YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU CAN’T REMEMBER: RELAUNCH FATIGUE

By Laura Blake

I thought returning to a full year of events at Music for All would be simple. The world paused, we endured, and we were excited to hold events again. Our constituents were clamoring for it! Music for All returned to operation in increments in 2021. We began with our Band of America Championships. Twenty-seven events over 8 weeks across the country (2019 we held 22). It turned out bands and spectators were ready to be back, enrollment was strong in each show and ticket sales were just as strong. We were Back!

You Don’t Know What You Can’t Remember

It turns out that a two-year hiatus and a decent amount of turnover, due to pandemic downsizing, left the few staff members that remained at Music for All in an interesting situation. We forgot how to do what we do. I don’t mean to say that we didn’t have the framework in place, but we were out of practice and out of our routine. Enter opportunity.

How often will you ever get to pause, evaluate the entirety of your programing and relaunch? But not only relaunch but make it bigger and better to recapture the attention of the communities you serve?

Those of us that remained realized the enormity of the task at hand, we had to move forward with limited staff, resources, and an increased pressure to perform. We had to dig deep both emotionally and into the depths of our files and brains to get the wheels turning to provide the level of service and attention to each event that was expected before the pandemic.

Pre-Pandemic Process and Documentation

If you don’t have a system for documenting what you do, start right now. Institutional knowledge will only get you so far. But as your employee pool ages or transitions and new people step in, we owe it to those who remain to provide a solid path forward. After a two-year break, we had to relearn the process and dig through files and documents to start again. Through many meetings and discussions, we started to piece together everything we needed to start running our events again. Many things were routine and just needed dusting off. Marketing and sales stepped back into the process and hit the road running.

Looking Back on Your Event Through the Post Pandemic Lens

The Event Department began dissecting what once was and looking at how we can do this better. We had a unique opportunity to look at events pre-pandemic and have a clean slate to run them post-pandemic. We used this relaunch to stay relevant and start meeting needs that weren’t met before. We had to look at the changing landscape of our world and find out how our events would fit in. Keep in mind that in July and August of 2021 there were still pandemic restrictions in place with masks, social distancing etc. A lot of those restrictions were left to the state level to decide what was or was not going to be required. We had to figure out how we were going to move people around the country and meet the requirements to keep people safe, including our staff, and have successful events. When there is not a standard across the country for what event safety protocols would be required to operate it was murky at best to find a one size fits all marching band to move forward. As we broke things down, we came up with solutions to tackle the following roadblocks.

Travel:

Challenge: How to fly event staff, judges and others around the country and what happens if someone gets sick on the road?

Knock on wood: Somehow, we made it through 8 weeks with no one getting sick. Masks and hand sanitizer flowed plentifully in our office, cars, and at the event. We knew we would need to be able to accommodate staff if something went downhill and so we made a plan that we would house people in place if someone was ill while traveling and do what is needed to help anyone who may happen to get stuck away from home. We had people in place if we needed to shift roles around to make the event run. We were so lucky that we never had to take those steps. But it was an exercise in preparedness that we carried with us today.

Student Safety:

Challenge: How to coordinate with schools that had different safety protocols when it came to COVID-19 and how to keep students safe.

We found out that we had almost no control over what school precautions or rules school groups would follow or implement to travel to our events. We worked closely with directors and administrators but in the end, we could only make suggestions. Each school district had their own rules for student travel. Flexibility was the key to success. Take the calls and emails from directors telling us what they would specifically need to do or not do to keep them engaged in our programing. Again, we were lucky. We had low impact and had to make a few modifications to our actual event structure.

1. Indoor warm up areas were not going to work. Ok. We can do this because it only impacts on three events. We can change where we have warm up, we can modify the schedule to allow for the minimum times for air exchanges, whatever it takes.

2. At the end of the night, we hold a full retreat on the field with twelve of our finalist groups coming back to the field for awards. Which culminates in our “Break Ranks”; a celebration where students can mix and mingle on the field for a few minutes and meet students from other schools. NOPE! This we had to nix. We were not comfortable with many locations having space restrictions and putting entirely too many students in close contact with each other and then letting them roam around and talk to students from other schools; it was a recipe for creating an outbreak.

