And I need you to be better than me
And you need me to do better than you.
—Know Better, Learn Faster by Thao With The Get Down Stay Down

Over a week has passed since the 50^th Anniversary Summit of Americans for the Arts, and what a whirlwind week it was. Back at SOMArts Cultural Center we closed out an amazing turnaround year. We more than doubled our gallery attendance, revived our intern and volunteer programming, launched a website, renovated our lobby and office spaces, invested in long-overdue equipment upgrades, fought to protect our city funding, and lived to tell about it.  And yet, in many ways we are just catching up. There’s so much to do and it feels like the more we succeed, the more people we connect to who have urgent needs and high expectations.  Such is the life of a thriving nonprofit.

At the AftA convention, I connected with peers who had similar stories. We’re all exhausted. So we sat in the audience and listened to panels talk about new models, veering between skepticism and hope.

I came to convention still stubbornly hanging on to the idea that a “new model” was a structure I could study and apply to my organization—that magical combination of for-profit innovation, technology application and nonprofit altruism.

I left convention having reached the conclusion that we need to stop treating “new model” like a noun, in panels or anywhere else, when what we’re talking about is changing the system. We’re asking how we can achieve dramatic organizational change necessitated by the factors mentioned above, but succeeding via thoughtful communication and a process of enrolling (vs. influencing) stakeholders in one’s vision.

What feels new to me is the transparency. For the first time, we can look around us and see extremely detailed examples of where and how for-profit companies are recruiting and enrolling. There’s an online component for almost everything. And for the most part, small and midsize nonprofits are still hesitating to invest as much in the process as they invest in the product because, as one panelist put it, the means for enrolling (aka outreach, aka new audience development, aka getting feedback) “doesn’t feel like an internal organ of the organization.”

The most resonant statement at the convention came from Keri Putnam, executive director of the Sundance Institute, who said, “Nonprofits are too focused on product. If you are not constantly considering how to reach out and engage with the public …”. That was it. No answer, no question. A jumping-off point.

Her point was echoed in the panel “Technology’s Impact On the Future of Traditional Arts Delivery Systems,” where Tim Svenonius producer of Interactive Educational Technologies at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, warned us to “stay away from the edge” and figure out how the masses decide to utilize cutting-edge technology before investing scarce resources in that fancy new app. We talked about the importance of transitioning from monolithic undertakings (cd-rom, anyone?) to bite-sized and consistent streams of content.

At “Testing New Nonprofit Business Models,” the idea of investing in the process was again echoed when Cheryl Ikemiya of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation talked about the Innovation Lab, a program that provides facilitation and funding to help organizations design and prototype innovative strategies.

One of my favorite “ah-ha!” moments was when Dewey Schott, senior manager of leadership services for the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, espoused the significance of enrolling versus influencing at the “Leadership and Influence” panel. It takes a special type of courage to put excitement about one’s own ideas and work front and center, a quality more often found in artists than administrators. Some of the most influential organizations I’ve worked with are still resorting to fear and force tactics, aka “if you don’t do x for us then we will do y, the economy will collapse even further, arts workers will lose their jobs, doors will close.” I’m not saying that doesn’t work, but this is an area that could use some new thinking.

Enrolling is more about excitement than power. It’s about joining a group that could be as small as a classroom or as big as an army, but it stands for something. Which is good, because as a strategy, leveraging communities and passionate perspectives plays to the strengths of the arts sector.

So I’m back home in San Francisco, and when I look around at what for-profit organizations are doing to enroll people there are some interesting case studies. This week, my inspiration is Coffee With Square, and ForageSF: Should the Market Get Bigger. I wrote a little about them both below in the hope that others would share their own enrollment case studies in the comments section.

Case study #1: Enrolling Amidst Adversity

Coffee With Square

A square is a credit-card processing device that allows one’s smartphone to collect payments. It was created when a glass artist Jim McKelvey couldn’t accept payment for his goods and proposed a solution to Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. The idea caught on fast, so fast that the company quickly ran into legal and production issues.

