VOLUNTEER EXCHANGE # 1 RECAP
Date: Friday 8 March 2024
Hello fearless facilitators!
Many thanks to those who joined me for the first of our 2024 Conductor Exchange meetings. Your time and attention is greatly appreciated. A reminder for those who attended to please invoice Creativity Australia for you time as per your contract. For those who couldn’t attend, please find the time to watch through when it is convenient, and reach out if you have any questions or comments.
Here’s a bit of a wrap-up of what was discussed, and some important information about our next planned meeting:
1) Video Link to Zoom Exchange
Please catch up with what was discussed by watching here:
https://youtu.be/Zl4KWHKfGb0
(pro tip: you can use YouTube settings to watch the video at 1.5x or 2x speed to save yourself some time!)
2) Conductor of Operations: Enya Cai
Enya was sadly unable to join us for the Zoom Exchange, but brought a cheery welcome video which was played in the meeting. Enya is our new Conductor of Operations, taking over the work Nathan was doing, and bringing some fresh ideas, energy and inspiration to the organisation. I have no doubt you’ll be experiencing some positive changes as they filter throughout the network. Enya will be in touch with you all directly at some point in the coming weeks to do a proper introduction.
3) Cornerstones of With One Voice
As part of our mission to provide a consistently brilliant With One Voice experience to our choirs all around the country, we have been working hard to distill some important cornerstones. In time we will work with you and your choir, and support you to bring some of these missing elements into existence. For the time being we are gathering information from your coordinators so that we can get a sense of where everyone is currently at.
You can read up about these cornerstones: WELCOME, INTRO, WARM-UP, SING, INFORM and CONNECT here:
https://www.withonevoice.org.
4) Reframing your “Conductor” Role
At its heart, the With One Voice program is about facilitating connection and community. Therefore, the first part of our Cornerstones project we will be focussing on is “CONNECT”. As conductors, the focus of your role first and foremost should be in facilitating a joyful, human togetherness in your rehearsals. Music is our chosen medium, and you were hired because you have some incredible musical leadership skills. But what makes or breaks our choirs is not the quality of the sound we make. It’s the quality and depth of the relationships we facilitate amongst our communities.
Over the coming weeks we’ll delve a bit deeper into how we can go about creating the time and space needed for better connection in our communities. Watch this space!
5) Shared Repertoire
As per my last email, we have now officially launched the first six songs of our 2024 Shared Repertoire. Please go through it, and start to implement one of the songs each week or two. We will be creating some learning tracks in due course, but as I am overseas for a few weeks, it may not be until mid-April. Thanks for your patience as we get them done.
We got to discuss this in a bit more detail at the Conductor Exchange, so please watch through the video so you know what’s going on. I am happy to take any feedback or questions along the way, but I urge you to watch through first so I’m not repeating myself.
Where: https://www.
Password: withonevoice2024!
6) Next Conductor Exchange
Please make a note in your diary for the next Conductors Exchange:
When: Sunday 5 May
Time: 14:00pm
Where: https://us02web.zoom.
Thanks everyone. I look forward to chatting with you all soon. I’m in the office Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday most weeks if you need me. I’m pretty flexible other days too, and I’ll return your call when I can if I miss you. The next few weeks I’ll be in Taiwan, so email is probably best.
Chris Blain
National Choir Program Manager
0414 687 115