What does the comm do? (Publicity Secretaries)

Yep, that's me! :D (In case you haven't guessed...)

As you can probably infer from the name, Publicity Secretaries are in charge of publicity for GENUS - the ensemble and our performances.

What do the Publicity Secretaries do?

• Publicity Plans
• Co-ordinating school visits and networking with other guitar ensembles
• Website updates
• Newsletter / Blog / GENUS Calendar
• Publicity materials (Flyers, poster design and display)
• Welcome tea, Matriculation Fair
• Advertisement drafting (write up for concerts, concert synopsis)
• Programme booklet
• Facebook update of photos
• GENUS T-shirt

Publicity secretaries are responsible for GENUS' image as they are in charge of materials that the public see/read/receive about us. Unfortunately for them, their mistakes are highly visible. But this is minimized through vetting by CFA marketting department! (And of course, the fact that there are 4 pairs of eyes to check through the work helps too)

However, publicity is not an effort of the pub secs alone! Publicity Secretaries receive alot of help from the rest of the committee and GENUS when it comes to events matriculation fair, and publicising for concerts (like for calling/mailing publicity to schools, clubs and associations...)

Qualities that a good Publicity Secretary candidate should have:

• Eye for the aesthetics
• Creative :D and have some publicity ideas!
• Ability to stick to deadlines (V impt! If we're unable to meet printing deadlines, we would have any programme booklets D:)
• Good grasp of English (no need for super awesome vocabulary, but please be able to form varied sentence structures!)

The very same dinosaur who said that secretaries are the quietest in the comm had also argued that pub secs are always the loudest. I guess we're pretty visible coz we have to ask people to help us with publicity all the time! ^^

And that's it for now. Hope you have a better understanding of what the committee members do! :)

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

what does the comm do? (Property Managers)

From this post onwards, it's going to be the power of 2! There are lots of benefits of having a partner in the same job. One huge boon is that the huge responsibility of the job is shared, and there is no greater responsibility than being in charge of the guitars of the ensemble! As the name suggests, Property Managers are in charge of all GENUS property - and without our guitars, we would not be able to play anything. D:

What do the Property Managers do?

• Maintenance of all the equipment that belongs to the club, including guitars, guitar cases, footstools, music stands, percussion instruments etc. (check for damages and repair and change strings if necessary)
• Reinforce the need to handle the guitars and other equipment properly and to take good care of them.
• Constant stock checking (after every practice) to ensure that every piece of equipment is being accounted for
• Ensure that everyone follows the guitar loaning system strictly (especially signing out before borrowing) so it is easy to keep track of the movement of guitars
• Maintain the tidiness of the storeroom, and follow the cupboard colour coding system so that it is easier to keep track of the guitars and other equipment
• Ensure that setting up and packing up goes on smoothly and efficiently for every practice
• Ensure the smooth running of concerts, equipment and logistics wise (i.e. guitar allocation, transport, storage, setting up, packing up)
• To keep track of the cupboard keys during practices

During AGM last year, a dinosaur (not the same one that I mentioned earlier) commented that the job of the Property Managers is so important that everyone is able to remember who were the PMs for each year but nobody remembers who the President or the rest of the comm is! :D Haha. I believe this is quite true as you see your PMs before and after every practice. (If you don't know who they are, it's either because you don't come for practices or you don't help to set up/pack up!)

So aspiring PMs, know that your names will go down in GENUS history!

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

what does the comm do? (Librarian)

Like the Treasurer who you go to for money, the Librarian is the boss when it comes to matters regarding scores. Besides typing in scores and ensuring that all members have their scores, the librarian has other projects (which many of us don't know about) running in the background.

What does the Librarian do?

• Keep track of the scores
• Supply player with scores
• Manage the library
• Ensure conductors/tutors has the scores
• Search for scores which conductor/CM request
• Rehearsal recordings/video recordings
• Photography & Videography for events

The current ongoing projects of our librarian:

- Compiling GENUS' audio library (past genus performances, cds+dvds)

- Cataloging of scores
- Loaning of scores

- Digitalising of scores (optional and other genus members can chip in)

The librarian works together with the CM when it comes to choosing repertoire for performances as nobody knows our library better than the librarian!

