Join Us

Empowering the Next Generation of Women in Audio

Join Us

Venue Management and the Multipurpose Room

Everyone in our industry has a venue – either their favorite place to stop on a tour, their favorite place to attend a show or the place they like to work every day. These venues range from small club spaces, studio or recording spaces, to 100,000 seat stadiums and more.

Currently, my venue is a multipurpose room – virtually a swear word when I talk to some tour managers on the phone because they never know what they are going to get when that term is spoken. The multipurpose room could be an empty box with cement flooring and a portable stage made out of 2x4s and plywood, or it could be a ballroom with carpeted floor, acoustic treatments, and functional furniture adapted to any need. In other words, multipurpose rooms could be defined as compromises made to cover all the priorities determined at the time, and hopefully good enough for anything else. It’s kind of like saying McDonald’s is better than Burger King: It may be true, but it all depends on what each location is like the service you get, and your preference on which has the best French fry. My point is, the multipurpose room is a dynamic of unknowns and will never be perfect for everyone, but will be enough to get by for many.

As, with any space with architecture, you get what you get. You’re in the hands of the design and the mechanics of cement, wood, drywall, and rebar. Sometimes spaces are wonderfully designed with our industry in mind, and sometimes they’re ice hockey rinks first and shows are a way to produce more income in the off-season. Thankfully, our industry has come up with amazing tools to assist us in our goals when we end up in a space that isn’t meant for the activity occurring. Tools like pipe and drape assist with creating softer surfaces and hide an outdated look. Line arrays allow us to send the sound in the exact direction we want, and tools like Smaart assist with tuning. Heck, if the budget is there, talented people like us can make any square box into a mystical gem for a night!

Besides the tools we have, there is also a responsibility to know the room and provide hospitality to groups coming through. As a venue manager, it is part of my job to know the room well; what works well, what doesn’t, and to take steps to create the best situation for all. People swinging through for a one-night show rely on venue staff to provide insights on the space, but the venue staff must also maintain a balance of letting the group renting the space get their tasks completed without excessive interruption. A venue manager can help a touring group by having information about the space ready to share in advance of the show; things like directions to the venue, parking options, stage measurements, curtain setups, and recent pictures to name a few. I use a snapshot document to share information quickly. Many questions can be answered this way and allow groups to ask follow-up questions that may pertain to them. Bluffs snapshot

In addition to knowing the room, it will also be important for the venue manager to share the strengths and weaknesses of the space. If structural support for rigging is limited, share that information before the booking is finalized, and have supporting documentation available as well. If the venue can only hold 100 people safely, make sure this information is clear and stick with the capacity rating. If the space is extremely reverberant, share that so a tour can decide if it might be best to use IEMs instead of wedges. Sometimes information can be the key to a successful event. As a venue manager, I share what I can so the group can make educated decisions for themselves. Many times, groups will want to come back to a room that might not be perfect but they enjoy, because of great hospitality and knowing what to expect.

What’s Wrong with Being Special?

Recently, I was conducting a back-of-house tour for someone when they asked, “What is your favorite part of the building, and what is your least favorite?” I have been asked that question over and over again, but suspect it is one of those questions people don’t actually care to hear the true answer to, so I moved forward with my cushy standard response. I had this glossed-over answer prepared because to answer properly would require a lot of reflection on where and what things went right, and how other things went wrong.

Mostly, I think this question gets asked to fill time while moving from space to space. But this time I got called out on my somewhat polished standard response and this person pushed to know the real answer. I took a minute to craft my response then I answered: The most difficult part of this building project has been watching things go wrong and not being able to use my skill set to address the issues before they became something we have to live with every day. To my surprise, the person responded with “Well, we all can’t be special. People think they have the right answer to everything.”

I understand what they were saying. They were commenting on an ideology that seems prevalent lately – that people think they are always right or believe that only they can do it right – which was not the intention of my answer. I understand that there is a stereotype that Millennials, a generation I belong to, feel they are somehow special, but I see a different meaning in my answer. Isn’t the point of hiring a diverse team to work together, solve problems, and rely on one another to complete a directive? Don’t we use this diverseness to help people learn from the experts among the group and to fill in for the weaknesses of others? Isn’t the point of interviewing to hire someone who seems to fit within the team? Of course, the candidate or employee needs to meet the job requirements and be able to do the tasks assigned, but a hiring manager can get that information from their CV. The interview process is about gaining insight into their personality and the skills that will contribute to (or hinder) the team the organization already has, and understanding how their attitude and drive will contribute to accomplishing the end goal.

