The Show Must Go On
I am sure that we are not the only society that is struggling to get enough people involved in running the society. Wimbledon Light Opera Society (WLOS) celebrates it’s 80th anniversary this year but I have grave concerns for its future. We have about 50 members at the moment but our committee has 3 vacancies and no one seems to want to commit to putting in the time to run the society. We are lucky to have a very young and talented membership but they all seem to think their lives are too busy to do anything more than rehearse and enjoy themselves on stage. All the members of the committee have been in the society (and, in most cases, on the committee) for a long time but have no intention of going on for ever. But when we go – who will take over? How do we persuade younger members that if they want WOS to continue they are going to have get more involved?
Our society saw a complete change of the committee 2 years ago with
some of the newer members wanting to take part and long standing
committee members needing a rest!! We are only a small group of 20
members and so this year we have minimised the main committee to 6
people (Chair, Secretary and Teasurer each with vice positions) and
all other functions are being split into sub committees with other
members getting invloved with fundraising, publicity and social
events etc. This makes these roles less daunting and requires much
less work in order to make a contribution to the running and
continuation of the society. Hopefully it will work, I’ll let you
know.
We only Started Last year the reason i think is groups thinking
they rule the area as they perform in bigger veunues once a year
but yet i have a very talented cast of 20 with a amazing
choreographer who just started with our group after he graduated
but because myself and my partner who run the group are 18 and 21
and both who have run sucessful groups in diffrent areas with
getting other folk who ran groups to help aswell we have people who
teach at camp america work for Viva Hotels as a flying team all
talent staff but we jsut seem to be looked down on from bigger
groups and Amdram groups arent staying close freinds and helping
each other out from time to time our group has money behind it but
other groups dont we have donated money from some of our shows to
help as its supposed to be a hobbie and to be enjoyed not to be run
like the west end yet again aim not saying the standards of the
show shouldnt be but its just a bad time for the arts esp with
royality fees for some show just a tad over priced and even some
venues its amamzing how grousp still run the councils should help
the groups out a bit more with a bit more advertising on there
boards etc we do some advertising out self by leaflets posters
subway posters bus tvs out doors tv advertising and at winterfest.
but best thing to do is give them free stuff we do alot of mini
shows for free and that draws in members and more audience for the
next show anyway i have rambled on if any that makes sense give us
a message back Gary
Our company is trying to make the committee posts not so daunting -
publicity is such a hard role to fill in particular for us. One of
our older members plans to head up a publicity team and get some of
the younger members involved by splitting up the jobs. This means
it will be less work as there should be more people involved. We
plan to invest time developing our youngsters skills so in time
they feel comfortable taking on more roles
Hi there, We face the same issues, in actual face we haven’t had a
change in committee in 3 years. We have a good mix of talent under
25 but then it drapers off, I feel that slightly older and middle
aged people don’t want to work with teenagers and children, which
makes me wonder where they get their new members from. We are
surviving through parent support, although they are sometimes
relectant, and getting new members interested. So far we have had 3
new adults members join since our pantomime and we even held a Free
Wine and Cheese evening – which people chikened out of. If you do
find any solutions, please let me know! Matt