In case the juniors do not know, besides containing ensemble scores, our library also contains many small group pieces. (Of course, arranging your own item is also highly encouraged! ^^) When LPG comes around once again, do ask the librarian for permission to look through this treasure trove of scores :D Don't mess it up though, or you'll have an irate librarian on your back.

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

what does the comm do? (Treasurer)

Treasurer! The person who holds the purse strings of GENUS. Yes, the person you go for to pay money and to get money. (Lol this description sounds exactly like an ATM)

However this is not all a treasurer does!

What does the Treasurer do?

• To constantly keep track of the accounts
• Budgetting
• Collect club fund from members
• Ticketing and front of house during annual concert
• Liaising with the tailor for uniform
• Get dinner for concerts
• Raise funds for GENUS (Sponsorship)
• In charge of Annual Dinner

It is the responsibility of the treasurer to oversee how the money is spent, to make sure that the group does not over-spend or under-spend. The main criteria is one should be accountable in dealing with the accounts and be meticulous with it. Having good records of where the money goes is really important! Without money, we would not be able to do things like buy new strings for our guitars and enjoy member welfare (e.g. teas and annual dinner!)

Qualities that a good Treasurer candidate should have:

As a treasurer, one should be trustworthy and reliable. Afterall you are handling all of our funds! I believe having the ability to effectively hound people for payment would be really helpful to the next treasurer too ;)

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

what does the comm do? (Secretary)

When I was a very blur Year 1 (not that I'm any less blur now), a dinosaur with 10 years of experience in GENUS told me that the secretary is the quietest person in the committee. To back up his statement, he stated past examples of secretaries who are all the opposite of loud. As I did not know any better then, I blindly believed him. To be honest I am not certain if his statement is true, but before people accuse me of spreading untruths, I have to say that Theresia is not as quiet as she seems! ;)

Perhaps due to our secretary's lack of loud exclamations over how busy she is, most juniors might think that the secretary's job is an easy (or the easiest?!) one in the committee. In this special series about the committee we seek to dispel such ridiculous nonsense about the Secretary.

So, what does the secretary actually do?

• Attendance taking
• Compilation and updating of members' contact list
• Administrative tasks like as adding/deleting members from genus groups
• Compile and maintain documents, reports, etc.
• Take down minutes for committee meetings
• Get excuse letters for members (for performances)
• Compile a security list for each concert
• Allocate dressing rooms
• Invite VIPs for concerts

Actually besides all these administrative tasks, our secretary lends us a hand in publicity too! :D Yep, besides the "official job scope" of each post, the committee basically functions as a team with members taking up the slack one of them is missing, and helping each other out when there is a lot of work that needs to be done. Afterall, many hands make light work :)

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

What does the comm do? (Concert Master)

Continuing on with our series, this post will be about the Concert Master/Mistress

You can guess a CM's main responsibility from the name of the post itself, but besides the smooth running of performances (which is already quite a lot of work), our CM is also in charge of our ensemble's playing standards and other things as well! The CM has to ensure that all sections are balanced (in terms of stronger and weaker players) and work closely with our SLs, tutors, assistant conductor and our conductor for the music and also with the UCC crew for logistics of our performances.

What does a CM do?

• Member recruitment (auditions, section allocation, beginners' workshop)
• Ensure the ensemble's standards and smooth running of concerts (planning of rehearsal schedules, auditions, repertoire, stage plans/movements, production schedule bump-in)
• Liasing with tutors and conductor/AC (abt concert matters, repertoire, players' abilities, rehearsals)
• Coordination of external engagements/Guest players

Another thing that the CM has to juggle is the smooth integration of members of different playing strengths. He has to ensure that the weaker players are able to keep up with the main ensemble yet provide for slightly more challenging songs for members to improve their playing skills. Decisions to do with the concert are mostly made by him (together with tutors and Robert), and when it is the concert day, our CM's the boss. :)

(Kenneth actually sent me a really really long and detailed list, but I have summarized many of the points here.)

