January, 2006

ADVOCACY IN 2006

NYS Arts Advocacy Week Feb 27 - Mar 5
Arts Day in Albany is March 7

2006 will be an exciting year with dramatic new strategies for advancing our advocacy agenda. I know you share my determination to keep fighting for the issues and the values we care about. This is the right time to push hard to increase the NYSCA budget.

Our dynamic advocacy team now includes Sherre Wesley and Lobbyists Bob Straniere and Dave Sidikman. Coordinated by the Alliance, our vibrant REGIONAL CAPTAIN NETWORK is spearheading a new NYS ARTS ADVOCACY Week filled with regional advocacy events and meetings. The Alliance will convene ADVOCACY TRAINING WORKSHOPS and LEGISLATIVE MEETINGS on ARTS DAY IN ALBANY. Our vast ONLINE ADVOCACY NETWORK of 5,000 organizations will be mobilized in this effort.

Working within the system, we will change the way we position our requests in 2006. We are pursuing a strategy to get support from ALL the Leaders in Albany. We will emphasize colleague-to-colleague pressure and seek commitment from individual legislators to speak with their colleagues AND with the legislative leadership on behalf of the arts. We are also mobilizing arts organizations in key districts to meet with their legislators.

February 27 through March 5 is NYS ARTS ADVOCACY WEEK. Each of the nine regions will hold their own events and programs coordinated by the Regional Captain. This ranges from legislative breakfasts, to back to back meetings in district, to media campaigns and more. Regional Captains:

Western
Sarah Lentini:
Cayuga, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Orleans, Seneca, Wayne, Wyoming, Yates
Celeste Lawson:
Erie, Chautauqua, Niagara, Cattaraugus, Allegany

Central
Ron Thiele: Oneida, Herkimer, Madison, Onondaga

Southern Tier
Richard Driscoll: Tompkins, Cortland, Schuyler, Chenango, Tioga, Chemung, Steuben

North Country
Caroline Rubino: Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, St Lawrence, Warren, Saratoga

Capital
Kay Stamer: Greene, Columbia, Albany, Schenectady, Renssalaer, Schoharie

Hudson Valley
Elaine Giguere: Sullivan, Ulster, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, Rockland

Westchester
Joanne Mongelli

Long Island
Diana Cherryholmes: Suffolk, Nassau

If you have questions, or want to get involved in your community, contact the Captain for your region.

March 7 is ARTS DAY in ALBANY. Advocacy training workshops by professional lobbyists will advance the knowledge of veterans and those new to the advocacy game. Bring staff, board and audience members. Everyone will go to meetings in the LOB with their legislators armed with new information and expertise.

We are grooming the next generation of arts leaders as advocates. Take advantage of this opportunity and bring your colleagues. This will be a great learning experience for them. We will team up players new to the advocacy game with their experienced peers.

We will re-introduce the Cultural Development Area Legislation. This is legislation that marks a paradigm shift in additional funding for arts organizations in New York State.

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FROM THE UPSTATE OFFICE

My best wishes to all of you for a happy New Year!

Alliance staff and board are working to realign and refine our services and programs to serve our full membership and the Rural Partners, based on our year long study of the needs expressed by the field. From the initial surveys and findings of the Rurals task force through the regional meetings last spring, the Fast Forward gathering in Glens Falls in September and its resulting report prepared by Anne Ackerson, (available as a download on our website: www.thealliancenys.org) you have given us a clear idea of your priorities and ideas as to how the Alliance can help you in your work.

Throughout this process, the existing services provided to the Rural Partners were identified as useful and important resources. I thought this would be a good time to remind the Rural Partner membership of these resources specifically available to each of you. One of the strong points of the Rurals program is that these services are very flexible; they can be adapted to your needs and preferences.

* A dedicated Alliance staff person: That's me! I'm here to answer your questions, explore ideas and possibilities with you; visit your organization, meet with your board, etc. My work with you is backed and augmented by the full Alliance staff.

* Information, research and networking: This includes maintaining your list serve, this monthly column, Rural Gatherings, researching and writing on topics and areas of interest to the field and posting resulting information on the listserve and to the Alliance website. It also includes sample tools and models that can be used in board, staff and organizational developmment, such as board development grids, personnel policies, community needs assessment, etc.

* Annual spring series of Rural workshops, developed from your needs and preferences and designed to serve your organization and the organizations you serve in your regions. This is the time of year I begin work on the series; if you would like to host a Rural workshop this spring, let me know. I'm already thinking of dedicating some or all of the 2006 workshops toward the identified need to address the issue of leadership succession and transition. But if you want to host a workshop on a different topic, we can work together to design it.

* Subsidies for outside professional consultants: Is strategic planning for your organization on your 2006 calendar? How about website upgrade? These are some of the topics Rural Partners have recently requested assistance for, but the program can help pay for professional consultants fees in a number of areas Rural Partners identify as important to your organizational growth.

* Lean on Me: this is a mentoring service for new directors of Rural Partner organizations. We can work with you to identify and hook you up with veteran, expert directors to help you learn the ropes of running your organization and to answer your specific questions.

* Board Tuneups: Often, it helps to bring in an "outside expert" to help identify and address a problem or obstacle your board needs help with. The board tuneup is designed to address a specific topic within a regular board meeting, and get your organization moving in a positive direction.

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PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE ALLIANCE GALA

Lifetime Achievement Honoree Ted Berger, Kitty Carlisle Hart,
Chairman Richard J. Schwartz, Alliance Executive Director Judy Weiner.

To view our photo gallery from the Alliance Gala on flickr, click here

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ALLIANCE BOARD AND STAFF RETREAT

The Alliance Board and Staff will meet on January 26 and 27 in New York City for the Annual Planning Retreat. Facilitated this year by Anne Ackerson, we have created a compelling framework in which to hold our discussions. It includes a number of important correlations between what we heard from our members during the Fast Forward Conference in Glens Falls in September 2005, the data gathered in our 2005 online needs assessment survey, the regional meetings, and the macro environment all 21st century professional associations are facing.

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A NEW AND UNUSUAL FUNDING OPPORTUNITY

The Alliance staff has been talking with the developers of a NEW funding program: the New York State Music Fund. The New York State Attorney General's office has enlisted the services of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to develop and manage a grantmaking program in connection with a settlement the Attorney General has reached with Sony/BMG and with Warner Music.

As of today, available funds total $15 million dollars. The terms of the settlement indicate that the funds will be disbursed to nonprofit organizations connected with music education and appreciation efforts within New York State.

Guidelines are expected to be out in January. Watch for more information in the February Member Memo.

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The Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations has a 31-year history as New York’s service association for arts and cultural organizations. The Alliance provides leadership and vision, and delivers services, resources and tools that strengthen cultural organizations. The Alliance informs the field on statewide and national issues affecting the arts and assists local arts agencies in building community support.

P.O. Box 96
Mattituck, NY 11952-0096
Phone (631) 298-1234 / Fax (631) 298-1101