John Witchell's Chief Executive blog

I’ve just returned from the South West Region two day conference for senior managers in music services. Each year they get together in Torquay where they share strategic ideas and discuss priorities for the future. You can imagine that there was plenty to talk about this time, but the mood was energetic, challenging and optimistic. Like most services throughout the UK many are very worried about their local authority funding - authorities which have always supported their music services are struggling to sustain the funds, as we all know - but there was a gritty determination to find new opportunities, backed up by refreshed skills in managing change. They had the army in to tell them about strategic decision making in the armed forces and, if that wasn’t enough, they also asked Marc Jaffrey to speak about the Music Services Communication Campaign (MSCC). I reckon his array of weapons is entirely complementary to those of the army.

There is a hunger amongst services to make the most of opportunities that arise through the prospect of political change. There is a deep-rooted belief in the value of what we do - as one head of service put it, ‘music is about humanity’ - simple as that. There is confidence in our ability to make good things better - through self evaluation, focus on leadership and skilled management of change. And most importantly there is utter determination to move forwards, not backwards - accepting the harsh climate, but knowing that we have an essential offer in the education of all young people.

That’s the back-drop to the Burning Issues’ conference on Friday at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Professor Anne Bamford will be providing us with some very positive feedback about the Wider Opportunities programme and the Think Again team will be taking us through some key headlines about our communication strategy.

I hope you will be there to help us convey the message that ‘music is working’.

John

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 10:47 am and is filed under Blog.

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