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The Future of ARTC (echo effect, thunderous fanfare)
Introduction
Almost two years ago I commissioned an analysis of ARTC’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. At the time the exercise was viewed with skepticism and many felt that it widened fissures that were forming within the group. Now, with the help of new bylaws and a few new members who have taken a very active role, I believe it is time to take another look at the SWOT and use it to help chart our course.
Before I begin let me say that this entire document will assume that ARTC wishes to grow and expand. Goals must be set, if this is the case, and work must be done to achieve those goals. But none of it is necessary. Most of ARTC’s members do it for the fun, the experience, the friendship. Listening to the old Coffeehouse recordings, there was a certain relaxed atmosphere about the performances that is lacking in our current performances that are constrained by the desire for “professionalism”. At what point do we stop having fun because we’re so busy making “art”?
I want ARTC to grow and expand. But I must admit that there is an allure to the idea of giving up any pretense at making the organization into a profitable business, returning to the “fun”, and just putting up a show when we feel like it at small venues (like the Coffeehouse, as an example). Abandoning our CD releases, selling them until we run out of inventory, and then ceasing production. I wonder if some of our successes have gone to our heads.
That being said, I am about to instead propose a, frankly, ambitious and exciting agenda for the overall course of the group; one which I hope others will travel with me.
Strengths
When discussing strengths, a strong theme which was repeated many times was the ensemble nature of our group. Having access to talented actors, writers, musicians, and tech staff, not to mention the equipment that these people need, was cited as a major strength of the organization. This is almost cliché, but it can be said that our greatest strength is our people. Other strengths listed were awards won and name recognition, which suggest that we should find more awards to submit our work for and work to get our name out there. Under weaknesses, it was mentioned that we have a weak brand image, but I disagree. Our brand is strong among the people who are familiar with us; it says “quality”, it’s just a question of getting more people to hear it for themselves.
Weaknesses
Weaknesses cited almost all revolved around organizational issues. Being behind on contracts, lack of marketing support for our efforts, speed to implementation of ideas, communication, and distribution were all named as significant weaknesses.
Opportunities
Interestingly, many of the opportunities cited had a strong emphasis on solving the “distribution” weakness. Various other live performance venues (intended to make us less dependent on Dragon*Con), radio, alternative programming (“on-hold” music, airline radio, etc), satellite radio, and so forth. Also mentioned were branches to what we do that take advantage of our strengths, including video game sounds, PSAs, and other soundscaping opportunities that would benefit other groups.
Threats
The usual threats of plagiarism, piracy, and censorship were mentioned. Legal threats were considered fairly important, as well as the aging of our membership.
Conclusions
These lead me to the following conclusions: ARTC has a talented group of people, but we need more of them. Specifically we need to focus our recruitment efforts towards audio editors and producers/directors. Up to now we’ve pretty much taken whoever came to our door, and we can continue to do that. But we also need to actively solicit participation from people who can fill specific roles for us. College theatres, community theatres, even smaller professional theatres, radio stations, college-level audio courses; all these can be a source of the people we need. I’ve tried Connecticut School of Broadcasting with limited results, but if we are prepared for these people and have something for them to do immediately I think we can hold their interest better. More editors and producers are absolutely necessary for the future of this group.
ARTC needs to set goals. Yearly, 5-year, 10-year, and 25-year goals are appropriate, in my opinion. I’ll give some examples:
This year we must resolve our contract situation, compile as many scripts into electronic form as possible, and solidify our relationship with Stage Door Players or find a new venue.
Within 5 years we must have income streams in addition to CD sales. These would include sponsorships, grants, endowments, or what have you.
Within 10 years we must acquire company-owned equipment and a sound effects library.
Within 25 years we must have a venue and recording studio of our own which we can use for our own purposes or rent out to other groups for additional income.
Every year new yearly goals must be established and the longer-term goals must be evaluated. And there’s no need to get locked into timetables. If I had 5 people with time and energy and specific skills I could probably achieve the 25 year goal in 5 years, but 25 just seems more realistic right now.
All of these goals are in addition to producing two or three new studio releases a year and a variable number of live performances. New studio releases are essential as they are the way to cast the widest net to get as many people familiar with us as possible and they are our only reliable source of income. Live performances are essential because they are a good form of local marketing, differentiate us from other radio theatre groups (differentiation being a selling point), keep our actors and writers actively involved, and are frankly just more fun. A balance must be struck between the studio and the stage.
Our organizational problems can be corrected if we will all follow certain guidelines:
1) Do not overcommit yourself. I’m as guilty as anybody else, but when something needs to be done it would be better for nobody to commit to doing it than for someone to commit and then drop the ball. This is because if nobody commits then it stays on the “to do” list and on people’s minds. The moment someone says they’ll do it then everyone considers it taken care of and if the ball gets dropped it can be months before it gets picked up again.
2) We need to decide once and for all what business we’re in and focus on that at least in the short term. For example, if we say we’re in the “audio drama” business, that opens up tons of possibilities…possibilities we’ll never get to. But if we say we’re a “small-press audio publisher” then that’s a little more focused. It still allows for live performance as a marketing supplement, but excludes things like corporate shows and being a CD distributor. Both of those are things we could strive for, and there’s probably money to be made in both of them, but we lack the infrastructure to do either of them well. I’ll give examples:
a. The problem with Blue Network was that the President and Vice President were trying to run it, even though it was a separate business. We’d be much better off trying to find someone outside the group to run a business like that, so that all we’d have to do is license out the scripts and possibly loan some equipment. The actors could be pulled from our usual pool, but they wouldn’t have to be.
b. Similarly, we need get get out of the distribution business. If we ever had a mail-order sales surge equivalent to our Dragon*Con table sales it could actually hurt us more than it helped us because we might not be able to keep up with the volume.
On the other hand, we could decide that we want to be a “record label” and focus on artist development. Or we could be a talent agency and focus on getting professional work for our actors, musicians, writers, and techs, for which we would collect a commission. Or we could be a teaching organization and focus entirely on teaching others how to do what we do, with our studio and stage performances acting as benchmarks for others to strive for. There are a ton of businesses we could be in. But we should only be in one.
Those things alone would allow us to focus much more intently on our strengths and eliminate a number of our weaknesses.
In conclusion I see ARTC’s future as follows:
1) We need goals.
2) We must strike a balance between studio and stage.
3) We need to strive for independence as an organization and not get locked into having a need for any one member or event.
4) We need focused recruiting to fill specific needs that we identify rather than casting a wide net and getting mostly bycatch.
5) We need to decide what business we’re in and stick to it. Once we feel that there is nowhere left to go within that business then we can consider other avenues. If we decide to pursue any activity, we must be able to tie it back into our core business…everything must support the core business.
6) We need to be mindful of our status as an educational organization.