Department of Fine and Performing Arts – College Admission at Loyola

Presidential Scholarship & Acafriendzy

By | March 25, 2012

Friday night was a busy, but fun, night for me.

It was one of those times when my Event Manager job for the Department of Fine and Performing Arts coincided with my job with the Undergraduate Admissions Office and my social life.

I was contacted by one of the Undergraduate Admissions Counselors, Suzannah Magnuson, a while ago asking if I could help with the audio support for their presidential scholar reception. It was a weird role conflict because I work for her department, but the job she was asking me to do was out of the scope of my job description. Instead it landed within the scope of my event work for the DFPA. But we figured out the best way to arrange payment and it was no problem. Sometimes the system works.

Anyway, I was later contacted by a representative of three of Loyola’s a Capella groups. They were putting on a combined concert in the Auditorium and were in need of sound assistance. Once again I agreed to help, and that’s when things got rough: both events were on the same day.

This did have it’s advantages, however. Even though the events were back to back with little time in between for setup, I was able to do a little work before the Undergraduate Admissions Event kicked off. Once again I had problems locating microphones, and it seems as if the wind shields for some of the microphones have disappeared, but I found enough various mics to set up a working solution.

The presidential scholarship reception went off without a hitch (plus I got to enjoy some of the great catering!) and then the Acafriendzy show went exceptionally well, given the circumstances (little set-up time, missing equipment). I even got a cupcake out of the Acafriendzy group too!

A lot of work, but totally worth it. The concert was great and I’m always glad to help out when my skills match the needs of some other group.

Production Meetings

By | February 13, 2012

Well, it’s the time of year where my work-study job with the Department of Fine and Performing Arts (DFPA) begins to pick up.

Today is my first production meeting of the semester. In production meetings the goal is to go over all the set up and program details for an upcoming concert. This planning involves many different dimensions ranging from room reservations, equipment moves, setup diagrams and tech rehearsal requirements. We also need to discuss the concert order and figure out all the ensemble moves, light changes, audio needs and any other number of special requirements for the event.

Luckily these production meetings, and subsequent productions, have gotten easier with time. I have followed a discipline of creating event run sheets and event reports for each separate event. This means that when we have a similar event, say for example an Orchestra & Chorus concert, I can go into my records and pull up the last run sheet and event report. After doing research I can figure out what we needed to accomplish last time, how we solved our problems, and what kinds of things went wrong for which we had not prepared.

This method follows the RPIE (Research, Plan, Implement, Evaluate) method I have learned in my Public Relations classes. It has helped me create a virtuous cycle in which every event builds on the successes of the last and works to improve the mistakes.

Since this is my last semester, I am especially glad to have this kind of blueprint for my replacement. One of my main concerns this past year has been how to gracefully finish my stay at the Department of Fine and Performing Arts. I have been delegating more event tasks to my staff over time so that they are all capable of coordinating their efforts and producing a well-run show. At the same time, I have been creating these event reports and run sheets so that someone may sit down at my old desk and have a wealth of resources upon which to draw when managing events.

Here’s hoping for a final successful semester of events!