2013 Operating Plan and Budget

2013 Operating Plan and Budget

Introduction

Mission: Empowering LGBT Choruses as we change our world through song.

Vision: A world where all voices are free.

Core Values:

•We are CATALYSTS. We provide enthusiasm, resources and tools to inspire our member choruses to use the power of music to create social change. / •We are LISTENERS. We listen to our members, our colleagues, and each other in order to understand the issues, define our roles, and serve the common welfare of our movement.
•We are HARMONIZERS. We are diverse people who employ the power of song with respect and understanding. We bring our communities together to experience musical excellence, collaboration, cooperation, acceptance, transparency, and opportunities for all. / •We are LEADERS. We offer strategic direction to the movement we serve. We work effectively with partners around the world who seek to achieve complimentary goals. We strengthen our association by nurturing effective leadership and ensuring robust, sustainable financial resources.

GALA Choruses, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses, leads the North American LGBT choral movement. Our more than 170 member choruses and their 8,000 singers look to us for support and leadership. We are dedicated to helping choruses become more effective, both artistically and administratively. We assist emerging choruses and facilitate networking and training for established groups. Currently, GALA Choruses is putting special focus on the implementation of programming that will assess and improve the sustainability of our member choruses. GALA Choruses’ signature event is our quadrennial Festival, which brings together over 130 choruses and 6,000 singers for the world’s largest LGBT performing arts event.

GALA Choruses is managed by its Board of Directors through a series of committees and an association management contract with Godfrey & Associates as shown in the following diagram:

2013 Overview

Our financial success with Festival and our strategic planning efforts have put us in a very exciting place as we begin the tactical planning for 2013. We have a clear roadmap of where we want to go and the funds available to support the work! An overview of the goals proposed for each of the committees is as follows:

• The primary goals for Membership include completing the development of the association management software, training choruses on the use of GALA services, supporting new choruses, expanding the chorus anniversary program, exploring next steps for supporting youth choruses, exploring options for supporting transgender singers and providing updated survey information to the member choruses.

• The primary goals for Education and Networking include revisioning and oversight of the annual leadership conference, developing avenues for choruses to connect between GALA events, revamping and oversight of the Artistic Director-in-Residence program, developing resources for choruses pursuing outreach projects, building out the web site resource center and developing a more effective way of supporting and sharing newly commissioned music.

• The primary goals for External Relations include continuing to improve relationships with other international LGBT choral organizations, building relationships with mainstream music organizations, creating partnerships with other national non-choral LGBT organizations and developing common strategies with other LGBT organizations to advocate on LGBT human rights issues.

• The Communications Committee’s goals focus on reviewing the branding of GALA Choruses, devising strategies for sharing member stories using social media, creating a strategic plan for electronic communications, refreshing the web site content on a monthly basis and developing a You Tube strategy for the organization.

• The Festivals Committee’s goals areselecting a location for Festival 2016 that supports the goal of producing a festival that enriches and energizes our members and engages the broader community in which the event is held, completing a long-term plan for Festival 2016 that meets our programmatic and financial objectives for the event, nurturing meaningful relationships with organizations in the host city, developing a database of cities capable of hosting festival and selecting a site for Festival 2020 to be announced at Festival 2016.

• The goals for the Finance Committee include completing the audit and tax return, providing oversight of the monthly financial reports, monitoring investment performance, reviewing the membership dues structure, producing a summary annual report for members and preparation of the annaul operating plan.

• The Governance Committee’s goals are to increase the number of Board members to 19 while increasing diversity, filling in gaps in the skills matrix of the Board members, document procedures for the recruiting of Board members, assist the President with the annual Board and committee evaluationsand continue to improve the process for orientation of new Board members.

• The goals for the Resource Development Committee include developing a clear and energizing case statement for giving, identifying a database for fundraising, building individual donations as the most significant component of contributed revenue, expanding foundation relationships and evaluating corporate support and exploring the potential for increasing corporate support.

• The Executive Committee will focus on Board meeting planning, personnel oversight, operating plan progress review, strategic planning oversight and a review of sustainability issues including succession planning and data security.

Detailed Discussion by Segment

Festival

The production of Festival is widely accepted as our most critical activity. Festival 2012 was a resounding success both artistically and financially. In the Festival final report we assessed each area of the event to identify areas for further improvement. The aspect of Festival where we have been least successful recently is in engaging with the host city. Our current plans are to return to Denver for Festival 2016, if suitable contractual arrangements can be reached, and use our familiarity with the facilities to devote significant effort to making a meaningful social impact on Denver in 2016. During 2013 we will set some big picture goals for Festival 2016 and develop specific plans for interactions with the local community. It will also be important to communicate the decision to return to Denver carefully so singers understand the reasoning and that we are not adopting Denver as the home for Festival forever.

Red Rocks Amphitheater, Denver Performing Arts Center Galleria and Boettcher Concert Hall

It is our intention to announce the site for Festival 2020 at the end of Festival 2016. We will begin work in 2013 on identifying cities capable of hosting Festival.

Association Services

The Association Services committee oversees the growth of the organization through the retention of existing members and the attraction of new member choruses as well as the programs and services provided to member choruses other than festival. In order to better address this rather extensive portfolio the committee has created three subcommittees – Membership, Education and Networking and External Relations.

Membership

Success for the Membership Committee will be having an accurate database of our members, a membership which is well informed about GALA’s programs and events and engaged with GALA Choruses and the other member choruses. Two priorities for 2013 are to continue development of the association management software that was utilized for Festival and to develop means for training existing member choruses on the programs and services available through GALA.