Qualities that a CM should have are very similar to those of P/VP candidates! -

The ability to communicate and work well with others is especially important to the CM, as he/she would have to with many groups of people to ensure the smooth running of the concert. An ability to see the big picture and also pay much attention to details is also essential in handling the logistics in the concert!

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

What does the comm do? (P/VP)

Hello everyone

Since AGM is coming up, we've decided to do a series of entries about the different committee posts of GENUS! (and also to answer the question of "What exactly does the comm do?!" which has been hovering in many juniors' minds) Yep, this is to help you voters better understand what are the job scopes of the various posts and make informed decisions on your voting slips.

So let us begin with the President and Vice President.

(Please note that these two roles are dynamic and the P & VP should complement each other)

What do P & VP do?

• Together with CM, conductor and tutors, decide the direction of the ensemble especially for concerts.
• Ensure the smooth running of practices and events
• Planning of practice and event schedules
• Allocate tasks to other committee members and set deadlines
• Ensure that all the other committee members are doing their job and to ensure effective communication within the committee
• Fulfill the role of any other committee members when they need help or when they are not around.
• Liase with external parties (CFA, other groups, external organizations, etc)

Qualities that a good P/VP candidate should have:

• Clear vision for GENUS.
• Ability to take the initiative and push new ideas forward.
• Able to identify problems and solve them creatively, being resourceful.
• Have a big picture of things, but also pay great attention to details.
• Open to suggestions and criticisms, but at then end of the day able to come up with decisions with his/her own judgement.
• Willingness to serve and to commit his/her time to GENUS.
• Able to work and communicate well with others.

Actually, willingness to serve and commit your time to GENUS is an important quality in every single committee member. Being a committee member can really take up quite a chunk of your time - so much so that my friend (who is a comm member in another CFA grp) exclaimed to me that she feels more like a full time staff of CFA who is just a part time student of NUS. ^^" Seems pretty extreme huh? But I believe this sentiment rings true for all comm members during the month before concerts :)

This entry is part of the What does the Comm do? series.

The committee is made up President, Vice President, Concert Master, Secretary, Treasurer, Librarian, Property Managers, Publicity Secretaries.

GENUS 2010: Asian Folktales & Legends is over~

Thank you everyone for your support :)

The audience for coming down to NUS even though the next day is a school/work day.

GENUS performers for being awesome, hardworking and not fleeing when you first saw the scores for this concert. Thank you for taking the time and effort to learn and practice the scores!

I hope you all have enjoyed the concert as much as I have.

I rmb feeling vaguely surprised when we were preparing to play Zigeunerleben. My brain went "huh? We're at the last song already?" Months of preparation and practices condensed into 2 hours of performance and the subsequent concert high which hit me much later. Was it worth it for me? Definitely. It felt so surreal to be returning to the humdrum of school less than 12 hours after the concert has ended. It seemed as if there's no such thing as a breather, life just continues on even though we definitely earned a week's break from school.

Surprisingly I had no pre-concert jitters! (But yes, I made mistakes too) I only started to feel nervous when the ensemble started playing Jingli Nona. That was the moment my mind went blank and only my senses were working. Mistakes on stage are unpredictable and difficult to avoid but stage experience does help in bolstering courage before/during performance and reducing stage fright. You can be like "Hey I've done this N number of times before. This is the N+1 time I'm doing, so no big deal. Let's show these noobs how it's done!" Self-hypnotism? :D Haha. But yes, there's only one way to gain experience. The long and scary way.

What helps for me is focusing on the person who probably has the most stage experience -the conductor. This way you tune out everything - the audience, your anxiety, the mistakes you are currently playing - and focus on the next note, the next moment of the music. It is really comforting to know that you are in experienced hands when you are performing, and exciting when you are breathing and creating the same magic together with the rest of the ensemble. Yea that really happens when you focus on the conductor. Amazing isn't it? :)

So there you have it, YJ's brilliant tip to keep your wits about you when you are up on stage with an expectant audience hanging onto your next note! Hope this helps. (Do try it and tell me if it works for you too!)

Signing off now, but do look out for the candidate application forms which would be put up soon. Be nosy and read through them to find out who is running for what and why. Elections in a week, so talk to the candidates, form your opinions and vote wisely~