Here are the key take-aways from this week’s meeting of the search committee.

  • Search update. A passel of strong applications over the weekend brought the total to ten! Now the evaluation process practiced last week will be put into action. In the coming seven days, each committee member will review the application materials (cover letter, resume, audio and video recordings provided) for each candidate. On the basis of the evaluation criteria and informed by any personal experience she may have with an applicant, each member will ultimately determine whether or not she feels the committee should seek to schedule an interview with each candidate (yes/no/maybe). Meg will update the committee’s candidate overview spreadsheet to allow us to enter our recommendations before next week’s meeting.
  • Chorus response form. The group took another look at the form that chorus members will use to evaluate candidates after the audition rehearsals. Amy shared comments and suggestions of her colleague about collecting quantitative data and agreed to work with Deb to tweak wording where necessary. The polished form will be distributed to committee members for approval this week.
  • Board outreach. The committee agreed that several process forms have been sufficiently polished to share with the Board. These include the preliminary evaluation form and a description of audition requirements & expectations to be sent to round-two candidates. When the chorus response form is approved, it, too, will be shared.
  • Interview questions. Committee members briefly revisited the ranked questions to be included in our candidate interviews. Rachel will continue to edit for logical conversational flow.
  • Interview calendar. Selected candidates will be offered time slots for video-conference interviews on the following dates: April 29, May 3, and/or May 4. It is understood that not all committee members will be able to participate in every interview (and it should not be considered ideal to have ten interviewers staring down one candidate, anyway). Using Zoom for the video conferences will allow us to record the interviews to share with committee members not present on the call (and to review as necessary). Ann will take steps to begin a one-month subscription to Zoom.
  • NEXT WEEK: The search committee will meet at 5:45 p.m. on Monday, April 22, in the Rotunda of Hill Hall. We will likely have one topic of conversation: Assessment and discussion of candidates.