With the end of the pandemic, we have been able to return to 100% normal activity regarding these two points above. It wasn’t easy to remember how to execute retreat when we did bring that back during the 2022 season. At that point it had been three years since we gathered 12 bands worth of students (approx. 2500) and brought them on the field together. Again, enter an opportunity to evaluate and improve on process and experience. We changed how we structure and line up students to have an easier and smoother experience during finale.

Ticketing:

Challenge: How to minimize touchpoints with staff and spectators to keep everyone safe.

Technology is amazing. Prior to the pandemic we were a touch everything ticket process. Cash and Cards most of which were purchased at the box office day of and printed and handed out. GROSS! Our accounting team immediately realized we had to move forward and figure out how to go digital. Now 2 seasons later not only are we 100% digital we are also cashless this year.

Spectator Safety and Experience:

Challenge: How to allow spectators to view the events and maintain ticket reve- nues through massive social distancing and safety regulations.

Through the summer months in 2021 we watched other organizations, Drum Corps International, the NFL, and school events, to see how they were going to handle spectators. We came up with 10 or more different ways we thought we may have to operate. Maybe we must limit spectators to blocks to watch their group and then clear the stadium, maybe we must rotate between every band, can we require masks everywhere or proof of vaccination to enter. (See above about different states and different rules). It was a constant, moving target for us. As August ended, we saw the trends dropping and rules changing for outdoor events and luckily for us it just worked out. We still carried PPE, and sometimes felt like we were on pins and needles going into each week. Prior to the pandemic our spectators’ experience was summed up by just getting them in to watch their kiddos. But through the exercises and discussions of what could happen if parents and supporters could not see their students perform, we really started to look differently at the entire spectator experience. Now we are looking for ways to expand and improve the spectator experience. Signage, engagement, and access are evaluated and valued differently now. The exercise in safety has made us a better event overall.

Implementing Change

Change is hard. It forces people out of their comfort zone and into a place of questioning and trepidation. This can cause conflict within the organization and among colleagues. We shouldn’t misplace the fear of change for being a stick in the mud and we should hear the concerns that are brought forth and address them. Taking necessary steps to flex, implement and evaluate change over the past three years has taken Music for All to the next level. It has challenged our staff to think about what we do and take a step back and not keep the status quo. It has also challenged our constituents to understand our focus and embrace the why behind the changes we make. We jest, but it’s all for the kids.

Relaunch Fatigue

This brings me back to the point of documentation and institutional knowledge. We could not have endured the past three years of change and growth and relaunch without some cornerstone employees. However, as we move forward the clamor for process and documentation from our new employees is stronger than ever. Those of us who remained and relaunched suffered relaunch fatigue. We were excited to be back, but we had the weight of 45 years of organizational success on our shoulders. I absolutely wish I would have left myself a slightly less messy bread crumb trail to return to full operation. I know that my colleagues and team will hold me accountable as we move forward.

As Music for All turns the corner post pandemic and we look toward our 50th anniversary, we recognize that we have come so far in just a few short years. The organization has grown in staff, events offered, technology used, and strategies implemented. We came out of the pandemic stronger and better prepared to meet the needs of our constituents. In fact, we have positioned our organization to grow and change, and that’s all because of the massive overhaul we had to do during the pandemic. It does not mean that we have dismissed our past but rather embraced what was with a warm hug, said thank you and are looking to the future and what’s next for Music for All.

Laura Blake is the Director of Events at Music for All. Laura has been part of the Music for All team since 2005. She leads a team of eight talented event professionals. Music for All is the nation’s premier presenter of scholastic music events and music advocacy hosting more than 30 events nationwide. Laura attended Butler University and graduated with a B.A. in Music. In her free time Laura plays trumpet for local theatre productions and the Pride of Indy community band. She has served on the Alumni Board of Directors for Kappa Kappa Psi and the Pride Band Alliance. Laura Resides in Indianapolis with her wife (Shelly) and her son (Mason) and a menagerie of pets.