National Jazz Hall
QSO-640 Midterm Robert Wilson Question 1 The project that Mr. Rutland is trying to manage is establishing maintaining a National Jazz Hall of Fame(NJHF) in Charlottesville, VA. The NHJF was created and has been in existence for about one year. Now, Mr. Rutland has found that the Paramount Theatre in downtown Charlottesville, which shares it’s name with a famous jazz hall from the 1930s and 40s in New York City, is about to be demolished and would like to save and renovate the building as the headquarters for the NJHF.
The Paramount Theatre would be where the NJHF would be located and provide a venue for a museum, archives and a concert center. This would also allow the NJHF to sponsor jazz festivals, workshops and scholarships. The museum would be used to remember great jazz artists, serve jazz enthusiasts along with education he public on the importance of jazz in American culture and history. Question 2 The stakeholders in this project begin with Mr. Rutland himself.
After that, some of the other stakeholders include the board of directors for the NHJF, the City of Charlottesville departments renovating the historic district of downtown Charlottesville, the consultant hired by the board, other tourist attractions in around Charlottesville and in Western Virginia, they include Monticello, James Monroe’s house, and the University of Virginia. Other stakeholders would be the contractors employed to renovate the Paramount, possible donors to the project, they could be private as well as governmental such as the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The potential jazz performers that are potential members of the NJHF are also very important stakeholders. If this is not a highly recognized and reputable hall of fame, some of these iconic jazz musicians will not want to be members of the organization. Finally, jazz fans as a whole are key stakeholders as well. Without them, there would not be a need for this type of attraction. Question 3 There are three major issues facing Mr. Rutland and the NJHF. They are: 1. Fund raising, 2. Building and leading a professional team to complete the project. 3. Marketing in order to promote the NJHF and gain national recognition.
In order to successfully address these issues the following skills will be needed: Good communication skills – Since the PM will be dealing with many different type of people, groups and audiences, they will need to be able to communicate effectively on all of these different levels. They need to communicate with government entities in order to secure the necessary permits and inspections once the theatre is set to be renovated. They will have to speak with philanthropic groups in order to raise private funds for the renovation of the theatre along with donations to run the NJHF.
In order to gain public funding, the PM will have to address government agencies such as the National Endowment for the Arts. For issue two, the PM will be the team leader and have to communicate well with each group of the project team. They will have to work with the different teams to create the renovation plan. Once that is done, they will have to work with many different contractors to secure bids before deciding on who will complete the renovations. Other groups that the PM will have to communicate would include the finance team, the procurement team and the budget team.
As for issue number 3, the PM will have to work with several marketing firms who specialize in the work needed for the NJHF to establish national recognition. They will have to meet with many different firms in order to select the best one for the NJHF. Once that group is selected, the PM will be the interface to that group for the project. Communications with this group will of course be vital to the longevity of the NJHF. Ability to command respect – The PM needs to be to command respect from every group involved in each aspect of the project.
Without respect, none of the groups will be “encouraged” to complete their assigned tasks. Also, without respect the project as a whole will not have any credibility. It is this respect and credibility that will help generate private and government funding. Also, if there is no respect in the project, the NJHF will not gain any respect in the Jazz community. Without that, why would any of the potentials jazz musicians want to be a member of this hall of fame? Conflict Resolution skills – this is a basic skill that every PM must have. Without it, no project would move forward.
In this project, the conflicts could be many for all three issues. If the PM cannot resolve the conflicts that will arise from the renovation of the theatre alone, the other two issue will never come to fruition. Good knowledge of project management principles – Of all of the PM principles, risk management is key in this project. If you look at issue two, fundraising, what happens to the project if a major source of funding becomes compromised? One real world example is the Boy Scouts of America. They received almost 40% of their annual budget from a donation by the American United Way.
A few years ago, the United Way reduced their donation significantly. The BSA now receives only one percent of its budget from that organization. It was real blow to their ability to maintain their year round projects. In order to recoup this budgetary loss, they established the Friends of Scouting project. They now solicit donations from the parents of Scouts, former Scouts and other companies and non-profit organizations to fulfill the gap. The PM for this project will have to have contingency plans in place like the BSA has done.
Be comfortable in an uncertain environment – This is a huge, multifaceted project that a PM can understand every aspect. The PM for this project needs to be able to manage well the pieces they know very well and have the ability to manage the pieces they are not so familiar with. They need to put the right people in place for the aspects of the project they are the least familiar. Say the PM is strong in construction but weak in fund raising, they need to find a good fund raiser and someone who is good with marketing. Question 4 I feel that Mr. Rutland does have credibility.
He is a professor of History at the University of Virginia. I don’t think that he would have been able to have had jazz greats, Benny Goodman and Chick Corea join the NJHF National Advisory board if they didn’t feel that Mr. Rutland and the board of directors he established were credible. Having two famous jazz musicians like that on the board definitely adds credence and credibility to Mr. Rutland’s plan. Is Mr. Rutland a leader? A leader is defined as “interpersonal influence, exercised in situations and directed through the communication process, toward the arraignment of a specified goal of goals. ” Mr.