In this job, our goals are to work with new equipment, create the best sound, get an impressive mix, set the best EQ, and more. We can’t achieve these goals by ourselves – we aren’t that special. But, as warehouse managers, we look for a team that supports the organization’s desire for equipment rentals or tour packs; as tour managers, we look for effective sound engineers, stage-hands, and RF technicians who can problem-solve their way through the touring minefield. Each trained in their specialty, with their own strengths and weaknesses. The audio field requires so many specialties; we have guitar techs, stage techs, tour managers, monitor engineers, safety coordinators, and more, just for one traveling show. Knowing this, why wouldn’t an organization make the most of the specialist team it hired by capitalizing on team members’ individual strengths? Doing so enables an organization to gain information, achieve tasks faster, grow as an operation, tackle new challenges, increase revenue and productivity, and further its mission and purpose.

So, my point is, shouldn’t everyone on staff be special to their organization? Shouldn’t there be the opportunity to share knowledge to help the organization achieve its goals? As an employee, don’t you want your strengths to be recognized and used for progress? As a manager, don’t you want a team that can support the project or department that you’re leading? In other words, I want to work somewhere where I am viewed as special – and so are those around me – because our specialties are how, together, we’re going to get the job done.

Navigating the Build – Moving Day and More

I can’t believe it’s time. Five years ago I sat in a room with my coworkers and an architect and had a discussion about dreaming big; designing and planning a new student center that would have everything we wanted – everything we could dream of.  Of course shortly after that reality hit. The new student center is a state project with red tape and a limited budget. There’s always a limited budget.  Time to get realistic and decide what we need and list our wants in hopes there will be money left over for them.  Fast forward to the week before Christmas. The building is up, the meeting room programming is almost complete, and it’s time to get ready to move. Sounds pretty simple, however mobilizing such a big operation has been quite the ordeal.

As I am writing this blog, the equipment has been packed for two weeks but has not been picked up or delivered. The moving project turned out to be significantly more of an undertaking than anyone could have expected.

Preparation for the move meant a lot of packing.  Overall, it went pretty smoothly, which is why my stuff has been ready to go for the past two weeks.  Road cases are a marvelous invention! They are unique to our business and gave me an advantage over some of the other areas which also had to prepare for their move.  My department alone has 30 road cases, 55 pieces of equipment of various sizes, and 60 boxes of stuff to move.  

What slowed the process down were the memories; the historical representation of items found in the far back of closets; things that haven’t seen the light of day in years. For instance, as we were cleaning we found a projector from the ’80s and flyers from concerts held in the early ’90s.  With each item came conversation about “the old days.” Then there is the equipment we are retiring old and outdated equipment, including; a full lighting rig that hasn’t been updated since 1984, PAs that have been parted and pieced apart for years, and many other items that should have been retired years ago.  I finally get to move on from a light board that used a floppy disk for storage!  

light-board-floppy-disksThere are two parts of the move that have been hard.  One has been having the patience to wait for someone to move our stuff.  My team and I transport this equipment all the time for events.  But the labor has been contracted, and we have to wait and watch as others complete the task. The second is that some of the required equipment and other logistical necessities were not finished as we took occupancy. Some of these things are quick fixes like changing out light connections; others are going to take weeks and months to get finished.

The most frustrating part for me is that so many of these items are out of my hands, as they are considered part of the construction and punch-list items that other people are responsible for. I can’t change the situation so I will make the best of what I have and the resources given to me to create workarounds. For example, I will do what I can with my QSC’s on sticks and lights on stands. I’ll work toward solving some of the problems and must let others work on the problems I can’t fix. It is hard not to be able to get things done, but my job at this point it to find temporary fixes for my customers until the permanent fixes are in place.

new-multipurpose-roomIt’s exciting to think about working in a brand new facility.  Our soft opening was on January 3rd, and I am grateful that there is some time before the larger events. Perhaps by then the equipment we are missing will be available.  If not, I will be renting from some local companies until we can get our purchases figured out and installed.

You can read more on Heather’s Adventures in the Design and Build of the new Student Center.

Navigating a New Building – Planning the Build.

Navigating the Build – 100 Days to Show Time.

