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Seriously venting. Please JAWM


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Ugh. We have taken violin lessons through the same arts program for many years. It's a non profit. They do good things - truly. They do. I love things about it.

 

But there are things that make me crazy. Like three years in a row my children's names were either left off the recital program, misspelled. It would have been nice to have those as part of our homeschool scrap book but whatever. But three years in a row? I mean, I pay thousands of dollars to this organization.

 

Saturday my son competed for a merit scholarship. He's not going to get one. His performance wasn't quite there. And that's ok. We probably need the scholarship less than many people there (though it's merit, not needs based). But it makes me INSANE that the director tells a room full of kids who have prepared for months that she will email on Monday with results, and then Monday comes and goes and there is no email.

 

Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

Edited by Danestress
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Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

 

:iagree:

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:grouphug: Oh boy, can I relate to your pain. I have no problem agreeing with you either. Is the e-mail supposed to be there today? Crossing my fingers it shows up.

 

My kids take lessons at a similar place. Large non-profit, doing wonderful work in the community. Give many financial aid packages. But NOT TO US. We pay thousands to this music school every year. I have at least 1/2 dozen stories that make me want to pull my hair out about this place. If it weren't for my son's absolutely amazing piano teacher, we'd probably go else where. My daughter takes violin there, and her teacher is good, but there are a good selection of Suzuki violin teachers in the area.

 

Anyway, I had an incident that just happened I'll share since misery loves company. So this music school has their biggest fundraiser of the year recently. It's a huge luncheon for 1000-2000 people at a huge convention center. It's free to come and have lunch. Anyone who has donated is invited. The people who attend are invited to make a donation at the end. I've never attended, but we have been invited. There are certainly big wigs in town there - CEO's, etc. But small donators are invited to.

 

So the format is different groups of music students come in and entertain while people are trickling in and throughout the lunch. My daughter has done this the past 2 years and it's always been very fun. They provided lunch for the kids and parking vouchers and parents could mingle and watch the kids play in the lobby.

 

This year the set up was different. The kids played in smaller groups in the main ballroom. Parents were not allowed to watch. My daughter was placed in the wrong group (she was more advanced than the rest of her group). And then we were not offered parking reimbursement (which cost $9) OR lunch (and kids got done at 12:15, most needing to return to school after taking the morning off. They were handed a bag of junk food.). The best part of this is that there were 3 green rooms with performers. The musical groups in the other 2 green rooms were given lunch, parents were allowed to watch, and were given reimbursement for parking. I sent a huge flaming e-mail to our teacher about it, I almost regretted afterwards. Definitely felt like their slave labor that day. My husband had to take the morning off of work so she could go too.

 

Seriously, like with getting your name wrong continuously in programs and not sending out an e-mail when you say you will, a little respect and courtesy go a LONG way! I just filled out end of the year surveys to this music school and I definitely use that as a place to vent. I've come to the conclusion that just because someone is a gifted musician does not mean they have good interpersonal and organizational skills. Which is fine until they're put in charge of something that requires these skills. :glare:

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Ugh. We have taken violin lessons through the same arts program for many years. It's a non profit. They do good things - truly. They do. I love things about it - including seeing kids of every socio-economic group participating in expensive violin lessons.

 

But there are things that make me crazy. Like three years in a row my children's names were either left off the recital program, misspelled. It would have been nice to have those as part of our homeschool scrap book but whatever. But three years in a row? I mean, I pay thousands of dollars to this organization.

 

Saturday my son competed for a merit scholarship. He's not going to get one. His performance wasn't quite there. And that's ok. We probably need the scholarship less than many people there (though it's merit, not needs based). But it makes me INSANE that the director tells a room full of kids who have prepared for months that she will email on Monday with results, and then Monday comes and goes and there is no email.

 

Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

:iagree::iagree::iagree: You're not alone!

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Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

 

No. I would lose sleep until I got all those emails out.

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My sister auditions for Annie and a big nonprofit theatre in the are when she was ten. There were 10 kids kept until the end, they were casting 6. They said they would ALL get a letter that week whether they were cast or not. My sister and another child never heard anything!! It was four kids and they could not contact them!!

 

We have stopped giving exact dates for releasing cast lists, we stressed too much trying to make deadlines we pit on ourselves. Now we make sure to give a time range so that we have some flexibility and so we dont do to our students what they jave done to you all.

