The RSO Needs New Leadership

There is lack of communication left and right, there’s too many projects going on
at once, and many projects are getting cancelled all the time.

I tried bringing up these concerns directly to some of the leaders of this sub
recently (some of which were outright ignoring the things I was bringing up to
them).

1. For example. When I asked casuallynothing how communication was going with the
rso, he said it’s going well. I followed up with him with [this comment.]
(https://www.reddit.com/r/TheRedditSymphony/comments/f5kew2/what_are_some_problems_
that_would_hinder_our/fiaj6rf?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x)

Rather than address the issue directly, he said “hey I made that subreddit! Neat!”
I was dumbfounded to hear this from the director of this organization.

2. Someone started a thread asking why no one has heard anything about Jurassic
park for 2 weeks. A mod replied to that saying something along the lines of
“casuallynothing is working hard on it thanks for your patience”. But earlier
tonight I realized he was spending an awful lot of time on discord so I asked if he
should be working on Jurassic park. He said he deleted the whole thing.

This says 2 things about him. 1. He is not sharing the news to the community in an
efficient manner and 2. He is not being honest with the community when he should
be. People are waiting to find out what happens and it pains me I have to make it
known for others instead of him.

3. There are so many projects going on at once. Every time a project gets
cancelled, people loose interest in the sub completely.

4. The Reddit symphony orchestra, the musical group this subreddit is named after,
has only pulled off 3 projects in the last year alone. During that same timeframe,
community-led projects that aren’t done by the original reddit symphony orchestra
have pulled off 7.

We say the RSO is doing well but what’s actually happening is the community is
winning the game of what has simply become the RSO’s original idea. Essentially
this isn’t even the RSO anymore. It’s just ensemble projects for the community now.
And the leaders of the RSO are treating it like “if our rso projects aren’t doing
well but the community is able to pull of what we can’t, then we don’t have to
worry at all.”

The RSO needs to get back on its A game which is why I’m going to propose these 2
solutions.

1. To increase the likelihood an RSO project gets done, only allow one RSO official
project on this sub at a time. Only if it looks like those projects are successful,
then a concert band project can be added to the list.

To implement this idea, allow all ongoing projects to happen but don’t allow any
more until the last one is done. This will be this sub’s version of slowly hitting
the reset button.

Then if, for example a jazz ensemble, another concert band, and a chamber orchestra
project organizers all want to do a project at the same time, an application
process would decide which of the 3 would happen based on this criteria.

1. Does that project leader have a track record of organizing successful projects
in the past? 2. Do they explain they are capable of communicating to their
participants throughout the duration of the project? And 3. Do they have good
material (good music, click track, etc.) and a laid out plan with a team to make it
all work? IF ONE PROJECT ORGANIZER STANDS OUT ABOVE THE REST, then that project
would get the green light to have it organized on this subreddit. If other project
managers didn’t have their project approved, then they are free to organize it on
other subreddits at their own free will.

The issue is too many people are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill with
only a handful of dedicated community members trying to make it all work at once.
This sub needs to consolidate its efforts to increase the likelihood ONE PROJECT
can get done. Having all these side projects going on at once constantly causes new
members to constantly leave the sub altogether. It’s the reason we constantly have
low numbers despite the fact the sub has over 7k members (and a discord server of
over 1k members).

2. The sub needs new leadership, and by that I mean the current director needs to
step down to enforce someone with goal oriented leadership and a drive to
communicate with everyone and not just have associates speak on his behalf to
temporarily ease permanent concerns this community currently has.

Please take this with a grain of salt. I know it is ambitious of me to say this. I
don’t want to have to say this and I hate to do so for every reason in the whole
world. But I feel I should be the director of the RSO. I would rather it be anyone
besides me which is why I am saying all of this. But because I see no one else
saying the same things I am, I am the only one who I see who has the potential to
make a considerable difference for this organization.

I started my first ensemble project at the beginning of last year, Achieved is the
glorious work, with this sub as a section leader of this sub. I left the team
before that was completed and have since completed 4 additional projects totaling 5
for last year. I am on track to complete a 6th one in just about a week. This means
I successfully completed every ensemble project I started.

You might think “what’s the big deal? You completed those ensemble projects, how
would that translate to a large organization of 7k subscribers?”

1. I regularly communicate with everyone who signed up for every project on a

weekly basis. I send a weekly reminder to inform me of their progress on
participating in the project and the likeliness they will submit. If members don’t
feel like they will submit, I remove them from the sign up sheet so I can
accurately assess what parts are needed more on a regular basis. I do all of this
on the trombone discord server because there I can ping users who have signed up
with an ensemble project role so they know to respond in the first place.

I NEVER EVER leave the participants out in the dark wondering what is up with
anything ever because I am honest to god about everything

2. I know the biggest reason the now trombone discord ensemble projects have become
successful as opposed to not so much the RSO. You see, unlike the RSO, its only
measure of success is how many recordings they get for any project. The trombone
discord server measures of success are community bonding such as sharing playing
advice, getting to know each other, sharing stories, supporting and caring about
one another. When this happens, and then you start an ensemble project, that deep
connection a potential participant made with me or someone else in the trombone
discord server then has a moral obligation to hold up their end of a bargain. If
community bonding is A and ensemble projects are B, then B cannot happen nearly as
well without A.
This is what the RSO is missing. We can’t only value who records and who doesn’t.
We need to value people, who they are, how they contribute musically to communities
they live in. We need to celebrate that IN ADDITION TO who sets aside time to
record for a subreddit’s ensemble project.

I have like 5 other things I could do for this sub and it’s discord server that I
believe would take it much farther than it currently is, but the RSO needs to solve
these problems first. Imo this can only happen if it decides to undergo a new form
of leadership. UNLESS there is someone else who is 100 percent on board with the
ideas I am proposing, then I will support whoever does so. But until now, I am the
only one who I believe will bring about positive change to this community.