 

 

Bella Blasko – Creating a Safe & Supportive Environment in the Recording Studio

photo4Bella Blasko has only been working in professional audio for six years, yet she is making her mark working with artists such as The National and Natalie Merchant, and working at Dreamland Studios and The Clubhouse in New York. She works as an independent sound engineer and depending on the session demands, works as an assistant engineer, engineer, producer, and musician. Being flexible in the roles she takes on has given her valuable experience. Her passion is to work with female artists to help them make their art, get their voices heard, and offer an alternative to the male-dominated studio culture.

photo3Bella graduated from Bennington College with a degree in music, with a focus on Classical Piano Performance. While at Bennington she explored music production, signing up for recording classes with sound engineer Julie Last, who was a huge inspiration to Bella. Bella says, “Having an amazing female engineer as one of my first teachers and role models made it seem like a viable option to go into music production, and she helped me to get my first internship. She has such a careful and delicate way in the studio, it gave me an example from the beginning of what a feminine approach to audio could look like. I’ve adapted my own way of working in the studio since then, and I definitely find myself in a predominantly male environment most of the time, but having had Julie as an early role model helped me to feel comfortable and confident that I could become an engineer and exist in the studio world.” Julie was instrumental in Bella’s decision to pursue a career as a sound engineer.

While at Bennington College, Bella started an internship at Clubhouse Studio which eventually led to her working as an assistant engineer and gaining more contacts in the Hudson Valley. She was also experimenting with writing and recording her own songs and found it extremely fulfilling. Bella loves the whole recording process and enjoys helping other artists to produce and record their music. She says “at first I was intimidated by all of the gear, but now I’m so comfortable in the studio, and I want to help the musicians I work with to feel at ease in that environment as well.”

photo1Bella recently started the female-run independent record label Spirit House Records. She explains their mission is to “elevate female voices in a male-dominated industry and to empower each other to make and distribute art on our own terms”. Spirit House Records is based in Portland, OR, and is run collectively by Bella, Johanna Warren, and Monica Metzler. Bella and Johanna began collaborating in 2013 and Bella has engineered, mixed, and co-produced three albums for Johanna. Bella says they had many conversations about the role of women in the music industry, “how female artists are often overshadowed by the male producers, engineers, and musicians around them, and how completely different it can feel to work on an all-female team. We talked about how almost all music that we hear has at some point passed through a male lens, and how we know so many talented female musicians who don’t seem to be getting the recognition we think they deserve. We had thrown around different ideas about how we could contribute to empowering independent and upcoming female voices in the industry, and when Johanna came to me with the fully formed concept of Spirit House, I was immediately on board. We decided to start a label that would focus on releasing the work of female and non-binary artists. Our goal is to empower artists that we believe in and whose music we love by creating a safe and supportive network and dismantling self-doubt”. Spirit House is also a full resource for independent artists, providing expertise with music releases from start to finish; including recording, mixing, production, PR, album art, video editing, radio campaigns, booking a tour, etc.

Spirit House currently has four female artists on its roster who have written and produced their own albums. They have plans to expand to include at least four new artists in 2017. You can hear the Spirit House Sampler with a track from each of their current artists.

What if any obstacles or barriers have you faced?

One of the first obstacles that I quickly realized was needing to be strong enough to move a lot of heavy gear around in the studio! I started working out more and trying to build up my strength so that if someone asked me to move a heavy guitar amp, I could do it. I’m not saying I don’t need to ask for help sometimes, I definitely do. The other main obstacle I’ve faced is the combination of being a woman and looking young. I’ve often had bands or producers come into the studio and start talking to a male intern as if he were the assistant or engineer. I’m still working on this one, but I’ve found that introducing and identifying myself right away helps. The proof is once we start working or setting up a session, then people can see that I really know what I’m doing.

Advice you have for other women and young women who wish to enter the field?

Be determined – it’s not always easy, but if you’re passionate, stick with it. It takes a lot of hard work. Be open to learning something new from every session or situation you find yourself in. Every engineer/producer/musician/band can have subtly (or drastically) different ways of making a record. I think it’s important to be able to adapt and to realize what you can learn from each one. Be yourself. Some situations seem to require a more neutral presence, but don’t lose sight of your own voice.

Be prepared to work long hours.

Must have skills?

The ability to work fast and anticipate people’s needs or what’s coming next. For me, I find that has to do with being sensitive and intuitive (which are often thought of as feminine traits), and knowing the process. Also, patience. Genuine patience.

Favorite gear?

LA3A, on so many things. Especially female vocals.

What do you like best about working in the studio?

I like being able to get sounds, to sculpt them and work with them. My favorite part is being there when a band does an incredible take of a song or someone lays down an amazing overdub. It can be a magical moment, and I feel lucky to be in the room to witness those moments that will be documented in the recording forever. What I also love about working in the studio is that no two sessions are ever the same. It changes so much depending on the music and all of the people involved. It keeps it interesting and constantly changing. Each session is a unique experience, and I think the vibe of that comes through in the music.

