorough review of the options, the orchestra voted down the cooling off period. The strike is continuing and we anticipate that the Carnegie tour is now cancelled.

We feel we have done everything we could to work with the Administration to reach a deal that would have allowed the tour to proceed. We are committed to achieving a fair contract that reflects the important role the Musicians play in the continuing success of the organization, and we deeply regret that this dispute has resulted in cancelled concerts for both our local audiences and on the East Coast.

We look forward to performing for our Bay Area audiences soon. Keep checking for further details 

The second statement was from musician spokesperson and SFS violist David Gaudry who presented the same general talking points the musicians have provided since the onset of the work stoppage.

Read the Musician Statement from David Gaudry

The Musicians have been negotiating in good faith with Symphony Management to try to reach a deal before the Carnegie Hall tour begins. At 4:30 Sunday morning the talks broke down.

Even though the Musicians believe that the Symphony is in excellent financial condition, they have attempted to address Management’s concerns more than half way. Unfortunately, opportunistically attempting to seize on the misfortunes of other Orchestras, SFS Management continues to insist that the Musicians accept draconian cuts in compensation and benefits and concede work rule changes that would set back by decades the protections in the Musicians’ contract designed to ensure artistic excellence.   They have attempted to justify this policy with talk of “operational deficits” which were largely the self- created results of outsized programming and spending an additional 11 million dollars last year on a Centennial Celebration, providing enormous bonuses and compensation to top executives and consultants and directing resources away from the core mission of the Orchestra. Even with all the additional spending the SFS has experienced significant growth in the endowment, reported a $32 million surplus to the IRS, and is projecting substantial growth in revenue this year.

The Musicians’ concern over vacancies in key positions, defections of their most talented musicians to better paid orchestras and
Managements’ demands for erosion of essential contract protections has them willing to stay out on strike until Management makes a fair contract offer – one fitting for an organization in solid financial condition and that will help to maintain the artistic quality of the orchestra that has taken so long to build.

In the meantime, we continue to believe that Management, especially given the public money it receives, needs to make public the
Symphony’s finances.

All in all, both sides in the dispute appear to be working from a less is more approach when it comes to details; from a historical perspective, it is puzzling to see a work stoppage occur with both sides holding so many cards this close to their chest.

I’m buried up to my neck in preparing everything tax related to send off to my accountant extraordinaire (if you’re local Chicago, get in touch, for his firm’s contact info); as such, I’m shirking my blogging duties today by posting some San Francisco Symphony related links but rest assured, I’ll be back in the saddle again tomorrow and hopefully, there will be some good news to post about San Fran.

1. Janos Gereben updated his San Francisco Classical Voice (SFCV) article from 3/12/13 with some new details so if you haven’t gone back since the original publication date, you definitely should.
2. Thanks to Michael Strickland for pointing out his 3/14/2013 article which includes some very useful perspectives along with a healthy dose of first person reporting from the initial press conferences.
3. The ever sharp Lisa Hirsch has posted a couple of SFS related articles over at Iron Tongue of Midnight, my fav (so far) is the one from 3/15/2013 @ 1:46PM.
4. And speaking of the Gerben post in #1, the 3/16/2013 edition of examiner.com published an article by Stephen Smoliar who recognized the value in Gerben’s post by focusing on the labor relations angle. And speaking from personal experience as an arts consultant, I can testify that personalities and agendas usually have far more to do with labor disputes than straightforward disagreements on wages and benefits.

Update: The SFS and musicians failed to reach an agreement and the East Coast tour is officially cancelled. Janos Gereben has details at SFCV along with the musician statement.

For the past four days the SFS Musicians’ Negotiating Committee has been negotiating with the Administration in an earnest effort to reach a deal that would allow the orchestra to leave on its scheduled East Coast tour with concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Talks broke down at 4 am this morning. When it was apparent there would be no agreement by the deadline, the Federal Mediator who has been working with the parties for the last several weeks suggested a 60-day cooling off period. The proposed cooling off period required a media blackout but would have allowed the tour to proceed if approved by the orchestra.

Today the Negotiating Committee met with the orchestra and presented the Federal Mediator’s suggested proposal. After a thorough review of the options, the orchestra voted down the cooling off period. The strike is continuing and we anticipate that the Carnegie tour is now cancelled.

