Support the RCCO
The RCCO Endowment Fund
The RCCO Endowment Fund supports the present and future work of the College. Income received from the Fund is used in various ways: to increase the effectiveness of existing programs, to expand services, and to prepare to meet new challenges in the future. Among the activities supported are the Travelling Clinician Programme ($4000), travel assistance for College officers ($4000), Publications ($10,300), Project Grants ($1000), Examinations ($1000), and various others, for a total of $24,500 annually.
Although not supported by the Endowment Fund, the committee also manages the Muriel Stafford Memorial Fund which was set up to generate the second prize for our biennial National Organ Playing Competition. In 2011 this fund was sitting at about $13,900 towards a target of $35,000.
All these plans and programs, new and continuing, require a robust and expanding endowment for their support, and members are invited to contribute. The suggested level is one wedding fee (around $150) per annum; many members have pledged such an amount over a five-year pledge period. It is worth noting that just one hundred members making such a pledge would add $75,000 to the Fund. Others have preferred to offer one-time donations; there is also a range of possible gifts through insurance policies, as bequests, or in kind. For further advice about these opportunities, please contact the National Office.
Travelling Clinician Programme
The Travelling Clinician Programme is made possible through the Endowment Fund. It offers educational workshops, classes and recitals by prominent members of our profession. Organists, composers, performers and conductors are sent across the country to teach, encourage and inspire. The purpose of this programme is to enable Centres which, financially, would not be able to present these artists. In a country as vast as Canada and with a limited number of large Centres, travel costs are often prohibitive. It is intended to encourage public awareness of the organ, its variety of sounds and the literature written for it. Glowing testimonials arrive from participating Centres.
Each year two clinicians are chosen. Clinicians for the 2012-2013 season are David Palmer and Isabell Demers. In January letters are sent to all Centres with details about clinicians and workshop suggestions. The deadline for a Travelling Clinician Grant application is April 1st each year. Please request an application from the RCCO National Office, 204 St George St, Suite 202, Toronto, ON M5R 2N5, Telephone (416) 929-6400, Fax (416) 929-2265, manager@rcco.ca. Send completed applications to the National Office.
Centres are reminded that, like any concert engagement, these events involve rearrangement of work timetables for clinicians, as well as the purchase of airline tickets; it is very difficult to rearrange clinicians’ timetables and travel. Arrangements, once completed, should therefore be regarded as binding. For further information, please contact Joanne Hart at (416) 260-9687 or: joannehart4@sympatico.ca.
Joanne Hart, for the Endowment Fund Travelling Clinician Programme
The College Development Fund
The College Development Fund (CDF) was established in 1983 to provide funding for new programs and to support educational projects in RCCO Centres across Canada. In the past few years the mandate of the CDF has changed and its focus has become the encouragement of organ study, particularly for pianists interested in beginning the study of the organ.
It became obvious some years ago that fewer young people were studying the organ in our Centres and, at the same time, fewer were opting to choose the organ as their instrument at university. Thus, many Centres began offering scholarships to interest young people in beginning the study of the organ. Scholarships for beginning organists are available to each Centre to a maximum of two scholarships of $500 each until available funds are exhausted. This is in addition to the scholarships which some Centres already offer.
Normally, RCCO Centres conduct local competitions and then apply to the chair of the CDF for this award (for complete information on selecting a candidate and applying for a scholarship, see appendix H in the Centre President’s Handbook). In addition, the CDF contributes $500 each year to support project grants which are administered by the Education Committee, provided that there are adequate funds available.
The following candidates were awarded CDF Scholarships during the 2011/2012 College year: Cameron MacArthur, Ottawa; Samuel Lee, Ottawa; Alexander Lang, Hamilton; Nicholas Lang, Hamilton; William Jones, Northumberland; Isaac Maynes, Northumberland; Christina Gerhardt, Saskatoon; Christopher Hay, Winnipeg; Jacob Letkemann, Waterloo Wellington; Somang Lim, Edmonton; Gregory Lewis, Thunder Bay; Nicole Pranger, Thunder Bay. We wish these students all the best as they study the organ and develop their careers.
The CDF also administers two scholarships: the Rachel Joy Brownell Memorial Bursary and the Lorna & Murray Holmes Scholarship.
The Rachel Brownell Bursary has been awarded to Freeman Dryden, Halifax.
The Lorna and Murray Holmes Scholarship has been awarded to Olaf Lokken, Saskatoon.
The College Development Fund functions outside the regular budget of the RCCO, depending totally on members' contributions. A small donation from every member of the College would greatly increase the number of students the fund can subsidise, and would be an important investment in the future of the College and our profession.