Day 59 - New Music Scotland

Today, I drove over to Glasgow for the New Music Scotland day. I have lots of thoughts about what I heard, but at the moment only a few coherent ones to share.

The theory behind NMS is that it is an organisation for the benefit of its members - composers and performers active in new music in Scotland. For me, the day threw up some fascinating questions, for instance, is there such a thing as a New Music Industry? Terms like 'commercially viable' raised their head and then disappeared again, and the discussion on commissions missed what, for me, was an important point (but not one I'm going to talk about tonight - it's too late and I want to get up earlyish). Economics and new music are not good bedfellows for obvious reasons, and I believe that much of what we produce as composers and performers actually defies straightforward commodification. When we actively conspire to produce a commodity, I'm not sure I really know what we're doing any more.

Thankfully, most of the discussion avoided this and we talked about building audiences, and Graham McKenzie (of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival) spoke about (at least this was my take on it) building international audiences while building an international network of co-funders to remove the burden of commodification from the shoulders of the performers, the composers, and the audience. This brought home to me again the importance of having someone financially literate on any team that is involved in anything where currency exchanges hands - not just because they will be better at this sort of thing, but it means that the artists aren't allowing the money to dictate the music.

So I'm an idealist. So shoot me.

In this field, what is the role of the university composer? If I am commissioned to write a piece, what happens to my fee? Do I use university time to write the piece but pocket the cash? Do I pay the university to buy out my time, or take unpaid leave? Does this piece then not count towards my research outputs for the REF because the university wasn't paying for my time?
I don't have any answers. I only know that it's a problematic area and a very grey area. I don't want to imply that I'm judging any practice, just that, at some point, we in the industry may have to think about this seriously. Because if we don't, someone in charge of a university's commercialisation and intellectual property will, and then where will we be?

Day 52 - My Day At The Zoo

It was our away day this year, and for the first year in a few, we did actually leave the University. We went to the zoo.
In previous years, I've felt that our away days have been little more than an opportunity for us to argue hypotheticals and draw up grandiose blueprints that never see the light of day, but this year it felt like we kept the focus small and addressed some key points which resulted in action points.

I think that this is the key to sessions like this. You can be over ambitious and attempt to put the world to rights, but you will end up with a wish lists so long that nothing from it will ever come into being. Distinct problems with distinct solutions are always preferable. At least to me.

I've also been really pleased that the action points that we've determined have 'reporting dates' within the cycle of meetings that I've organised for the coming trimester. This way, the action is not just focused but also we are given a deadline for at least some movement. I suppose so many meetings in HE are divided between simply reporting what is happening (or what hasn't happened!) and blue sky improvisation, and it was really refreshing to come out feeling that I knew what I was going to go away and do.

Plus I saw some very cute monkeys.

Day 40 - One of those days

Tomorrow is potentially going to be difficult.
There are a few meetings that I have scheduled which might involve communicating some hard truths.
It is not going to be a day filled with exciting and fulfilling exchanges.
Fortunately, there are fewer of these days than one might expect in this job.
I think that it's a good thing that I don't enjoy correcting people, especially when that might have longer-term consequences. I don't want to get to the stage where I relish confrontation. I know that when it is necessary, it has to be done, and I can do it. And that's all you can ask for really.

And once the day is over, it is done. And I can move on to the next thing.

Day 36 - No agenda

There are days when I have a very clear idea about which I want to write.
Today is not one of those days.

This leads me on to an (at least for me) interesting question:
How do we deal with meetings without agendas?

I think that these come in two different flavours:

1. The meetings where an agenda is present, but the chair just hasn't revealed it to the meeting
2. The meetings that are literally there for the sake of having a meeting

Flavour 1 can be countered through administrative assistance and is not really as worrying as flavour 2. When I am chairing a regular meeting, I try to ensure that there is something useful to discuss in every meeting. It might not be urgent, or even necessary, but it should be useful and require discussion, not merely reporting. I think that there is a space for reporting, but staff meetings should not turn into a school assembly.

Every agenda point should result (or have the potential to result) in an action point.
Every staff meeting should be minuted and the minutes distributed.
Action points should be chased up.

I'd like to think that all of this would go without saying, otherwise why are we doing it?
It's not just to see each other and spend time in each others' company. There are too many other things to be doing. And I'm not suggesting that the bureaucratic side of all of this is the most important thing. I've spent far too long in meetings in another institution where so much time was spent revisiting the minutes of the previous meeting that we didn't reach the agenda of the current meeting.

So how do we deal with meetings without agenda?
I've read suggestions that you simply refuse to go.
I don't know how my manager would respond to that, and it's almost guaranteed that the meeting you refuse to attend will be the important one.
It would just be nice to attend more staff meetings which didn't result in me writing 'why am I here?'.