What do you like least?

Sometimes working long hours for days or weeks on end can be kind of brutal. It can be hard to keep up with normal life stuff like doing your laundry or going grocery shopping. But it’s worth it.

What is your favorite day off activity?

Going for a hike or just getting outside. After being in a control room all the time, I’m always craving some fresh air.

Spirit House goals for 2017:

We are working to promote independent and upcoming female artists to get their music out and their voices heard. We have had 4 releases so far this fall – Johanna Warren’s LP Gemini I, Lola Kirke’s debut EP, Forest Veil’s LP Zoolights, and Indira Valey’s LP Recordar. My own debut album (under the moniker Vellum) is the next release scheduled to come out on Spirit House, so I’m currently working on gearing up for that release in February. I wrote all the songs, played and sang all the parts, recorded and mixed the whole album on my own in the studio after hours, or when it wasn’t booked, so creating it was a very internal and isolated process, and I’m really looking forward to releasing it with Spirit House to share the music that came out of that experience.

I’m glad to have the support of Spirit House in this release, and it gives me a glimpse into the experience of being a new artist on the label. In a way, I can get to experience the label from both sides, which can help me to figure out what to work on in terms of the kind of support artists want from the label, what support we can provide, and just generally how to tailor the experience for each artist. It makes me think of a similar experience that I’ve had existing on both sides of the glass in the studio – from recording my own music or being hired as a vocalist, to being the engineer on a session. Both can be totally different experiences but they completely inform one another. My work as a musician has greatly helped my engineering skills – being able to communicate with musicians, knowing where to punch in, what kind of edits they want or how to do the edits so they sound natural and musical, being able to follow along on a score or a chart – have all really helped me.

photo2We are already working on exciting new plans for Spirit House Records in 2017. As I mentioned before, my debut album Vellum Not So Far will be released on Spirit House in February. We are also in negotiations and expecting to add 4 new artists to our roster with upcoming releases in 2017. The artists we’ve been talking to are all incredible female musicians and songwriters who we really believe in and are looking forward to working with. I’m particularly looking forward to these new additions to the Spirit House team because several of the artists are in the phase of getting ready to record their new albums, which I’ve been talking with them about engineering and starting to plan when and where we will record these new bodies of work. I think it will be great to be able to work with an artist all the way from recording to mixing to promoting and releasing an album. At Spirit House, we aim to be a full-service label for independent artists, able to facilitate every step of the process in creating and releasing an album.

What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?

Fair Labor Standards Act – Know the changes and how they might affect you.

Effective December 1, 2016, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will create a change in salary base pay for many people working throughout the US.  FLSA increases the weekly base pay requirement for salaried employees from $455 a week to $913 a week or $47,476 a year. You can find more specific and direct details here.  As a bit of an overview with this new act if you make less than the $913 per week as a salary for a 40-hour work week, and you end up working more than 40 hours within that week, you are entitled to either compensation time or overtime pay; both at time and a half.  Compensation time (comp time for short) means paid time off for 1.5 times the amount you worked over 40 hours during that week. Let’s use for example a situation where you work 42 hours in one payroll week.  With the changes in the FLSA, you would get that 2 hours in either comp time or overtime pay plus half equaling 3 hours of overtime for that week.  Your employer gets to decide if they will give you comp time or overtime pay when you work any extra time.

You’ve maybe run into this in the past and just altered time the next week so that it all balances out.  With the new rules, it doesn’t work like that any longer.  Overtime is based on a “per payroll week” schedule which is 40 hours within one 7-day period. That 7-day period can be determined by the employer.  Mine has set it up as the workweek is Sunday through Saturday. So if I work 42 hours one week and 38 the next I would end up with 3 hours of comp time or extra pay from the first week and 2 hours missing from work or being taken as vacation time from the second week.

This FSLA policy is another layer on top of an earlier act that does not allow you to volunteer for your employer doing the work that they already pay you to do.  As a result, volunteering for work is also not an option. You can read up on the rules regarding volunteering at your workplace for the work you are already paid to do here.

At this time, I am unable to speak about or clarify any rules regarding what FSLA looks like for anyone who freelances or works solely for themselves so I recommend that you take a look at the ruling so you know if there are any changes for you or your workplace. I do know FLSA does not affect those who are already paid hourly and already have overtime opportunities.

