Project Grant

1. Audience satisfaction - Traditionally we have used the sheer size of the audience to be our main indicator for audience satisfaction as this is our most highly attended program of the year. The fact that we have people coming back year after year is a good indicator that we are serving our audience's interest. 2. Member satisfaction - We strive to have a high level of participant satisfaction. Again, the fact that we have all of the participating organizations return year after year is a strong indicator. All of the participating organizations look forward to this event. Individuals in the ensembles identify with this holiday tradition and comment on the excitement and happiness that this program brings to them. 3. Community collaboration - This concert, perhaps more than any other in our season, brings together numerous community groups for a common goal. This collaboration helps to develop an appreciation for each of the individual ensembles by the other participating groups. Everyone both onstage and in the audience can feel the strength of our community through the music that is being created.; Access ; Learning ; Community This Holiday concert offers our regional residents a festive way to share artistic resources, expand appreciation of fine choral/orchestral creations, and connect with a wider range of cultural expressions. Annually drawing roughly 750-800 attendees, our holiday concerts offer us our largest survey pool to assess our musical choices and performance levels. Information on audience attendance is obtained by the old-fashioned method of handing out color-coded tickets (adults one color, seniors a second, youths a third) to attendees as they enter the PAC, then gathering those same tickets back from our guests as they enter the auditorium. We have tried other techniques (hash marks by category) but tickets seem to be the most reliable. Attendance numbers tell us whether or not we are offering music that meets our community's needs. Keeping track of different age groups tells us if we are being successful at attracting young people to our concerts, a critical component of ongoing orchestra existence. Orchestra members log in at each rehearsal, usually during our treat break, giving us rehearsal attendance information. Falling attendance indicates some dissatisfaction with the experience, a misalignment that requires prompt and focused attention. As audience members enter on concert night they are asked to fill out an evaluation form, and if they agree they are given a half-page sheet to fill out after the concert, perhaps as they are enjoying cookies and coffee or juice. These are focused on the concert just concluded. We ask both broad and specific questions about the just finished concert. Rankings for "Repertoire" and "Variety" focus on the kinds of music performed, and are the best indicators of our community's musical values. A sample of our brief survey is included in the sample below. Our members are given a similar half page sheet at the rehearsal following the concert. We convert the three available responses ("-, 0, +") to numerical values (1, 2, 3) and obtain scores for each question. Every second year, after our final concert of the year, we survey our audience members with a much more thorough survey. We ask questions about age of participant, number of concerts attended during the year, how far they traveled, how they learned about BCO, what kind of music they prefer, what concerts do they attend throughout the year, why they attend BCO concerts over some others, and more. These data are tabulated and presented to our board. Our orchestra members are very important to us, and we work hard to meet their expectations. We ask about overall response to the past year, what kind of music they would like to perform, how we might improve the overall experience, how our paid associates met expectations, ask for feedback on each past concert, and give them lots of room for comments. All three styles of