As mentioned earlier, non-profit organizations like the Windward Choral Society run on two things: donations and volunteers. When it comes to making our machine run, donations are the gas and our cheerful volunteers are the engine. At the heart of it all is our Board of Directors.

So what does our Board do, exactly? If you’re new to the non-profit world, it may seem that a community choir is pretty simple. Gather on Tuesday with an accompanist at the piano and a conductor, make beautiful music, have a couple concerts and carry on. Right? Let’s dig a little deeper. Let’s take each chunk of that simple statement and look at what it really means.

“Gather on Tuesday”. That’s a little more involved than it sounds. Acknowledging that there is a team of smiling volunteers that set up chairs, set up Susie’s platform, set up the microphone, unpack the piano – you get the idea – , how does any of this involve the Board? The short list includes coordination with KUMC for scheduling and payment for renting the Hall (no…it’s not free) as well as the purchase and maintenance of liability insurance (everywhere we go, it follows us, kinda like a needy puppy).

“with an accompanist at the piano”. Joanne is a professional accompanist and we are thrilled to have her; and happily pay her. Are there volunteers that we might be able find to play? Maybe. Are they going to be as reliable and talented and dedicated as someone whose JOB is to play the piano? Doubtful. And since a professional is hired, the Board is also an employer and deals with all of the details that implies.

And speaking of the piano, it belongs to the Choral Society and there’s a great story about how we ended up with it. A subject for another day in the blogosphere, but she’s a grand old lady. Really grand, actually, a German-built Model “O” Steinway that is somewhere in the range of 90 years old and is one of the finest in the islands. As you might imagine, the Board also manages the insurance for her as well.

”and a conductor”. Joanne is not th only professional in the Hall on Tuesdays. Susie is pretty darn big-time, you know. Church choirs, community choirs, college music programs, she’s a career conductor and we’re blessed to have her…and the Board is also an employer again (and really happy about it). As an employer they have the singular joy of dealing with the impressive mountain of tax forms and accounting stuff and all the other silliness that goes along with it. And the budget. Budgets are always great fun. Good thing there’s an accountant…another employee that the Board manages.

“make beautiful music”. Rather than appearing out of thin air and then conveniently disappearing, 100+ copies of all the pieces we’ve sung are contained in a library in a storage facility and there’s a huge effort that goes along with its organization. Yup, another big pile of paper! We have a lot of those piles and our Administrative Support Specialist (yay, Karyn!) helps make sense of them all. There’s also administration of both our web site and the Chorus Connection music library (and person library). Yup, another employee. I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked for companies smaller than this!
“have a couple concerts”. Incoming…the preparation for the upcoming holiday concert season is already in full swing. Venues (and insurance again; can’t get away from that dang puppy), hiring accompanists, sound, movement of our risers (yeah, we have our own…that was a major project for the Board), designing and printing programs, volunteer ushers and parking attendants, the list is massive.

And then there’s the rest of the Board insanity; there’s a reason they gather every month (no summers off, sorry) and hammer everything out. Bookkeeping, fundraising (grant requests and letters don’t write themselves), dealing with the press, yadda yadda yadda. Of course, this is NOT accomplished in a conference room in a high rise office building with a huge koa table and caterers. Nope, one of the Board members hosts the meeting in their home, they throw together a potluck dinner, open a glass of wine and roll up their sleeves to get things done.

This is also not accomplished behind closed doors in whispers, the Board meetings are open to anyone (but please let them know you’re coming so Rita can save you a chair). WARNING: you will be amazed at everything that gets accomplished and you WILL end up volunteering for something. Trust the Blogmeister, he knows. You’ll also find that your Board of Directors is a very rare beast. The egos get checked at the door, the work is done at a crazy high level of organization and cooperation and it’s immediately obvious that this is a group of close friends who share a mission and a passion. There’s a lot of love in the room. By the way, the next meeting is on 9/20 at 5:00 pm.

There are two things that you can (should) do to acknowledge all that our Board does for the Windward Choral Society (there’s a lot more than you think): first, say thanks. It’s the only paycheck they’re going to see. Second, ask the magic question:

“How can I help?”