What does it looks like when applied to the workplace?

For many of us, this change is big as our work weeks are often very full, loaded with non-standard hours, and rarely ever 40-hours a week. I have been asking what other people are doing and many people have said they weren’t sure or are going to figure it out later. The system that I work in adopted these new rules almost immediately, so I thought I would share what has been happening for me in hopes others might be able to learn more and work out their own plan.

Personally, FLSA is causing a lot of change for me and many others in my organization. My salary is less than $47,476 a year and the organization I work for is not prepared to pay the overtime. It also happens that there is a policy within my organization that limits how much comp time I could accrue, if allowed at all, as a result they have decided to save the comp time for emergencies and high profile events. Overall, the goal in my organization is to never pay overtime or to allow anyone to accrue comp time.

My organization decided to start practicing for this change in September of this year.  That means once I reach my 40 hours each week, that’s it. Time to go home. Although I am excited for an opportunity to get paid fairly for the hours I put in, I am struggling with the idea to just walkout at the 40-hour mark. My integrity seems to be getting in the way. I struggle with the idea of walking out no matter what is happening, and potentially not being there for critical issues. The other force that I am up against is the policies of not accruing comp time, not paying for overtime, and not volunteering.   It has been interesting to find a way to navigate between these lines and feel good about it.

Now some people would say well that means they need to hire a second person, or that I’m doing too much work for one person, which could be true nevertheless in the near future with budget concerns the staffing level isn’t going to change. Just like some of you who work in smaller clubs sometimes the money just isn’t there to create the needed change so we take it one step at a time.

But I digress, to navigate this new balance there are a couple of things I have been doing.  First, I do what I can to plan my upcoming schedule accordingly to balance out the needs of events and other responsibilities of my position, while adhering to my time limit. I submit my work plan in advance of each workweek for approval to show when I will be working and when I will be away. I find myself working only 4 days a week on average, working various days and hours each week. Second, I have set specific office hours’ time where I can do the planning, administrative tasks, and ensure that I am managing my staff effectively.  I set these items into my calendar when I think the office is quiet to prevent interruptions, and when I can best connect with my staff.   Third, I find now I am even more focused on reviewing my schedule from a longer-range perspective.  Instead of working 2 weeks out, I have found I am looking 3 or 4 weeks ahead. This is so I can get the information I need for events farther in advance to plan my hours accordingly. It also helps to combat the time draw that last-minute events create on my now extremely tight timetable.  For the most part, this process seems to be working, although I have still had a couple of weeks with some extra time.  The schedule is something that those around me have struggled to deal with.  In the past, I had a more fixed schedule, and people knew when they could find me.  Now each week varies, and there is a lot of adjusting going on. It’s been a reasonable place to start, a good practice also, as it isn’t even my most busy season yet.

The process of adhering to the FLSA definitely changes things for me.  I appreciate the early planning and progress that has been made so far, to understanding the impact of adhering to the new rules.  Figuring this out is a work in progress, and is not yet perfected.  However, I wanted to share with you a reminder of the new rules, in the event, they impact you, as they do me.  I hope that sharing the basics of the rules helps you start thinking about how this may impact you and that sharing my approach may help you determine your own plans in anticipation of this change. It’s not too soon to get started thinking about what this may mean to you and how it may change your work-life balance.

Links:

https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/overtime-factsheet.htm

http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/whd/flsa/docs/volunteers.asp

 

Navigating the Build – 100 Days to Show Time.

Being a part of a new building process is quite an adventure. The building will open to the general public in 100 days. It has been approximately 200 days since my last blog about it- check out my first blog on the building process here.

img_3153100 days until the building opens to the public, students wandering through taking a look, dining employees getting to know their new kitchens, and of course, brand new technology running our meeting rooms.
It’s a bit daunting to think about how much is left to be done and how little time is left.

As the project has moved forward, I have continued to learn more and more about how all the pieces of a new building come together. Four years ago I was reading drafts and plans of how things would look and be wired. On the latest walkthrough, it is all starting to come together. Equipment is installed, wired, and starting to work. It’s astounding how long it has taken and yet how quickly all the pieces are coming together.

It is has been eye-opening that even though hundreds of people have read the project books, details are still missed. Budgets get adjusted, and sometimes pieces just don’t come together in time. Many words from my last building update remain valid. In particular, the importance of setting a timeline and sticking with it as well as setting the budget and maintaining it.

