OUT in Our Schools – Focused on Mission first

14 years ago at a chorus retreat, multiple brainstorming groups all came up with the same crazy idea of furthering the One Voice mission by singing in schools. The brainstorming was motivated by the image of “singing in places where we are not comfortable.” At our first school concert 13 years ago 60 singers took the day off work in order to perform in two schools! Today One Voice’s spring OUT in our Schools program is a highlight for singers and students alike and we have performed in schools across Minnesota.

Like many GALA choruses, One Voice receives many requests to sing in queer-friendly churches and GLBT community events. Recently we decided to be pro-active about these requests rather than reactive to any request that comes our way; we developed a Strategy Screen to guide our decision-making. The Strategy Screen, is a checklist to evaluate whether a project fits our mission and organizational priorities, and if we have the resources to pull it off.

Last spring, One Voice was invited to perform at the “Night of Noise,” a celebration following the national GLBT “Day of Silence,” when students protest anti-GLBT bullying by refusing to speak for 24 hours. Our music director was not available to conduct and the timeline was short to recruit chorus members. However, the invitation came from the Anoka County School district—a district that made national headlines for the rise in homophobic bullying and several students suicides. Did I mention that this school is in Michele Bachmann’s district?

With our conductor out of the picture our initial response was to say no. However, after walking through each of the elements in the Strategy Screen at a staff meeting we agreed that this performance ranked highly in all categories except the availability of resources. With some quick maneuvering we simplified our repertoire for the concert, recruited our Assistant Director to conduct and used email and Facebook to alert the chorus.

The Night of Noise in Anoka County was an overwhelming emotional highlight for both singers and students. After the concert, Ashley, ran up to hug and thank our many singers. She told us: “Our Day of Silence sucked. Kids threw food at us. When they couldn’t get my friend to break her silence, they punched her in the gut and kicked her. All day I had kids pinching my cheeks. But I didn’t break. I stood up and I took everything they gave. I won. And what a celebration at the end of our day! Hearing One Voice sing and meeting all of you amazing and OUT adults, I know that I can win every year. I can be strong like all of you!”

As community-based organizations, we are all faced with limited time and resources. Recognizing that we cannot “do it all” we need to work smarter rather than just harder. To provide you with a launch point for your own team conversations around the development of a “strategy screen” we offer ours:

One Voice Mixed Chorus Strategy Screen

1. Does it ft and enhance our mission of building community and creating social change?

2. Does the project effectively and directly confront homophobia? Does this project challenge our comfort-level as an organization (in a good way)

3. Is it transformational, inclusive, authentic and innovative?

4. Will our members and staff get excited about this project?

5. Do we have the capacity or will it build capacity? Are the staff time and resources demanded for this event balanced with the gain for the organization?

6. Does the project support or increase our artistic quality, or if not, does the benefit in another area outweigh this goal?

7. Is the project marketable – will it build or deepen audiences?

8. Is the project financially sustainable or affordable?

Jane Ramseyer Miller

One Voice Mixed Chorus

651-298-1954

www.OneVoiceMN.org