There is no official word on whether or not the negotiation committee recommended that the rank and file accept or reject the mediator’s proposal.

The 3/13/13 edition of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article by Scott McCartney that focuses on the growing perils of musicians traveling with instruments on commercial flights. The focus of the article was cellist (and Inside The Arts author) Lynn Harrell and his well publicized commotion vis-a-vis Delta Airlines, but what helps McCartney’s article stand out is his focus on one frequently overlooked point.

The Ultimate Cost Is Passed Along To Ticket Buyers

In both the print and video versions of the article, McCartney is very clear about mentioning that cellists use the frequent flyer miles accumulated by their instruments to help marginalize ongoing airline travel costs. In turn, this provides some degree of cost control measures so whenever airlines pull a stunt like the one where Delta not only deleted the miles accrued by Harrell’s cello but also Harrell’s miles (cumulatively five hundred thousand miles), the people who ultimately pay the price are classical music ticket buyers.

Cellists say earning miles on their extra seats is important to defray high travel costs when orchestras around the world are struggling financially. Buying two tickets for a prominent soloist—especially if the tickets are $7,000 business-class international seats—can dissuade some orchestras, or cause them to book a pianist or violinist who wouldn’t require an extra airline seat. So cellists use miles to buy seats for instruments or upgrades.

Perhaps some might consider the point inconsequential but for some orchestras, especially those in the small to mid budget range, having a cello soloist use miles to control travel costs can be the difference between ever hiring a cello soloist in the first place.

On a fun note, McCartney (or someone at the WSJ) came up with the entertaining idea of attaching a video camera to Harrell’s cello case in order to get a first hand view of what it’s like for a cellist checking in at LAX airport. Although the camera wasn’t allowed at or past the security gate, it did capture some fun footage.

Personally, I’d love to see what it would capture at the boarding gate which is where musicians experience the most anxiety over whether or not the gate agent will let the instrument on board and if so, will anyone on the aircraft overrule the decision, etc. Having flown with enough cellists on more than a few dozen instances, the experiences range from nothing out of the ordinary, to being treated like a minor celebrity, to an incredible amount of frustration thanks to overly hostile airline employees.

And then there are the other passengers; where I once witnessed a woman demand to speak to the captain because this “cello thing” was seated next to her.

Oddly enough, she didn’t complain when midway through the transatlantic flight she was using the case to secure a far more comfortable sleeping position than she would have been able to achieve had the seat been occupied with another snoring passenger.

Granted, there’s no good way to begin a work stoppage but the recent one at the San Francisco Symphony (SFS) is starting off as a text book example for how stakeholders should never approach something like this. If this is all new to you, here’s an overview of the fighting points:

• The previous master agreement expired in February, 2013.
• The musicians feel the current zero percent, one percent, and one percent increases to base pay in the latest three year master agreement offer is unacceptable.
• Musicians claim their health care benefits are being cut but at this point in the dispute, neither they nor management have provided any information that provide enough details to confirm or deny those points.
• Management says the proposed raises are good enough and the increases over the course of the recently expired contact aren’t something they can continue.
• Musicians assert the SFS Executive Director, Brent Assink, has received numerous and sizable increases in total compensation as has music director Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT).

Let’s break this down into accessible talking points:

• SFS Executive Director, Brent Assink has done a superb job at maintaining the orchestra’s two decade long growth streak, even in the wake of an economic downturn (some good info on that is available via an article by Janos Gereben in the 3/12/13 edition of the San Francisco Classical Voice). His compensation has never been outrageous compared to other big budget orchestras but his series of compensation bumps over the past several years have been substantial. At the same time, and unquestionably IMHO, he has genuinely earned all of those bonuses and improvements.
• Arguable artistic issues notwithstanding, MTT has been the right music director at the right time to help propel the SFS to the ranks of top-tier orchestras. Under his tenure, the SFS has grown from an artistic afterthought into an unquestionable destination ensemble known for progressive programs while maintaining traditional standards excellence. His reward has been stacks of cash and generous funding allocations for expensive artistic projects.
• The musicians have met those challenges every step of the way and have demonstrated, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that they punched above their weight class, so to speak, for a number of years and are something much more than the sum of their parts.

Simply put, they’re all a bunch of deserving winners.

