Slippedisc readers who have made various complaints to the chief executive of the CBSO are receieving identical letters in reply, regardless of what they wrote to her. Here’s the pro forma response:
Dear . . .
Thank you for your e mail, and my apologies for such a delay in replying.
I see that you are referring to CBSO’s ‘Everyone is Welcome’ statement, which is where we set out our expectations for the respectful treatment of our staff.
This is entirely in keeping with respect policies at many other cultural and public facing organisations.
The policy is written to encourage a friendly and mutually respectful mode of interaction between our staff and the public, and hopefully deters people from behaviours that could be seen as threatening or harassing.
It is vital in our support of more junior members of staff that they know they can make their line managers or senior managers aware of any inappropriate behaviour, and our duty then to take action by addressing the incident.
We have a happy and collegiate working atmosphere at the CBSO, which I support and celebrate.
With regards to our policy regarding mobile phones, we have an approach whereby audiences are encouraged to take pictures or short video clips at theapplause breaks in our concerts. From time to time, artists welcome people to film or photograph at other times also, and we are happy to work with them in support of this.
I happily engage in conversation with many of our audience members about our plans at the CBSO, including members drinks and open meetings to whichanyone can attend.
Kind regards,
Emma.
One complainant tells us: ‘the CEO must think we are all daft.’
That may be very close to the heart of the matter. If Stenning cared for her audience as much as she professes to do for ‘junior members of staff’ the present problems at Symphony Hall could be dealt with very smartly.
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