Other objectives include developing a process for orienting new members to GALA, exploring options for supporting transgender singers and next steps for supporting youth choruses. We will also be rolling out a new chorus anniversary program for 2013. In the past we have celebrated member chorus 25th anniversaries by having a board, staff or former board member attend a concert and present a small gift. We are going to expand that program to include 5, 10, 20, 25 and 30 year anniversaries. For 2013 we have 19 member choruses celebrating anniversaries. The budget includes travel and housing support for those being asked to assist us in traveling to visit the choruses.

Membership will also oversee the survey information provided to the member choruses. Existing information of this type includes the compensation survey, operations survey data provided by Chorus America and a benchmarking study.

Education and Networking

Education and Networking is focused on ensuring delivery of cost and mission-effective events across real-time and digital platforms to sustain and stimulate growth for our member choruses. Success for this committee will be evidenced by increased attendance at the annual leadership conference, increased activity on the web site and increased communication between choruses.

Work has already begun on revisioning the annual leadership conference with a retreat in November where a group of ADs, EDs and singers spend a weekend in Minneapolis working on ways to restructure the conference. Work is also underway on identifying the site for the 2013 conference. Making sure the conference meets the needs of our member choruses, including those able to physically attend is a very high priority for the committee in 2013.

Another project overseen by the Education and Networking committee is developing avenues for choruses to connect between GALA events which has been ranked as a very high priority by our Advisory Council and the conference retreat group. Additional discussion within the committee is required to clarify just exactly what role GALA would play in such events. Regional events are currently being planned by Nashville in Harmony and several of the New York choruses.

Other projects scheduled for work in 2013 include an expanded director-in-residence program (renamed the GALA Geek Squad, G2S) and the buildout of the resource center on the web site. A draft job description for G2S consultants has been developed along with a list of questions to help further define the program. The 2013 budget assumes the G2S is up and functioning by mid year. A road map for the content of the web site resource center is also underway.

External Relations

External Relations will concentrate on partnerships, both domestically and abroad with organizations having similar goals to our own including other international LGBT choral organizations in Europe, Canada and Australasia, mainstream music organizations such as Chorus America and American Choral Directors Association and other national non-choral LGBT organizations like HRC, NGLTF, GLAAD, Gay Games and Out and Equal. Success for External Relations would be to see multiple interactions occurring between GALA and the groups listed above with a specific focus on human rights.

External Relation’s projects for 2013 will include the Board meeting in London and related interaction with Legato, work on the support of the festival in Australia in 2013 and the Canadian and European festivals in 2014, and work with Chorus America and ACDA.

Communications

The Communications Committee oversees the various means of communication with the member choruses including eBlasts, Facebook and the web site and assists in developing the communications strategy and content to create awareness of GALA Choruses events and services. The Communications Committee strives to have members recognize the value of GALA Choruses beyond Festival, provide vehicles for members to share their passion about their GLBT choral experience and disseminate news about the GLBT choral movement.

2013 objectives for communications include developing a process and timeline to refine the brand of GALA Choruses, devise strategies to keep the membership engaged via social media, create a strategy and plan for electronic communications, refresh web site content on a monthly basis and consider the development of the GALA You Tube channel.

Finance

The Finance Committee oversees the preparation of annual budgets and reviews monthly financial information. The committee also reviews banking, investment and insurance arrangements and supervises the conduct of the annual audit and preparation of tax returns. The goal of the committee is to assure provide resource management that ensures continuation of programs and operations during years between festivals.

In addition to these recurring tasks, during 2013 the Finance Committee will focus on refining the four-year budget cycle financial model to include a cash reserve, review and update financial, investment and risk policies, review the internal financial reports to make the information more accessible and reinstitute the summary annual financial report to members.

Governance

Board development is the primary responsibility of the Governance Committee. Success would be to have a diverse board with individuals from the arts, LGBT and international communities and for Board service to be a highly sought after experience.

The Board currently has 17 members and the goal is to reach 19 members leaving 2-5 new members to be recruited in 2013depending upon the renewal plans of current members whose first term expires in 2013. Governance Committee members will complete the board candidate interview process and prepare nominations for consideration by the full Board. Along with identifying new Board members, the Committee oversees the new Board member orientation process. The Committee is also working on documenting the Board recruitment process and assists the President with the Board and committee evaluation process.

Resource Development

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Unearned revenue sources, including foundation and government grants, individual donations and corporate sponsorships are overseen by the Resource Development Committee. Success for this function would be to have developed a reliable, sustainable and diverse group of income streams. Indicators of having achieved success would include substantial growth in corporate sponsorship, a three times larger pool of individual donors including a major donor society and a broader base of foundation support. In the longer run a planned giving program should be established.

During 2013 the committee’s objectives include revising the case statement for giving, identifying a database system for fundraising, building individual donations through a focus on major donors as well as expanding the pool of online donors, exploring options for additional foundation support and evaluating the potential for additional corporate support.

Administration

The staffing plan for 2013 is to engage Godfrey Consulting to provide association management services at the rate of $14,750 per month under the existing contract. Association management feesare allocated across the various functional areas based on prior years’ experience. GALA Choruses does not maintain any physical office but has a storage locker rented on a monthly basis for the storage of documents and various supplies used for conferences and Festival. Telephone expenses are for the conference call service on which most committee meetings are held. There are subscriptions with Constant Contact (eBlasts), PayPal and Regonline (event registration) and Go To Meeting (webinars).

The Executive Committee provides oversight on personnel matters including annual evaluations of the executive director, Board committees and Board members. The Executive Committee also organizes Board meetings and oversees operating plan progress reviews.

Appendix A

2013 Budget

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