There is no doubt whatsoever that times have changed. Doing theatre today is not what it used to be even ten years ago : There are more groups doing theatre, loyalty to the group sounds old fashioned, production costs keep getting higher, sponsorships keep getting scarcer, rehearsal scheduling is a nightmare, people spend hours commuting to and from work, people work late hours. And so on and so forth. A lot has been said about this, and we hear it all the time. Under these conditions it may be natural for a director and the production team to be so preoccupied that the membership is forgotten. How does the membership see it then? It is not our production anymore, but theirs. In changed times, we may have to change methods to ensure membership involvement. But involve them we must. Two other interesting findings during the strategic planning process:

The amateur status has no correlation with quality. You can be “professional” and deliver poor quality, and you can be “amateur” and deliver high quality.

There is a need to distinguish the non-profit status from the amateur status. In India there is a practical necessity to combine a non-profit status with a thoroughly professional manner of working.