The timeline is still as vital today as it was 200 days ago. Just as it is important to schedule start and ends time to an install it is also important to schedule progress checks and walk-throughs frequently; although there is a balance to checking on the work and micro-managing. For instance, in this project’s case, there are so many people and layers that changes need to go through before they can happen sometimes it takes too long to get a change order in and approved before it can no longer be modified. Once the ball is rolling it’s almost impossible to stop without an increased expense.

Checking early and often can combat this, but you also don’t want to get in the way and slow down the timeline. Each step affects the next, so if something needs to be changed get the process started early, so it doesn’t have significant ramifications on the building schedule. There are a few items in this building that if caught earlier could be changed, however, that didn’t occur and for now, it’s too late.

The budget is just as important from start to finish as I wrote the last time around, but as we go, I’m learning just how valuable it is to truly get the budget set for all the needs right away. It’s not worth the stress or the headache of wondering if there will be enough money left afterward to add this or that. Establish the budget from the start to include everything deemed a priority, and then leave room for the price of those items to change. Having the funds set aside from the beginning will help with getting everything done on time and right the first time.

Finally, last time I wrote about balancing persistence and patience, and it remains even truer today. I would also add acceptance and creative problem-solving. Accept the things that cannot be changed, lower your expectations for perfection. The building and technology will not be perfect, recognizing that early on can help you not to get stuck on the small things. Decisions have to be made fast, pick your priorities and stick with them. Focus on significant issues; the little ones won’t matter in the long run.

Get creative. Find different sources to purchase equipment if you can; it might be cheaper or even free. Currently, I am applying for a grant to add the lighting equipment my staff wants and loves. Buy ahead, I am an organized person, so I like to have the right cases and storage capabilities. However, these items could be considered extra when it comes to a budget that is running low. So I purchased ahead and bought cases that are general enough they will be easy to integrate into whatever we end up within the building. Be creative in your problem-solving, look at every possibility, and be prepared to make changes.

Last but not least, don’t forget about your current facility or shows. You may still need to invest in what you have to keep your current shows running. If something is already 15 years old and the project completion is five years away, it’s likely going to fail or have trouble before you are finished with it. If your budget allows, do not plan to move your 15-year-old equipment into the new facilities. You do not want every room and rack to look like the highlight of the daily AV nightmare posts floating around the internet.

 

Preparing for the Start of the School Year – Staff Training

As the start of the school year approaches there are many things that need to happen before the first events take place at UWL. Checking racks and carts to make sure everything is working. Installing fresh projector lamps where needed, and finishing up the last of the cable repairs to name a few. The overall goal is to be prepared for the busy season, which is virtually the entire semester.

Working for the school many of my staff members leave for the summer and won’t touch a soundboard until they are back in the fall. Just like in elementary school with such a long summer break many items are forgotten and time has to be spent relearning the skills and procedures, and then start building on the new ones. In preparation, student employees are asked to come to campus a week early for 40 hours of staff training before classes and events start on opening weekend.

This week is vital to getting the team back into the tech regime as well as setting the tone for the entire season. This is the one and only week for the entire year when the pressure of events are off and time is more flexible to address issues and try new things. I find this week to be one of our most important as it sets the tone for the year as well as gets everyone back up to speed, making the year easier for me. I take full advantage of this week, and carefully pick and choose what we will do, to make the best of our time.

Here are the topics we will be covering and why.

Technology

We spend a lot of time on technology; it’s what we do, and what our clients need the most assistance with. I make sure we always spend time on our primary audio systems as well as the lighting systems. We work toward advancing the existing skills by doing drills and exercises that will push the staff’s limits. Substantial time is spent on any equipment pieces that are new.

This year the technology training is going to complete via solo activities. This is purposely designed due to having a fairly new staff and needing those students to gain independence. Seven different stations designed for each person to refresh and improve their skills. The goal is to get everyone to their next level in time for our new building. The stations this year focus on mixing, LED light, faster setups, house lighting, troubleshooting, and more.

Emergencies

We work through our emergency procedures twice a year, but fall is where we get really in-depth. We combine the 3 teams that are most likely to need to react in an emergency and work together to make sure everyone knows their role and responsibilities. We cover medical situations, building safety, fire, inclement weather, and active shooter situations. These students also receive AED/CPR training from a certified instructor as well as basic first aid.

Teamwork

Teamwork is important to me; I think it is vital to be able to work together to create a successful event. We spend time developing how we work together by doing different exercises to see how people react and open dialogue about strengths and weaknesses. I usually ask for someone else within my office to lead this training so an outside perspective can offer advice to increase the team’s cohesiveness. Then throughout training, we build on these activates that expand on teamwork as well as offer some fun and competitiveness.