So why on earth did all of these stakeholders decide to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and end up at a point where the best course of action was to take public a fight over who among them gets a larger fork-full of a growing pie amidst an economic downturn.

Tell me ladies and gentlemen of the SFS (and to be clear here I mean board, executive leadership, and musicians), how exactly do you think this will work out for you?

There’s nothing quite like having a good problem and one that’s been nagging away at my elbow over the past two months is getting the Venture Platform’s Live Demo back online. Since launching the 2.0 update business has been booming, so much so that getting non-client projects completed, like the demo update, has been an ongoing challenge.

Part of the challenge was not only implementing the 2.0 update but completely redesigning the demo content. Originally, the site’s content and navigation had been designed to function somewhat like a performing arts organization website wireframe but user feedback indicated that wasn’t what most folks were looking for.

Simply put, they wanted to see as many of the unique features and functionality in action along with page content and a navigation architecture that helped describe what they were looking at. As a result, we approached the demo redesign with all of that in mind.

We also attempted to replace as much of the dummy placeholder content as possible with real content. To that end, I’m indebted to the many Venture users who gave us permission to use content from their sites; such as Venture user The Lost Colony for allowing us to use their annual production as the source for our theater category demo event This type of generosity cut back on the time it would have taken to generate fictional content.

Work finally wrapped up yesterday and although it is all but certain that we’ll continue to tweak and add things that might have been overlooked, we flipped the switch back to the on position early yesterday evening so swing by to get a sense of Venture 2.0′s fit and feel. Some highlights include:

• The ability to insert multiple filtered event indexes into the same page. This is a great tool for groups that need to put multiple subscription package sales info alongside the full event lists all on a single page.
• Portfolio post types and their dedicated page templates automatically showcase portfolio items with a category sorter and lightbox pop-up functionality.
• Homepage content modules take the difficult tasks of designing and maintaining homepage content and turn it into a dynamic, self regulating layout geared toward vastly improved conversion rates.

Visit the Venture 2.0 Live Demo

Speaking of new, we also released the first of Venture’s new mini-mercials yesterday: Venture Is Event Management

Postlude: since we’re in geekspeak mode today, what was up with Joomla sites getting hammered by hackers yesterday? It must have unofficially been Brute Force Attack Tuesday among hacker clans and they had their sights set on anyone using the Joomla publishing platform (FWIW, Venture is built atop the WordPress publishing platform as are all of the Adaptistration Network and Inside The Arts sites).

Hopefully for Joomla users, the worst is behind them for this round but it brings up a stark reminder that as hacker activity continues to evolve and clans grow in numbers and organizational prowess, we can only expect hacker activity to get worse. More to the point, even the best hosting providers aren’t immune but there’s no need to make things any easier for hackers and the one thing everyone can do to help is make sure all of your work and personal account passwords are updated regularly and meet minimum security thresholds.

If you’re not sure how to go about that, we’ve got you covered. Everything you need to know to get started on the right foot can be found in an article published at Adaptistration titled Change Your [*******] Password Already!

It should come as no surprise to anyone with more than a handful of experiences attending live classical music events to realize that there are more than a few traditions that accompany the concert experience. Equally unsurprising is how effective some of those traditions are at alienating concertgoers and one in particular that has been catching my attention is the moratorium on taking photographs.

Granted, I’m not here to endorse the policy of allowing concertgoers to take photos during the concert but I completely fail to see the problem with it at any other point in time.

Two recent family concert events here in the Chicagoland area drove this point hit home after witnessing several ushers verbally swat down parents who wanted to use their Smartphone camera to take a photo of their children inside the actual concert hall.

It was happening so frequently that ushers looked more like angry birds bouncing around from one offender to the next squawking the “no photos allowed” mantra.

But the genuinely profound moment was when a family sitting dead center in the front row got swatted down and after the usher left, one of the orchestra musicians came up and asked if she could take their photo from the stage. Angry bird usher was none too pleased but he kept his distance.

Historically, there are a number of reason why photographs haven’t been allowed inside concert halls and I started compiling a list but after reading it out loud, it sounded so ridiculous that it wasn’t even worth mentioning. Simply put, in the social media age there are simply no good reasons to keep patrons from capturing moments when the live event isn’t underway.

