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- Dec 10th-11th, Large Budget Orchestra CEOs Meeting, Toronto
- Mid-January, Orchestras in the Ridings (Whole Membership)
- Jan 19th, Ontario Music Directors Meeting
- Feb 3rd, Québec Members Meeting, Montreal (tbc)
- June 12th-14th, OC National Conference 2019, Ottawa
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 In November, members of Orchestras Canada’s Advocacy Committee met with their Members of Parliament in ridings across the country to deliver a united message for Canadian orchestras. These meetings are the first phase of an ambitious effort to engage as many of you as possible in meeting with your MPs to share collective messages about the value of orchestras, and the importance of enlightened federal policy and funding programs. The initial results were wonderfully positive: MPs from all parties were receptive and engaged.
Now that we’ve tested the messaging and materials, we need you to take the next step. We are asking representatives from Canadian orchestras, coast to coast, to request face-to-face meetings in the riding with their MPs during the Parliamentary break, which runs from December 15 to January 27. It’s a three-step process:
- If you don’t know who your MP is, follow this link and scroll down to the “find” function, and enter your postal code.
- Check our master spreadsheet of all MPs, so you can quickly identify which MPs have already met with orchestra representatives. If you have a choice, please do request a meeting with an MP who is not yet “claimed”. We’d like the messages to be delivered TO as diverse a group as possible, BY as diverse a group as possible.
- Customize our template meeting request and send it to your MP, either by email or to the constituency office address listed on their website.
We’ve developed meeting tips, a social media guide, a meeting script, an “orchestra facts” leave-behind and a template thank you letter, too – all of which are also posted on the OC website. Orientation session dates will be announced shortly. We are excited to support advocacy on behalf of the orchestral sector, and hope that all of our members will be able to join in this important work. (Photo: Natalie Rousseau from the Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières after meeting with François-Philippe Champagne and Jean Boulet).
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 At Orchestras Canada’s Ontario Small Budget Orchestras Workshop on November 3rd, we heard from lawyer Ryan Prendergast, of Carters Professional Corporation. Ryan has extensive experience in providing corporate and tax advice to charities and non-profit organizations, and he led a lively session on the legalities of collecting, protecting and working with patron information. You can learn more about the overlapping layers of privacy law, and what your organization can do to protect itself and its patrons on our website.
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On November 15th, our Executive Director Katherine Carleton joined forces with Electric City Culture Council's Su Ditta to talk arts advocacy at the local, regional and provincial levels as part of an Expert Chat for SPARC (Supporting Performing Arts in Rural & Remote Communities). Katherine and Su have an array of tips on how to approach our elected officials and staff, how to prioritize advocacy, and how to pool resources with partner organizations. Their chat is available to watch on YouTube.
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Save the Date: Ontario Smaller-Budget Orchestra Music Directors Meeting
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We're in the process of finalizing details for this season's Ontario smaller-budget orchestra music directors' meeting. This event will take place on Saturday, January 19th, 1 p.m. - 5 p.m, somewhere in downtown Toronto. Stay tuned for more details. We'd love to see you there!
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Call for Stories: Marketing and Education
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In December and January, OC will be trialing new marketing and music education issues of our email newsletter. We hope that this initiative will be an opportunity to better connect our members who work in these roles. To this end, we would love it if you could send stories of your marketing and education success or initiatives to nick@oc.ca. This could be in the form of articles or press releases, or in the form of something you’ve written yourself. You could get in touch with me to set up a time to talk things through, or you could even volunteer to guest blog. In short – we’d love to hear what you’ve been doing in any format and amount of time that is appropriate.
If you wish to receive these newsletters, you can update your preferences here.
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