Road to Cologne: Team Band Leader Michael Tolliver

Syndicated from: Living in the Queer Times | Gay News, http://thequeertimes.com/2010/07/gay-games-michael-tolliver/

By Michael Tolliver

Michael Tolliver

As a musician and board member with the Lesbian and Gay Band Association, I was both excited and apprehensive when I agreed to accept the responsibility of spearheading the Team Band effort more than two years ago. Although I had planned and organized several large events over the past several years, the ability to understand and manage the many issues associated with bringing musicians and instruments from all over the world to Germany presented a completely different and unique set of challenges.

The planning process began in 2008, and my first order of business was to select a leadership team. Knowing the amount of work involved, I first selected a person to co-chair the leadership team with me. This person was someone that I trusted and knew very well could handle the workload. Next, two artistic directors were selected, one that would be responsible for planning and executing the field show during the Opening Ceremony, and another who would be responsible for the Gala Music Concert later in the week. The artistic staff was selected through a process in which we solicited interest, collected applications, interviewed applicants, and then ultimately selected two very talented and enthusiastic people to plan the entertainment that would be viewed by thousands of people from all over the world. Once all of the leaders were in place, the planning process began in full force.

With a world economy in turmoil, I knew that the key to generating interest in traveling to Gay Games would be to find an affordable way for people to get to Germany. I reached out to several travel agents, but in the end, I ultimately selected one that provided the best value to our membership. After months of negotiations, I finally rolled the travel package out to Team Band participants.

Next, we launched a website that provided Team Band participants with a place to get up to date information on the events leading to up to the trip to Cologne as well as a place to download information and music so that they could practice prior to arriving in Cologne.

One of the largest challenges during the planning process was logistics. How do we get large instruments and percussion to Cologne? We knew that we couldn’t ask people to transport large items, so we reached out to the organizers to help us. It didn’t take very long for us to realize that there is a big difference between the instruments they play in Europe versus say, the United States or Australia. For instance, they don’t have traditional marching bands in Europe, so finding Sousaphones (an instrument very common in marching bands in the United States) was impossible. Organizers reached out to countries all over Europe trying to find the instruments we needed, and in the end, somehow found every single piece of equipment we needed.

We had other issues to consider as well. How do you get large instruments from the hotel to rehearsal to the performance space and back? This entailed renting a van for equipment and finding a volunteer to drive. Also, due to some of our members with disabilities, we had to ensure that all rehearsal and performance venues could accommodate people in wheelchairs. This issue alone required us to switch rehearsal venues to accommodate our members with disabilities.

In the end, after two years of planning, Team Band is finally ready to make its appearance on the world stage in Cologne. I couldn’t be prouder, and I know that all of my work will have paid off and the reward will be deeply personal. I am already looking forward to Cleveland.