we can all make music

The times they are a-changin'

Community Music Victoria and the Victoria Sings adventure have reached a watershed with some dramatic changes planned for 2009.

The story so far

Since 2002, CMV's key program has been Victoria Sings - a State-wide initiative designed to weave community singing into the cultural fabric of Victoria. Its major strategy has been to nurture and support singing leadership within communities and through the program more than 1000 Victorians have taken part in affordable singing leadership skills development workshops and networking gatherings. Public funding for this kind of program has been good but irregular, unpredictable and of limited duration, so our focus has always been to ensure that when funding dried up there would be sufficient momentum for development to continue. The funding for the program is now coming to an end and we are pleased to report that our efforts have been successful - independent networks of community music activists all over Victoria are just bursting to continue harnessing the power of participatory group music making and using it to transform lives and communities.

While we are extremely optimistic about the future of the networks and of CMV as an organisation, we are sad to announce that at the end of 2008 we ceased to be able to afford our two full-time staff - Jon Hawkes, our executive officer, and Nimity James, our administrator, who were both with us since 2001. We are seriously missing their unique contributions.

In 2009 we have contracted a new part-time Administration Co-ordinator - John Howard and a part-time Volunteer Co-ordinator - Jane Coker.

Creating a sustainable organisation

CMV's voluntary Board of Management has been planning ahead for this next stage. Our mission has been to re-design CMV, transforming it into a self-sustaining organisation that will:

continue to assist the emergence and development of regional networks of community music-making activists;
continue to develop Victoria's community music making capacity;
inspire participatory group music-making of all kinds, including group singing;
maintain core stability without being dependent on external funding; and
enable its state-wide supporters to participate more fully in its operations and direction.

After thorough analysis and discussion, it has become clear to us that the only truly sustainable model for CMV is one that is driven by volunteers and that develops self-generated streams of income. Rest assured, we will continue to seek funding and when we get it we will do remarkable things with it, but our new structure will ensure that stability will not be threatened at times when the public coffers run dry.

Become a CMV Volunteer!

So, over the next few months CMV will be recruiting around 70 volunteers. Our intention is that the majority of these will be based in regional and rural Victoria, working from home, with the remainder based in metropolitan Melbourne either at home or at our office in Ross House. Tasks will include administration, finance, volunteer management and newsletter production. We are also looking for volunteers to become involved in catalytic, advocacy and skills-development work as well as in IT, seeking funding, legal, marketing, membership, resource development, evaluation, research, policy development and, of course, management of the organisation. If you are interested in playing any kind of voluntary role in the organisation we would love to hear from you. Please email us with a brief expression of interest. We would like to hear from individuals and from teams of people.

Sing It!

Another valued team member who will become a volunteer in 2009 is the magnificent Belinda McArdle - editor of "Sing It! - The News-Voice of the Singing Leaders' Network of Victoria". She has brought great vibrancy to our statewide networking publication and, along with her team in Geelong, has serviced an ever-increasing readership. She and the team will contrimue to produce "Sing It!" as volunteers. We thank them all a great deal for their enormous contribution.

Sing It! has been mailed free of charge three or four times a year to every person who has attended a CMV leadership skills-development or networking event - a number now exceeding 1000. From 2009 Sing It! will be edited, packed and mailed by a team of volunteers and you will need to pay a small subscription in order to receive your copy. The subscription rate is $22 for 4 editions in 2009. You may also opt to receive it electronically rather than as a hard copy (but we know that a lot of people like to read it in the garden shed and the toilet!!) This newsletter is an inspiration to anyone involved in community singing. Your contributions of stories, thoughts, songs and pictures will be needed as much as ever.

SHOUT!

Our bi-monthly subscription newsletter - SHOUT! - which incorporates listings for community music making events as well as festivals, performances, singing and playing opportunities and much more will become an electronic publication. If you are not a computer-user, let us know and we will continue to send you a printed copy. It too will be put together by a team of volunteers. Our email bulletins will continue as normal.

Skills Development and Networking Gatherings

We are already seeing individuals and groups across the state taking the initiative and organising regional skills-development and networking gatherings. These events can be cost neutral if the participants pay enough, or funding can be applied for from local councils, community health organisations and other sources to keep the cost to participants low. CMV will give advice and support to anyone wishing to organise one of these events.

Support our singing leaders and leadership teams!

Ongoing support for singing leaders and their teams has been undertaken over the past 7 years by our networkers and catalysts, all of whom, as well as being contracted, have given huge amounts of their time voluntarily. In 2009 there will be opportunities for volunteers to continue this work on a regional basis. Contact us if you would like to be part of a volunteer team offering this service.

We can work it out

We know the news of the changes will come as a surprise to many of you but we are feeling confident that our new volunteer-driven structure will take CMV securely into the future and look forward to working together with you to make it happen. If you want to know more, email the Board.

Together we can make a sound world!

From all of us at CMV: The Board of Management: Lyndal Chambers, Jane Coker, Chris Falk, Belinda Glass, Emily Hayes, John Howard, Richard Lawton, Heather McLaughlin, Sue North and Brian Strating and CEO Jon Hawkes.