Originally posted to my personal Facebook page, and shared here more publicly:
Attending PASIC is important for so many reasons, whether it’s learning from clinics, watching inspiring performances, or networking with colleagues. I can personally say that I have witnessed life-changing displays of musicianship, learned invaluable skills from world-class educators, and had formative performance experiences over the years.
But, because it is the only organization of its kind for percussionists, it is an incredibly easy target for keyboard warriors. To that end, I find there to be a significant number of people criticizing PAS behind the scenes and intentionally boycotting PASIC, because things aren’t lining up with their own (often selfish/stylistically biased) notions of what the organization should be focusing on or doing for its members.
This organization, like so many others, exists to serve its incredibly diverse base of consumers, constituents, and colleagues (which, as a reminder, span from middle schoolers to professionals; handpan artists to classical marimbists; touring rock drummers to garage band enthusiasts). And, because of this diversity, there are so many people to please.
Yes, an organization such as this must take into account the desires, complaints, compliments, and criticisms of the communities it serves, and should do so with open ears and an open mind. Any organization not doing this will surely fail—it’s bad business, and more importantly, it’s disingenuous.
With that said, nobody benefits from closed-door criticisms with zero action. All too often, it seems that those people lobbing accusations and complaints are those who aren’t attending PASIC to converse with colleagues about these problems, or seeking out opportunities to play an active role in changing the things that they complain about, absolving themselves of any responsibility and opting for hushed gossip and keyboard criticism.
Seems a fitting time to include this quote from Teddy Roosevelt’s “The Man in the Arena” speech:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
And no, I’m not saying PAS / PASIC is perfect. In fact, as with any organization, I think we can all agree that there are things that can be worked on: new communities to engage, relevance issues to tackle, failures in representation, and more. But, I’ll be damned if I let anyone else complain to me about these things, and in their next sentence, mention how they won’t attend PASIC or run for some sort of office to make an effort towards the change they’d like to see.
I was so excited to see the names on the list for Board of Advisors nominees, and now, to see the names of those elected to those positions. These are people who I know have involved themselves because they want to have a positive impact on the organization moving forward, and we should look to them as examples of change-makers.
So, my point is this: stop whining. If you are choosing to sit back and complain without taking any action, you are lazy and entitled. This isn’t a PAS / PASIC issue, it’s a YOU issue.
TL;DR - Put your money where your mouth is.
See you all in Indianapolis next week!