It’s time to put this sacred cow down and let concertgoers revel in the concert experience and share it with their social media networks or simply keep the photos as personal keepsakes. As a whole, we’re doing far more harm than good by prolonging this unnecessary restriction.

And to the groups out there who have already embraced this idea, kudos to you!

If nothing else, when Gary Ginstling officially begins his tenure at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) on March 18, 2013 he won’t be burdened by executive dream team building concerns. In this case, all but a few of those billets are currently empty and on March 4, 2013, the ISO announced yet one more impending vacancy: Jackie Groth will be leaving her position as VP of Finance and Strategic Planning.

Goth has been simultaneously serving as interim CEO throughout the course of the ISO’s very public and very bitter labor dispute and her scheduled departure three days before Ginstling’s arrival leaves a solitary senior VP, the ISO’s General Manager, to spearhead the welcome wagon.

The vast executive void presents as much of an unusual opportunity as it does a challenge and it may pay off for Ginstling if he can manage to put together a team of the right people at the right place at the right time.

Who knows, by the end of the 2013-14 season we may be talking about the ISO’s miracle turnaround.

On 3/7/2013, Minnesota Representatives Jim Davnie and Rick Hansen presented a letter to Jim Nobles at the Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) co-signed by 86 fellow members of the MN legislature (that’s 42 percent of all seats) requesting that his office “audit the books of the Minnesota Orchestra Association (MOA), including a review of its feasibility study for the remodeling of Orchestra Hall, a review of the use of all public funds, and of testimony of Orchestra principals before legislative committees for and about securing of” state funds for the orchestra’s current renovation project and subsequent operational subsidies.

It’s one thing to have a handful of state representatives ask questions in a hearing but when nearly half of the state’s legislature begin demanding an investigation, it’s an entirely new ballgame.

According to the OLA’s website, their office is tasked with oversight and investigation into the state’s many programs. With dedicated divisions for financial audits and program evaluation, the office could grant this request and produce reports that would subsequently be used in any legislative hearings into whether or not certain MOA representatives misled the state when seeking requests for funding.

The epicenter of this particular political storm is MOA President and CEO Michael Henson, who is the only MOA official to be mentioned by name in the Davnie-Hansen letter.

If nothing else, it appears as though the state will have plenty of time to grind the gears legislative action since the MOA work stoppage doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s no mention in the letter about what might actually come about as a byproduct of an investigation. Will the state ask for their money back, will this ordeal poison the well for future funding requests from arts group, or will the request become dead in the water via red tape and political shenanigans?

Time will tell.

If nothing else, and assuming they haven’t done so already, the MOA board should be taking a very close look at their state’s rules and regulations as applied to nonprofit board accountability, not to mention their directors and officers liability insurance policy (colloquially known as D&O insurance).

The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) announced additional concert cancellations in the wake of the prolonged work stoppage that has obliterated more than four months of concerts and events. The SPCO has officially called off all engagements for the next six and half weeks through April 21, 2013. Statements from the SPCO and the musicians following the announcement couldn’t be more diverse.

According to the 3/5/2013 edition of the Pioneer Press in an article by Ross Raihala, SPCO president Dobson West appears upbeat with the recent turn of events.

“We have been pleased to have begun a more intense negotiations schedule recently, including three days of meetings last week and multiple meetings scheduled again this week,” West said.

Conversely, the musicians aren’t looking at the situation with as much optimism. In a statement from 3/6/2013, they assert there are no new bargaining sessions scheduled and recent offers from the SPCO amount to zero sum bargaining.

Management is still insisting that Musicians give back $1.5 million per year for the next four years. Management has not changed its position for the past 14 months.

For now, it seems that both sides are right where they were when things started to really heat up. At this rate, don’t be surprised if the next cancellation announcement is for the rest of the 2012-13 season.

Violinist Holly Mulcahy posted an article at Neo Classical on 3/4/2013 titled Imaginary Program Notes: What We Can Learn From Children that examines the value in foisting less structure on our listeners. It’s loaded with just the right amount of “Duh” realizations we all need to hear from time to time.

I won’t spoil the details for each spontaneous moment of inspiration (A.KA. the Duh moment) but suffice to say, it’s well worth your time. Once you’re done reading the post, leave a comment there (or pop back here!) and chime in on what you took away from the post and how it might help shape a better concert experience at your organization.

Read  Imaginary Program Notes: What We Can Learn From Children