Posted by Rick Denney on October 18, 2002 at 16:04:36:
In Reply to: Re: What music degrees lack? posted by Christian Klein on October 17, 2002 at 19:20:25:
And those few orchestras with the common sense anybody ought to have, who have saved their excess when times were good, instead of spending it all as soon as possible. As the saying goes, when the water dries up, camels live on their hump.
There's too much of the government thinking in most orchestras. This is the thinking that rewards department heads who spend all their annual budget in ten months with more money next year, and take that money from department heads who showed good stewardship. I spent 13 years in the public sector, finally learning that successful programs were marked by how successfully their leaders turned complaints of underfunding into larger budgets. I left government on the realization that I didn't have that ability.
The orchestras with well-managed endowments are the ones that have the best chance of surviving a downturn.
Rick "not the best example of this principle" Denney