For the past 18 months, Chops has been gathering feedback and perspectives from dozens of stakeholders, including alumni, program participants, current and past staff and board members, community members, and collaborators.
This "listening tour" helped our board of directors to define and ratify a set of core values. We are pleased to announce our new core values, and excited about our upcoming work to define our raison d'être and develop our strategic plan.
Drum, roll, please! Chops' CORE VALUES are:
Integrity
Excellence
Personal development
Community
Entertainment
What the heck are core values, anyway?
Core values define the essence of an organization and help inform decision-making and priorities both externally and internally. While a nonprofit's strategy, programs, and policies may change, core values remain constant. Our board of directors took many stakeholders' perspectives into account and then sat down to answer this question: "When we describe Chops, what words come to mind? What words describe a great team / program / initiative / decision at Chops?"
But what do these values really mean?
To give our board, staff, members, and community more details about our core values, we've defined them below. Chops' core values will guide our staffing decisions, program creation and development, and our behavior as an organization when interacting with vendors, collaborators, and our community at large.
Integrity: We exercise good judgement, character, and habits; we are fair, responsible, accountable, and respectful.
Excellence: We strive for the best possible work product, both internally and externally, toward providing superior experiences for our members, audiences, and staff; it drives quality musicianship, performance etiquette, education, joy, and fun.
Personal development: We create and support leadership development, provide expert training, and lead a culture of action over inaction; all stakeholders are better for having been involved with Chops.
Community: We are equitable in our actions, inclusive, accessible, non-judgmental, and collaborative; communities are built when we truly engage with each other, work to achieve mutual understanding, and share experiences together.
Entertainment: We find our common humanity when we collectively experience the joy of performance art.
Stay tuned for more exciting announcements as we continue on our strategic-planning journey!