 

It is not hard to send an email: "We are sorry, but due to the incredible talent we saw at auditions, our decision process is taking longer than anticipated. We appreciate your patience. We will announce the scholarship winners bathe end of the week."

 

Took me a minute to type that. Surely they have a mass email list for all of theor students, 2 minutes and I could have that out to all of our students or to a group of selected students. It is ridiculus.

 

I will be honest. We send things like this out after hours to avoid upset phone calls. Everyone has time to process. But, we don't tell people when of is coming;if they said Monday, most people would assume during the day or at least early evening. I do hope you hear something soon.

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:iagree:

 

Here is one for you-dad shows up to scouts this evening, sure that they are signed up for the camping trip this weekend.

 

To paraphrase what followed:

Hm, you are not on my list, are you sure it wasn't for the camping trip in May?

 

My wife is an admin-type. If she said it's the one this weekend, then I'm sure she is the one who is correct.

 

<we go through all of the camping paperwork for this weekend, come up empty handed, THEN check the registrations for the one in May>

 

Oh, yes, here is your registration for the camping in May.

 

Hm, I am going to have to check with my wife, because I'm sure she told me that she signed up for this weekend.

 

:banghead:

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I'm with you!! What happened to people being faithful to their word? Maybe the violin teacher can email a rough draft to the parents before the next recital?? :)

 

Bless you!

Gisele

Well, I have a theory that it has a lot to do with the casual society *everyone* wants. It spills over into every aspect of life. Part of it means that nothing is done on time and that is okay (Not!). Another part is that returned communications happen when one gets around to it, and that is okay. (Again, Not!)

 

I could go on, but my inner fuddy-duddy will show and people will think I'm some kind of anal overly formal freak.

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Since you brought up scouts . . .

 

I've been having trouble finding my place in our new pack this year. Which is funny, because the troop it feeds into has been great. I can't figure out if it's because I'm not a leader in the pack or because the pack kids all go to the same elementary or were at camp together last year or what.

 

Anyway, last night was pack meeting. They are always rowdy and noisy. But it's mostly because the scouts are bored. Pack meetings are all announcements and awards with no skits, songs, applauses or anything to keep them attentive without it being a wild game.

 

The scouts were a little talkative. And the cubmaster chided them 3-4 different times about it, and made it the topic of his 5 minute cubmaster minute (as he has at most of the pack meetings).

 

But he didn't say one thing to the many adults having side conversations around the edges of the small room. Not to the den leaders chatting with their backs to the scouts or to the moms by the door who didn't stop talking even once that I could see.

 

I've rarely felt so annoyed with a scout unit. But it just irritates me to see 7 and 8 year olds nagged for behavior that the adults are modeling all around them.

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I put JAWM in the title, and all these nice women either really agreed with me, pretended to agree with me, or refrained from posting. Thanks everyone. I feel much better.

 

 

:D I wouldn't hesitate to call or e-mail and say your son is very anxious because he hasn't heard anything. Same thing with the programs. I was pretty tolerant at our music school for the first year. But for the kind of money we're paying, it should be an amazing experience IMO. I always make it about the kid "my daughter was very disappointed her name didn't appear in the program".

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I put JAWM in the title, and all these nice women either really agreed with me, pretended to agree with me, or refrained from posting. Thanks everyone. I feel much better.

 

It's like magic!! :)

 

:grouphug: Next year make a big issue out of dropping off the correct spellings of your kids names. :)

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Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

 

Oh, I feel your pain on this one. I have been waiting to hear from BSA for weeks over my son's Eagle rank. I also pay $$$ to BSA even though they are a non profit. Yuck.

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But he didn't say one thing to the many adults having side conversations around the edges of the small room. Not to the den leaders chatting with their backs to the scouts or to the moms by the door who didn't stop talking even once that I could see.

 

This is a big problem with our troop too. Very difficult problem to tackle. Our leadership is working on changing things up next year to address this issue.

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Am I the only person in America who still believes you are supposed to do what you say you are going to do WHEN you say you are going to do it, or else you update all concerned with why it didn't happen and when it will happen?

 

Oh, I feel your pain on this one. I have been waiting to hear from BSA for weeks over my son's Eagle rank. I also pay $$$ to BSA even though they are a non profit. Yuck.

 

of poor planning, communication, and follow through. Just. couldn't.take.it.

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