INSIDE THE TSO WEB SITE
posted by James Reel
Jan Crews, a former Tucson Symphony Orchestra employee, noticed my post about the orchestra’s low ranking in Drew McManus’ annual survey of orchestra Web sites. (Go here and scroll down for a list of several more detailed articles by Drew on the survey.) Jan has some enlightening comments about the TSO site, which I post here with her permission.
I was the Webmaster of that site from September of 2004 until some time after I left the TSO at the end of January 2006. I am still being asked to update pages.
When I took the site over, it was being managed by the California-based son of one of the trustees. He was very unresponsive to the needs of the TSO. The TSO marketing manager had to send repeated requests to get any information changed or updated. As we began the 2004/2005 season, no current concert schedule information was posted. The design that was handed down to me contained many errors, but my work schedule didn't permit me to redesign the site. I simply had to work around the errors until such time as funds could be found in the TSO budget for a site redesign. All interested parties on the administrative staff knew a redesign was necessary; it just wasn't a high priority because of budget constraints.
Addressing one of Drew’s criticisms, online subscription purchase is simply not feasible given the way TSO subscriptions have to be "built" through TicketMaster. The box office workload would be greatly eased if online purchase of subscriptions could be implemented, but patrons would not be able to keep their seat locations—something that's very important to a great number of subscribers.
I balanced my Web duties with my database administrator duties (of a large, unwieldy, poorly designed Access database that contained all donation and ticket-buying information for the previous ten+ years) and first-line help desk responsibilities for the staff of 20. There was never a period of time when I could completely focus on any one of my tasks. But what I did during that period of time was keep all the information current, including adding program notes, links to concert previews and reviews, and all press releases.
During this almost two-year period, Drew did not once e-mail me directly to make a suggestion. Nor did he display the courtesy of sending his reviews to me as the webmaster, although my name was prominently displayed on the home page and the contact page. (As an aside, I was reviewing the information Drew posted. He stated contact information was not available. On the contrary, the full administrative staff listing, including e-mail addresses, is two clicks away from the home page: About TSO > Administrative Staff.)
But more importantly, I don't believe Drew takes into account the financial restrictions of the organizations on which he is heaping his negative critiques. As you know, the TSO is severely limited by finances. I was not the only person on that staff who was overworked. Every person on the staff works very long hours for low pay, even by Tucson standards. I routinely worked 50- and 60-hour weeks during the performance season. And the management of the TSO is such that it takes a very long time to get a decision out of senior staff (as the director-level is called). There's no money to increase a staff member's education or skill set. There's no money to hire someone with superb Web design skills. I believe senior staff recognizes that a Web site that is populated with current information and easily navigable can be a great marketing tool. However, in an organization the size of TSO, there are far more important matters that must be dealt with. The administrative staff works hard to bring fabulous musical performances and music education to Southern Arizona. That's what's important!
Over the summer of 2006, Sue DeBenedette (director of marketing & PR) contracted with Tom Hill (DigiVideo Productions) to create a new, sleek, easy-to-maintain Web site. I met Tom two months ago through my volunteer work with Tucson Chamber Artists, and he showed me the new site. It's great—it's ready to go. But he can't get TSO senior staff to sign off on it and take over. Their work load is simply too heavy.
But back to Drew's low ratings of the TSO Web site. If Drew really had a heart for the arts, he would give a little more consideration to the underlying facts about Web sites for smaller (Tier 3 and below) orchestras and make available to them more bits-and-bytes information about how to improve their sites, rather than just the heavy-handed critiques with the implied suggestion that he be hired to fix the problems.
The TSO administrative staff is doing the best they can do given the size of this town and the make-up of the financial base of this town. Unless they can increase the donor base and increase the number of subscriptions and single tickets sold, they will continue to have problems. (My daughter-in-law makes more per hour demonstrating products at Costco than I made at the TSO as patron services manager and then as information systems manager.) I personally do not believe that improving the Web site to meet Drew's criteria would make that big a difference in the amount of money that walks through the doors of the Symphony Center. In a larger city with a higher salary base and a younger audience demographic, maybe so. In Tucson, I don't think so.
