Concord Community Music School
Today it’s a New Hampshire institution, but the Concord Community Music School was anything but that when it turned to consultants from WolfBrown for assistance in 1985. WolfBrown had participated in the School’s launch a year earlier, supervising the planning that led up to its founding. A year down the line, the institution realized it could use help again, this time in orienting its board of directors to their oversight responsibilities. What the School wanted the consultants to do was help board members conceive of their stewardship in the broadest possible terms — broader than simply keeping an eye on day-to-day business, shifting their focus from immediate concerns to thinking strategically about the School’s future.
The consultants suggested a retreat, and as background for the occasion, prepared an analysis of the work the School had already done to develop its program and organizational infrastructure. In the assessment, WolfBrown also suggested a series of critical issues the board would want to address in an on-going manner, including board and staff development, maintenance of the environment and facilities, marketing and image development, finances and fund raising.
Today, long after the board’s first reflective, long-range planning session, the Concord Community Music School is among the largest and most successful in the country. It owns its own campus, including a former church that was identified as an outgrowth of the retreat and now serves as its permanent home. And it serves over 1,000 students a year. Much of that success can be traced back to the School’s decision to get off to a smart start by educating those whom it had enlisted to help it accomplish its mission.
Go to www.ccmusicschool.org