Inspiration: to update people about the company’s progress, Square launched “Coffee With Square,” a low-key Friday webcast with employees.  The first one featured Dorsey and had 1300 views. The Square homepage is also all about enrollment—there’s very little info and the most dominant element on the homepage is a big blue button that says “Get Started!”.

Case study #2: Meaningful Membership.

ForageSF: Should the Market Be Bigger?

Iso Rabins was having a hard time getting his foraged food into Bay Area farmers markets, so he started the Underground Farmers Market at a friend’s house in the Mission District. The Health Department came calling, and Rabins found a loophole: membership. People who want to attend the market are all members, the only requirement of membership is that you sign up for the email list.

Inspiration:  Rabins could have treated membership as a red-tape necessity, but instead he uses the large membership to his advantage, explaining decisions such as whether or not to move to a larger venue and asking for meaningful feedback. As a result, ForageSF’s popularity has exploded, including an upcoming feature in the New York Times Magazine.

Note: this post was originally created for and published on the blog of Americans for the Arts.

Almost a year ago, something happened at SOMArts … I didn’t realize at the time, but it was the beginning of a movement I now call the “Shaping Up On A Shoestring Movement.” Someone who came to SOMArts for Day of the Dead exhibition contacted me, he was part of the National Council on Aging and worked with their employment training program.

Like most SOMArts opportunities, this one came about as the result of the NCOA’s contact with a friendly and inspiring staff member. SOMArts needed someone to monitor our galleries and the NCOA provided Lynne, whose role quickly expanded to include reception and administrative support.

Around the same time, a client of SOMArts suggested that we look into Philanthropy by Design, a charitable organization that connects a network of design industry professionals with community benefit organizations and saves tons of furniture from the landfill through creative reuse. Caroline Ranere of Ranere Design Group donated her time and talent to transform the SOMArts lobby, clean up our office spaces and create a more functional and welcoming workspace.

As we were cleaning and painting, we realized that although we had lots of volunteers at different times throughout the year, we didn’t have a way to track their time or interests so that we could make the best use of their skills. We also weren’t keeping track of all the volunteer time that was donated and relied upon as an essential resource for our organization. I remembered an article published on Blue Avocado, Tracking Volunteer Time To Boost Your Bottom Line, and we used the templates from that article to start building up a real volunteer program. We reached out to the California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life and applied for a student  to work as our Communications and Community Outreach Fellow. Staff members Deb Bok and Rene Yanez held volunteer orientations to help introduce new volunteers to the opportunities at SOMArts. We attended the Volunteer Center’s Board Match to connect with people who were interested in donating their skills as Board Members for nonprofits. We applied to Rebuilding Together and they brought more than 50 volunteers from The Belden Club to repaint our theater and Bay Gallery during National Volunteer Week (they even put photos of the day on their website). Amber Hasselbring of the Mission Greenbelt Project guided our growing volunteer team to revive our garden. Project 20 volunteers helped repair our floors and deejay at art openings. Curator & Gallery Director Justin Hoover developed internship descriptions for the gallery and reached out to local university programs to help develop the Ramp Gallery in our new lobby and prepare for exhibit installations.

Less than a year later, we’ve partnered with over fifteen organizations and logged more than 2,000 volunteer hours. More importantly, we’ve made significant improvements that will benefit all of the arts and community-building cultural groups who depend on SOMArts and expanded a fun, diverse community of individuals who believe in our mission. Getting strategic about our repair and maintenance efforts means that more donations directly support our programs, and that our donors can feel confident that every dollar they give is going as far as it can. (in case I am being too subtle this is a PITCH to donate to SOMArts—it’s worth it!)

When I think back, the most amazing thing about our little shaping up on a shoestring movement is how easy it was to undertake these projects and how much we got in return for our efforts. In-kind volunteer and employment programs saved SOMArts many thousands of dollars this year and all it took was small, intentional, progressive changes over the course of a year. The organizations (who I’ve linked to for the benefit of other arts managers who might read this) were without exception excited to work with arts organizations, and those of us who work at SOMArts made new friends who are full of great suggestions and enthusiasm.

