Blog

The end of my first 3 months here coincides with the final stages of our business year, and our planning for 2023.

The year in review
It’s been a big year for the Con with some ups and downs.
The biggest up this year was getting back to full face to face teaching, ensembles and events.  The Covid restrictions had a dampening effect on many of our lives, so the ability to work together in person has been very welcome
Opening of the Creative Precinct was another major up this year.  It is flexible, comfortable and has a truly great acoustic with rave reviews from performers right across the musical spectrum. Our MidWinter feast was an outstanding event of Hume Con staff fundraising for scholarships and bursaries.. We held our first Chamber Music Festival in September culminating in a concert at St Saviours featuring Vocalocal alongside the Sydney Chamber Choir. We took delivery of 14 Yamaha pianos including the incredible CFX Grand. For our young people we held numerous performance pracs, supported the Lilac Festival battle of the Bands and opened the Creative Precinct to touring performers such as Luminescence, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, the Sydney Youth Orchestra, Steve Kilbey, and Blues Fest. 6 young composers worked alongside the Mighty Playwrights program and we supported the Rocky Hill production of Aida. It was a huge year! We already have big plans for 2023 including incursions for students so they can access more performances, workshops, and visiting shows. 

News and Updates 

There are a number of good things coming next year and some improvements in how we work.  During the summer vacation we have a number of short programs for our students and the community more generally.
16 -17 January APRA AMCOS Songmakers Workshop (Free)
18 January Songmakers for Bands. (Free)
19 January Guitar Orchestra ($40)
19 January Glee Club ($30)

We will start some new ensembles next year – in part building on previous holiday programs: 
We are re-establishing an auditioned choir.  It will perform a diverse repertoire with members who all have good reading and singing skills. To enquire about auditioning follow the website link. 

• A new choir for secondary students will start up in Term 1, with a glee club style, but hopefully with fewer crises than you might have seen on television. 
• We plan to introduce an after-school primary school-age group focusing on the foundations and fundamentals of music 
• We are considering a primary-age choir 
• We will be starting a 3rd rock band ensemble, filling the gap between the existing senior and junior rock band groups 

Goulburn Mulwaree Council has agreed to continue funding for the Hume Con based early childhood music program via Schools as Community Centres.   We may replicate this program in other centres if there is enough interest. Performance pracs will be on weeks 3, 6 and 9 of each term, with concerts in week 10. 

We are teaching in 13 schools next year, and hope to start some new school-based instrumental and vocal groups. Schools outside Goulburn will have access to performance pracs on site, and in Goulburn we want to encourage any of our school groups or students to take advantage of our performance pracs at the Con, so that all our students have the same opportunities.   

Our signage around the Con is being refreshed over the break.  The main purpose of this is to make it easier to find your destination within our precinct- although we are obviously trying to do a nice job of it within a modest budget. Next term we should also have display screens with lesson times both in our main foyer and in the Rock Con- There were a couple of times this term when there were problems with lesson times leading to confused students.  There will also be a service phone in the Rock Con so that the office can be more easily contacted when issues arise. 

Within the admin office, I know the changes in staffing this year have led to some choppy service.  We have got our accounting largely under control now, but we are quite aware that service has been patchy. In the new year, we will be recruiting so that there is music school admin staffing every afternoon. 

Keeping in touch 

As I mentioned earlier, we will be asking everyone to re-enroll for next year.  This will be an annual process from now on.  The automatic re-enrolment between terms is convenient in many ways, but it often means we do not have current contact information for emergencies, accurate information about any medical issues or up to date records of which schools our students are attending.  

In 2023 there are also changes to our lesson options, which make this essential.  You will receive a link to refresh your enrolment details by email and we need these back by Monday 16 January so we can start adjusting timetables. 

While on the subject of data, I want to assure you that we have paid attention to the increasing trend of cyber attacks in Australia. Our data is encrypted and our interaction with the data base is also encrypted. We are also starting to cull old records at the end of each year so that we only have the information we need, and information about recent students. 

We will be surveying families over the break about your views on our work, and I look forward to your feedback.  The surveys are anonymous and only the collated results will be retained. While we think we know our strong points and areas for improvement, your feedback is also valuable. It will help me to understand whether we are focusing on the right things.  

Teaching model 

We are changing our teaching model a little for next year.  While 15 mins are a good way of reducing the cost, they are not as effective as we would like for teaching – even with very young students.  So our teaching model needs to change. The key changes are: 

• Lesson Times will now be 20, 40 or 60 minutes.   
• There will be shared lessons available to help provide a cheaper option for those who need it 
• We are moving to a 9 week term.  

So most students will have longer lessons, but 1 less lesson per term.  This is partly for practical reasons – it makes make up lessons much easier to manage.  But it also to help cushion the cost impact of longer lessons.  I have also broadened the range of discounts available for multiple enrolments of various kinds within a family. Particularly for parents with larger families I am very conscious of the sizable commitments you are making to your children’s education. 

Fees 

Follow this link to see our fees and options for next year.  As I mentioned, we will email you a link to update your enrolment information.  If you have trouble with internet connections, there will be a couple of machines set up at the Con from 9 January where you can re-enroll   

Policies 

There are a few policy changes as well.  Key changes are: 

• We will be enforcing the policy of payment in each term.   

• Early payment will continue to attract a discount 
• Failure to pay by the end of term will attract a late fee 
• Re-enrolment in a new term will not be permitted unless there is a realistic payment plan in place and working 

If an enrolment needs to be cancelled, the notice period is reduced from the rest of the current term to 2 weeks. This applies to cancellations during the term, and cancellations between terms.   

Regards,
George Brenan
CEO