Page 68 - BusinessWest December 8, 2021
P. 68

 An Open Letter to the Community
Meeting Our Challenges Envisioning a Sustainable Future
As representatives of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra we are writing this Open Letter to the Community with an update on the status of a 2021-22 season and beyond. Please know that the entire SSO Board, except its one musician union member who has a different point of view, is united in its approach for achieving a sustainable future for the SSO.
The COVID-19 pandemic shuttered the SSO and has had a profound impact on live performance venues and programming. We are working to re-emerge in a way that is safe and forward looking. The SSO Board is exploring all options to assure the future of live professional symphonic music in the Valley.
While we work toward a sustainable future for the SSO, we have been engaged in a negotiation with the musicians’ union on a new contract. The core of the SSO’s dispute with the union is whether the SSO should have the operational flexibility to permit its long-term survival. Characterizations of our negotiations have become public and contentious through communications by representatives of the musicians. The SSO has not, and will not, veer from our focus on the very real financial challenges SSO faces and has chosen not to negotiate in the public or press. We continue to work diligently for a fair settlement that takes into account all constituencies and the long-range health of the important institution we represent.
Recently, the musicians formed a competing symphonic organization, known as Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Inc. (MOSSO). MOSSO is directly affiliated with the musicians’ union and its public pronouncements and fundraising activities have resulted in the splintering of our community and inviting symphony lovers to take sides. This is harmful to all parties, not the least of which is the Symphony and its patrons.
It is regrettable that representatives of the musicians’ union and MOSSO are spending time and resources denigrating and attacking SSO Board mem- bers and making inflammatory comments. Demeaning the SSO Board and leadership with a steady stream of false and misleading representations is more than an unfortunate negotiating tactic. It also diminishes the chance of achieving the shared goal of providing live professional symphonic music to the region.
All parties need to work together productively to assure that there is a sustainable future for the organization we love.
There are very real challenges and financial constraints facing the SSO that no amount of public posturing by the union and its supporters can obscure. The SSO’s challenges are clear:
n Each year, the SSO budgets for the use of a prudent distribution from its endowment (the “draw”) to fund its operations. However, the SSO has consistently been suffering ever increasing operational losses over time, resulting in large additional withdrawals from its endowment to fund the losses. For example, in the 2018-19 season prior to COVID, the SSO had to withdraw $932,000 from the endowment, more than $600,000 in excess of the planned draw to cover expenses.
n A total of $3.1 million, including the budgeted annual draw from the endowment and additional withdrawals, has been utilized from the SSO endowment to cover operational losses during just the four seasons from 2016-17 through 2019-20.
n The SSO Endowment has both restricted and unrestricted funds. Both are utilized for the annual draw. Principal from unrestricted funds can be spent to underwrite operational losses. However, principal from restricted funds cannot be used to underwrite losses. As a result, unrestricted funds as a portion of the whole endowment have been dwindling. Ten years ago, in 2011, unrestricted endowment funds available to underwrite losses were approximately 61% of the endowment. By 2020, unrestricted funds represented only 33% of the endowment. At the rate of operational losses the SSO has been incurring, the unrestricted funds will be exhausted in the next few years.
n Concert attendance has been steadily declining for many years. In the year just preceding COVID, audiences for classical concerts filled far fewer than half of the seats in Symphony Hall.
n Fundraising and sponsorships well in excess of historical levels would be required to sustain operations at pre-COVID levels of concert offerings. While the SSO has been making every effort to raise additional funding, and will continue to do so, success, if it comes, will take time during which the SSO cannot afford to operate at pre-COVID loss levels. Our ability to raise funds from donors is likely to be significantly impacted by the efforts of MOSSO and the musicians’ union.
n All of these factors make it critical for the SSO, if it is to survive, to have the flexibility to determine the number of live symphonic concerts that it should hold. To sustain itself for future generations, performances must attract sufficient audiences and sponsors and the organization must attract sufficient annual donations to achieve a balanced operational cost and funding structure.
n Given factors such as the uncertainties generated by COVID, the SSO had offered the musicians’ union the opportunity to play concerts this season beginning with a Holiday Pops concert and a full season of programs, including at least six concerts for next season at an increased salary rate. The Union rejected this proposal. While negotiations have been stalled, there may still be time to plan for some number of spring concerts.
All of us on the SSO Board volunteered to serve because of our love of live professional symphonic music. We will continue to work toward creating a future for symphonic music in the region that we can all applaud and sustain.
Management Committee
Board of Directors, Springfield Symphony Orchestra
   















































































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