Rutland has shown that ability in the first year of building the NJHF. Mr. Rutland came up with the NJHF and locating it in Charlottesville, VA. He enlisted the help of his fellow jazz enthusiast, and created the board of directors for the hall of fame. After that he found a possible building location that, by name, has ties to the famous jazz era of the 1930s and 19402 in New York City. This would give the NJHF a headquarters with a credible and recognizable name. After establishing the board, Mr. Rutland went out to generate funds for the hall by applying for grants from philanthropic groups along with various government agencies.
They were denied for two reasons, inexperience of the board members and the brevity of their existence. This could not be construed negatively toward the board or affect their credibility. Mr. Rutland also understood that the NJHF would need visitors to help generate revenue to continue the hall’s existence. He found that over half a million people visit the Charlottesville area to see many other attractions. He knew he had to work with the various venues and tourist organization to help promote the NJHF as a viable attraction. Finally Mr.
Rutland showed his leadership in hiring a consultant to help answer two questions. One, what is the interest level of the respondents for jazz and the establishment of a National Jazz Hall of Fame. The survey was conducted on a national level and on a local level. This allows Mr. Rutland to find out if people were actually interested in a Jazz Hall of Fame and if they would attend, jazz music as a whole, if people would be willing to donate money to such an organization, what services and events they would expect from the hall and what the average person interested in such a place would be willing to pay for admission.
This gave the board an idea of what kind of funding they could expect fromt eh public through donations and admission fees. Question 5 The cultures relevant to this project are the African-American, Cajun, Africans, and American. Jazz was influenced by different cultures and sub-cultures. The music also has roots in the development of other music movements around the world. In the US, Jazz has influenced, the Blues, R&B, Motown, Dixieland, Classical and Country music. Jazz is a melting pot of music as well having its roots in other genres.
The project environment for the National Jazz Hall of Fame was a struggle to get off the ground, but was met with great enthusiasm. After the first year, even though they had many setbacks due to difficulties raising contributions from outside sources and finding out they needed at least $600,000 to renovate the theatre, Mr. Rutland and the board felt the project showed promise. Mr. Rutland did not seem to give up, but found other ways to promote and endow the NJHF. He tried to utilized the local tourism outlets, the NJHF promoted concerts to raise money and awareness.
Mr. Rutland visited other halls of fame to gain ideas and insights into their success. He also commissioned a two surveys to gather information about the viability and interest the public would have for a jazz hall of fame. Question 6 Mr. Rutland should do the following: Budget- Philanthropic organizations – Since they had difficulties raising funds from these types of organizations due to a lack of experience on the part of the board, they need to hire an executive director with fund raising experience.
This will give them someone with the proper background that these organization are looking for and a higher level of credibility. This will help solidify them as a true purveyor of a hall of fame for Jazz. Government Agencies – Once they have a qualified executive director and have been established for over two years, they should reapply for government funds from groups like the National Endowment for the Arts. They will be able to get enough funds so that they may even begin to renovate the theatre. Donations – The survey showed that they could receive an average of $23. 0 per donation. They should pursue a low cost way of garnering these donations in order to increase their bottom line. The survey targeted individuals over 35 years old with an income of $50,000+. Perhaps they can target other age and income range along with woman. Memberships – These are an excellent way to raise money. You can usually provide a few low cost incentives to individuals and they will pay a little more of an admission fee to benefit from those perks. However, at this time, without an actually facility for the hall of fame, memberships may be something they should wait on.
It was recommended that they pursue Founding Memberships. This would be a more viable option until it is decided on where the actual NJHF will be located. Everyone likes to say that they were the first ones to be involved in a new endeavor. Visitors – The survey found that the average admission fee could be $3. 50. This is a good price considering how many tourists visit the Charlottesville area. Again, until a facility if build and functional, this idea should be set aside. Budget – Expenditures. The Paramount Theatre is the NJHF’s largest expenditure at $600,000.
Other expenditures are the cost of the surveys. Future costs will be setting up the Founding Membership accounts, the regular memberships (if any), the salary of the executive director and all of the operational costs of an office for that individual. There will also have to be a budget for correspondence, fliers for concerts and workshops, etc. A Travel budget for the executive director will be required as well. Performance: service/activities The NJHF will have to continue to sponsor concerts and workshops.
This will help them promote their mission along with getting their name out there. Offering a scholarship will help as well. This would also help gain credibility with the National Association of Jazz Educators. Competition – The NJHF needs to work with their competition. This will allow them to learn about how they are doing things. What works and what does not. It could also give them an opportunity to create an association with other hall of fames. This would make them appear more established. They could use their competitions success to their advantage.
Schedule – First thing would be to hire an experience executive director. I think the NJHF’s first window of opportunity will come when they have been around for over two years so they qualify for government funding. Their first milestone could be signing up their first Founding Member. This would give them a good jumping off point to establish a large group of Members. http://businessmanstar. blogspot. com/2012/01/national-jazz-hall-of-fame-njhf-case. html http://www. expertprogrammanagement. com/2009/06/required-skills-to-be-a-program-manager/