Communication

stageI’ve talked about the importance of communication before and it will always remain a forefront topic during our training. There is a great deal of communication that takes place in the learning and planning modes. The importance of good communications increases during an event. The emphasis is on different types of communication and how good communication can improve the success of the team. Each year we try to raise the bar on how the team uses communications to work together. An example of this is if the team struggled to work through conflict communication in the last year, we’ll spend time on that. Other topics could include leadership communication, directional communication, or even body language.

Customer Service

Customer Service in production technology is a whole lot different than customer service in say retail or restaurants. The customer isn’t always right and sometimes we just have to say no to some of their desires. Here we work to empower the staff to be able to help as necessary, offer advice for logistics, the best use of the venue and technology. It’s important that we develop the skills to communicate clearly with the customer, and address issues in a friendly manner. We work through how to tell a customer they can’t do something due to safety concerns or time constraints, or equipment possibilities, solving problems in a way that works for all parties involved.

Team planning

staffFinally, we spend time team planning or visioning. Usually, over a meal, we talk about what the team looks like now and what they would like to look like in the future. We talk about what procedures are working and which aren’t. Overall, we come up with a vision for the group that includes improvements through the year that makes the team better by continuing to learn, grow, and change as needed. Vision is important to me. When the team is involved in creating the vision and goals for the year, they will be more engaged in putting forth the effort that is needed to reach those achievements.

To conclude, preparation is important for the start of the year. Training, communication, and planning gives us the foundation to come together as a well-performing team. It’s not a one-time thing; the opportunity to improve and learn is continual. Next year we will be in a new building with hundreds of updates, new demands, and a new outlook on how we work as a unit and a team. While my focus for the moment is on training the staff for this year, my subconscious is already working to anticipate what will need to be done to prepare for the next year, when we move into a new facility. There will be more space, more technology, shifting customer expectations, and more deliverables expected from the team. One thing I feel confident about is that we will continue to work with the core concepts of technology, teamwork, communication, customer service, and team planning.

PS: more on the new building to come soon!

 

Changing the Dread of the Annual Review

As a manager of 12 student staff members, it is part of my responsibility to conduct annual or semester reviews.  I see the value in reviews as it is an opportunity to connect with staff, have a one-on-one conversation without racing the clock to cover the event needs, and to talk about anything that may need to be further addressed.   However, I personally hate reviews.  I hate that it can be such a formal process where there always seems to be a buildup of anxiety before the meeting, and then in my case (when I have my own review) I have to fill out a form rating and justifying myself before I speak with my supervisor.  Reviews can be really nerve-racking and sometimes some of the information shared comes as a surprise.

When I first started as a manager I followed the standard review process I had experienced.  Send off the “rate yourself” form and schedule a meeting with the employee than go through the form myself and rate them. Let the anxiety build until the meeting occurs, discuss the differences in ratings, tell them what to fix, and call it a day.  Doesn’t sound too helpful, does it?  All someone really gets out of that is what I think differently from them (usually) about their work and then we go on about our business.  I also feel as though 80% of the time new information is shared at these meetings, which I also don’t like.

I think a review should be a time to touch base, continue conversations uninterrupted from the standard workday, have two-way communication about plans and ideas, further address issues (if needed), and best of all grant raises if you can. I think reviews should be positive and oriented toward improvements than negative with reprimands and surprise information. As a result, I decided to take a new approach with my staff members.  I threw out the “rate yourself” form, stopped asking if they thought they meet expectations or exceed them, and address issues as they occur instead of once a year or semester.

Instead, I decided to change the anxiety-filled meeting into a conversation about goals and planning. This way, I gain knowledge of where they are in achieving the goals they have set, provide my 2 cents on where I think they are, continue a conversation about something that hasn’t gone well, and – if I can afford it – offer a raise.  

As a side note, I include continuing the conversation about something that hasn’t gone well in the past, as I never want a negative topic to be a surprise.  If I see something an employee needs to change I tell them right then (if time permits), otherwise sometime that day. I never wait too long or let it be a surprise later on. That doesn’t do anyone any justice. Waiting 6 months to tell someone that they did something they shouldn’t only give them more time to continue the mistake and for it to become the norm.

