Strength in Numbers - together we achieve more

Strength in Numbers –

Not all community art schools are created equal, but many of them have similar needs when it comes to administrative processes and the need for efficiency. In 2006, seven large Guild member music schools created a Consortium —these schools included MacPhail Center for Music, Merit School of Music, Levine School of Music, Third Street Music School Settlement, Neighborhood Music School, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and The Cleveland Music School Settlement.. Their common interests and partnership led them to identify a need for a school database management system solution. Together, their collaboration created the sharing of best practices in school administration processes and a vital list of functionality specific to Community Art Schools. Pulling the Consortium’s resources together facilitated the development and creation of a customized software solution that could be used by all Guild schools.

A few members of the Music Consortium commented on how the creation of the partnership allowed them to accomplish their goals:

“Being a part of the Music School Software Consortium was a tremendous benefit to me as the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music determined what our software needs really were. By working collaboratively and learning from other schools about their procedures and policies, we were able to make sound, informed decisions about what the Conservatory’s best business practices should be and how the software could enhance them. We would have never been able to afford to develop such a comprehensive, robust system without pooling our resources with the other member schools. The fact that we worked as a Consortium to develop the software was a powerful message to our funders and was reassuring to our Board of Trustees. Personally, having never embarked on a project like this, I was grateful to have the collective wisdom of my colleagues; while working with a group can be more time consuming, we definitely have a better product because of it.”
Karen Deschere – Wisconsin Conservatory of Music

“By working together, the seven schools of the music consortium have not only pooled our resources to get a better product, but have also created a product that will work for more than just the seven schools. Although we all basically offer the same types of services, those services are offered in different ways with different needs. Those needs pooled together create a more robust and feature-rich application than any of us would have been able to get on our own for the same cost.”
Chris Waterbury – MacPhail Center for Music

“Merit School of Music has felt very fortunate to be surrounded by such a wealth of industry knowledge throughout this entire process. The collaboration among the Guild schools – be it sharing of ideas and solutions to daily business practices or the ability to exercise structure and process concepts while in the development stages of this project - has been priceless. We have certainly reached a new level of admiration of our peer schools!”
Sarah Wright – Director of Student Services – Merit School of Music

“Having been in existence for almost 100 years, and with three very distinct and different departments, (Early Childhood, Department of Music and Music Therapy), The Music Settlement faced considerable challenges in developing changes in our business process to create a more unified image to our faculty, staff, and the public. Our participation in the Music School Consortium, while not always easy (seven schools with different priorities) has provided us with many fresh, exciting ideas on not only how to implement a much needed registration, billing and scheduling element, but also to compare similarities and differences with other music schools. We have found inspiration from the other schools and hope to have a continuing dialog in the future.”
Rachel Bernstein – The Cleveland Music School Settlement


The collaboration of the Music Consortium led to significant solutions for the seven schools and many other Guild Members including:
• Sherwood Community Music School
• New England Conservatory
• Hochstein School of Music and Dance
• Longy School of Music
• Brooklyn Conservatory of Music
• International School of Music
• Allegro Community School of the Arts


Together we achieve more. Leverage the knowledge and resources of your fellow Community Schools to accomplish vital goals for your community and school.

Jeff McHugh