Is he planning to increase fees to make it “financially self-reliant”, or reduce them because “there are parents that are battling to pay”? If the latter, then presumably he hopes a reduction will bring in more students. That means more staff, Mr Turner. How will you pay for them if you’ve lost the next two years’ funding from Orange City Council (“brought forward” to pay for the restructure)?

The ORC doesn’t need an expensive restructure which takes money from day-to-day operations. It needs good management from the board, which has been seriously lacking for the last 18 months.

Corporate funding is one of the many board responsibilities they have ignored. Members have expressed many times that they need to be doing more of this. Mr Turner now seems to have discovered it as a “new idea”.

Many of the ORC’s difficulties would have been sorted out if the board had acted earlier on fundraising. 

They’ve also lost the best director the organisation’s ever had, the person whose hard work, talent and dedication has brought to its current status as one of the leading regional conservatoriums in NSW, and a major contributor to the cultural life of Orange. 

If Mr Sattler’s resignation was indeed a “shock”, it shows how out of touch Mr Turner is with his organisation. The members need to be asking hard questions of this board.

Meredith Macpherson,

Orange