I always start my review meetings touching base with the staff member, asking them how they are doing, what’s stressing them out most right now in life and/or at work, and opening the door so the employees can talk to me about anything they want to first. Then we move into goals. We will discuss progress on the goals they set for the semester reviewing their progress and discussing if the expectations have been met both by me and the employee. Then we move forward with setting new goals. Usually, I have staff members set three goals. I have found that three goals in a semester seem to be achievable and we can cover a wide range of enhancements within those three.  I strive for each staff member to have one skill-based goal (communication, leadership, etc.) one technology-based goal (mic placement, board techniques, etc.), and then one in any area they desire to improve.

We determine these goals together so we both can see developments where needed, but so we can also make sure the goals are achievable and lay the groundwork to do so.  We talk right then about how they plan to reach those goals and what I can do to help them.  It is also an opportunity to make a recurring issue a goal for improvement so everyone is on the same page.

Our next conversation is about raises. If I am allowed, I give raises based on their performance and their achievements of these goals. If I can’t give a raise we have a conversation of why so they know why no raise was given. I try to not keep everything a secret; secrets don’t help create a team environment.  

Finally, I open the floor to them. I ask them if they have anything else they would like to discuss or anything they want to bring to my attention or feel that I should change. Communication is a two-way street so for all of us to be a great team together. I believe that my employees should feel like they can talk to me about or ask me to change anything. Having open conversation helps to create a positive work environment and also allows for me to be transparent about what I am working with or up against. I can learn as much from them as they can from me so keeping communication open helps me improve and develop my management skills as well.

Overall, my philosophy with my employees is that I’m a stepping-stone to whatever they desire next from their careers.  My goal is to create an employee that is prepared, educated, and qualified for their next job. Now, their next job always means they leave the operation as I can only hire students so they always move forward, but I don’t think my philosophy would change if I worked somewhere where employees had indefinite terms. However, I would adjust my orientation of the next job being within the company instead of elsewhere. My point is this: change your review tactics if you are a manager in order to make it about goal setting and moving forward instead of each staff member’s personal Yelp review from someone who didn’t even ask the server for more ranch before bashing the company online).

There’s More to Emergencies Than the Plan

In the wake of all the recent and horrible actions occurring in venues across the world, I had someone ask me what I am doing to teach my students how to be prepared for these situations. What am I doing to ensure their safety as well as the safety of the people attending events at venues under my supervision and when I am not there?

I could have told this person that we spend time talking about active shooters, running fire drills, working through emergency medical exercises, and more. This is true, we run these activities and have discussions every year. Each fall I sit with 30 students from age 18-22 to discuss and show them what to do in case this or that happens. However, just discussing and showing them isn’t enough.

We do fire drills, tornado drills, have active shooter discussions, and explain everyone’s roles in these situations, but it’s not enough. Information like this is lost over time without continuous practice.  Although these situations do occur, they are rare enough that the students may never directly experience them.  We must build a foundation of response and continually reinforce it. Yes someone could just follow a checklist and mark things off, but these situations are dynamic and rarely ever the same. Plus in an emergency – who will have time to check off the list?

In addition to the drills, discussions, and information we go through I also spend time trying to develop each person’s sense of self and work through how they might react in such a situation.  I spend time teaching them to ask questions. Ask questions about the procedure I am explaining, and how to work through it if it happens. To develop scenarios where they work through their thought processes on what should be done. I teach them to ask questions of those around them: What is the event? How many people are we expecting? Who is our point person for the night? Do I know everyone that is working? Have they all had the same training as me? Do I remember what I’m supposed to do?  Do I know where my resources are?

Next, I work toward having them become more aware of their surroundings.  Do I see the people who are entering the room? Am I able to walk through the fire lane in the dark without tripping? Do I know what the weather is like outside? Do I know what other events are happening in the building? Have I put down my phone long enough to be aware of something unusual? Am I greeting people as they walk by, so I might remember whom I’ve seen that day? download (13)

Now that they are working towards being more aware and are asking the questions they need to ask of themselves and others are they acting on what they are seeing? Did the clutter get moved from fire lane? Did I notify security of a bag that looks out of place? Have I communicated with venue management to express my concerns about a room that is getting too full?  They need to communicate what they see to help prevent escalating issues.

download (14)Finally, but no less significant they do need to know emergency plans.  They need to know what to do in inclement weather. They need to know who the point person is for every event. They need to have experience so they can think straight and have the necessary tools to keep themselves and others safe.  They need to comprehend the process and potential outcomes for Run, Hide, Fight.

There will be no perfect answer on what should be done in each situation. But we must educate ourselves, know the options, ask questions, be aware of our surroundings, communicate our concerns, and know the emergency plan.

 

X