If you live in the area and haven’t been to SOMArts in a while, there is a beautiful exhibit in the Main Gallery right now: (Re-)CLAIM, an exhibition by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center. And next Saturday is a fundraiser to support SNAG (Seventh Native American Generation) youth in attending the Allied Media Conference. There will be a skateboard art exhibit, vendors, drumming, Pomo dancers, Mohawk acoustic soul music, LOTS of other music and dancing, visual art and good food. It will be a very fun time for a very good cause.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Yosi Sergant, and reading the debate on Jeff Chang’s blog. I’ve been thinking a lot about politics, and provincialism, and wondering if it is possible to write an interesting blog anymore if you are The Administration.

Why do we become The Administration? I say this, half-joking and half-horrified, because a grassroots leader I know is referred to that way by her staff. “The Administration” refers to just one person.

I know a lot of emerging leaders who want to be the director of an organization someday. I don’t know any who want to become “The Administration.”

Sigh … in a perfect world the Yosi Sergants would wield ongoing power and have infinite connections to serve their mission without joining the NEA. But that is a tough row to hoe. In a perfect world we’d all be making art in the service of an insurrection, by the people for the people. But in this world, we can’t even use the word insurrection without having to defend it. And the most talented insurrectionists I know are also talented at finding money and administrations to back them up.

Back to the blog–I guess I’m feeling a little doubt these days about what’s safe and what’s fair. I’m not giving up the blog. But it merits more thought.

And on “emerging leadership” … I’ll be giving a very short talk on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Area Emerging Arts Professionals as part of Friday Nights at the de Young, this Friday night. If you are wrestling with these same issues, come join us–it will be good times!

Truth is, artists and administrators working together can do great things But we often approach those great things from different perspectives. And we are not the only group out there who tries to achieve great things despite vast differences (politics, anyone?). In this case, I am thinking of another group of creative, passionate individuals whose work does not always have an immediate, practical application–academics.

Clare Potter, Professor of History and American Studies at Wesleyan University, has a blog called Tenured Radical. She has written a wonderful, nuanced post about collaboration. If you substitute the words “academic” and “professor” for artist, it is a rockin’ treatise from the perspective of a radical, demanding, respectful and compassionate artist (oops, I mean academic).

Here are the adapted highlights:

Be firm and clear when expressing objections, but don’t be abusive or accuse the administrator of bad faith out of hand.

Give people the benefit of the doubt: sometimes they lack knowledge for a reason.

Administrators are not failed artists.

You can’t always get what you want.

Administrators, like God, help those who help themselves.

The highlights don’t do her justice, and the comments are worth a read too. As Barry Hessenius would say, Don’t Quit!

The most important goal, in my opinion, is to have the SOMArts web presence feel like an online extension of our physical organization. Since SOMArts is a hub for many cultural communities, more than 100 visual artists, and more than 50 Bay Area nonprofits each year, it makes sense that our website be a hub for these communities to connect and cross over. SOMArts patrons love the fact that in our building you can come for the Mongolian exhibit and stumble upon the Homeless Coalition’s art auction. But the website should also be a home for easy-to-find details such as directions, mission and building hours. Balancing and articulating these priorities has been a challenge.

That is why I was so interested to read Andrew Taylor’s Artful Manager post about the “lifestream.” Individuals (such as SOMArts staffer Rio Yanez) do a great job linking social networking to their personal sites, but I have yet to see an organization nail it.

Who knows … perhaps SOMArts will be one of the first! Here’s hoping.

Courtesy of the Berkun Blog.

A cursory romp through the website shows that this is something I could get excited about. The homepage links to a guide for strategic planning, and the Resource Center includes an interactive documents library. Documents already available include: a case study of the Penumbra Theatre in Minneapolis as well as point-by-point guidelines for press, fundraising and creating institutional identity.

The documents library, in particular, is a resource that has been requested by emerging leaders I know who are interested in both learning and contributing.

My only problem with the website occurred when I tried to add an rss feed for Michael M. Kaiser’s blog into my online rss reader. I use Netvibes, and I could not load the artsmanager feed onto the site. Possibly that is because artsmanager requires a free account and password, or perhaps the technical difficulties are on my end.

Blog difficulties aside, this is a site I can see myself returning to again and again.