Co Op Blog : Reflections From Last Week

Friday, May 12

With the final concert of the season approaching, we have spent this week selling the last few tickets available and preparing for the concert. I have had the opportunity to create several e-newsletters to be sent out for subscribers of the GBS. It often surprises me, even as someone who grew up as social networking was booming, how much it is involved in promoting this organization. Since starting my co op here, I have used programs to schedule posts on Facebook and Twitter, as well as to send out blog posts to the GBS website. My skills came to the test this Wednesday when I had to demonstrate how to set up and publish an e-newsletter, which I am very grateful went well and didn’t include the common website crash.

Subscription renewals are kicking off this week, which is surprisingly the easiest part of the process. After spending hours tracking down contact information and previous seating arrangements, processing the renewals seems like a nice break.

At April’s concert, we tried selling CDs for the first time and got overwhelmingly positive feedback. We have decided to bring them to this concert as well, along with some leftover copies of The Hockey Sweater from the GBS Christmas Concert.

We have realized that we will be short on volunteers this weekend to help with the concert setup and running the afterglow. Although I have been able to track down some friends to help out, this is an area that the GBS could always use extra help in. It’s a great opportunity for high school students to get volunteer hours, or for anyone who is interested in helping the symphony.

A lot of our social media content is focused on articles about what is going on in the world of classical music at the time. Currently, a big topic is the lack of female composers in the genre. I have been able to read many articles written by people with different points of view, which has been interesting. Although I agree that it is unfortunate that there aren’t more female composers who are as widely recognized as the staple symphony composers, it’s understandable when we look at the time periods that most of our favourite classical music comes from. The GBS is actually one of the more inclusive symphonies in North America, with a good portion of composers in the 45th season being female. Some professional symphonies, such as Utah, will go full seasons without performing even one piece by a female composer, let alone one who is still living. The discussion has been focused on whether or not to incorporate more female composers into a season’s lineup, and if doing so will affect ticket sales. If you don’t already follow the GBS on Facebook and Twitter, I would highly recommend doing so to stay up to date on how people are dealing with this subject.