Faster, more fun and easier - also for nonprofit
For more than 60 years, Summer Course Woudschoten has offered young musicians the opportunity to take their playing to the next level, surrounded by like-minded contemporaries. This organization runs entirely on volunteers, so the more efficient and pleasant the operations run, the more focus there is on what really matters: young people and music. We happily implemented Salesforce for this purpose.
Young people in chamber music
Music is super popular among young people, but the subgenre of chamber music is a little less obvious these days. Woudschoten has been around for more than 60 years. Therefore, in the early days, the instruments you would classify as chamber music were much more common than now. We speak with Laura Prause, secretary at Woudschoten: “We focus on young people aged 12 to 25 who play an instrument that we classify as chamber music. For example, violin, cello, horn, flute, bassoon and piano. But we also have an extensive percussion section. Every year, Zomercursus Woudschoten (Woudschoten for short) organizes a 10-day summer course for this purpose in the beautiful Group Accommodation Beukenhof in Biezenmortel.”
Laura is presented with a flower by a participant.
Why is a summer school for young people so valuable?
Laura explains, “Music is a language. By sharing their common passion and interest, young people learn to speak the same language. As like-minded people, they understand each other. In principle, of course, this applies to all ages, but especially for this formative age of 12-25 it gives such an enormous depth and development. People feel so understood; it’s almost therapeutic.”
Are they a specific kind of young people who sign up for Woudschoten?
Laura: “The young people who come to us listen just as much to pop music, rap, rock or other types of music. Put flatly, they are ‘normal adolescents,’ but with a quality that we as an organization help them develop. They don’t normally have a backpack or problems. In some cases, for example, someone has “something on the autistic spectrum. Parents then report this to us and ask that we keep an extra eye on them, because at school this is needed. The funny thing is that at Woudschoten this is not noticed at all! Our participants are so passionately engaged that focus, fun and connecting come naturally.”
"Put flatly, they are 'ordinary adolescents,'
but with a quality that we as an organization help develop."
Musical development
To participate in the summer course, young people are expected to master their instrument at a certain level. They have to play for a while, to ensure that there is always a good click in the group. Laura: “Sometimes participants come from a musical family, but sometimes they only really discover their talent at Woudschoten. It is beautiful to see how they then decide during Woudschoten that they want to pursue music professionally. For example, that they sign up for a conservatory as a continuation course. Sometimes we see former participants on TV, on major stages or in theaters. One prominent former participant, for example, is Jaap van Zweden. What I personally think is a great attitude is that you have to make sure you practice to do what you like; not just to achieve a goal.”
Personal development
Every year the volunteers of Woudschoten see the young people grow. Sometimes, of course, that first step is exciting. Laura gives an example: “We once had a girl who didn’t dare. ‘Can I do that?’ The answer to that was a resounding YES! After a good conversation here, we created the preconditions to make participation possible for her. She was so enthusiastic after the first summer course that she has now convinced 20 others to come too. She has become a real ambassador! This girl has grown so much in her self-esteem. This will help her for the rest of her life. Not only that: friendships are formed during the summer school for life. We see marriages developing and even ‘Woudschoten babies’ have been born!”
Role of Laura at Woudschoten
Are you a former participant yourself? “Yes! And I still play violin in various companies. I eventually chose not to continue professionally in music, but to specialize as a pediatric physical therapist. And from this profession I can of course contribute well to the quality of Woudschoten. Our participants are playing for 10 days anyway, so I help them with attention to their posture. That way they continue to play well.
In addition to this role, I am also secretary on the board. That’s quite a task. The number of children playing a musical instrument is declining. This has consequences everywhere: youth orchestras are in decline and after the COVID pandemic we, too, were worried for a while whether we would have enough participants for the future. Do we still have the right to exist? Setting up a summer course like this is quite an undertaking. We obviously have to deal with costs, teachers, location…. So this year we set up a big PR campaign. And with results, because this year we had another particularly successful edition with more than 120 participants and Woudschoten 2025 already seems to be filling up fast!”
Performance of teachers. Many of them have been associated with Woudschoten for many years.
Salesforce implementation
Is the success of that PR campaign also why Salesforce is such a good solution for you? “As secretary, my responsibilities include the registrations of all participants and various other arrangement work. That takes an enormous amount of time. My predecessor had been doing this work for 30 years (as have our former president and various teachers who have been involved for 10-20-30 years) and so had their own way of working. I am married to Arnd Jan [co-founder of musQueteer; ed.] and he saw how we did this. Of course, by now this could be done much more efficiently with the current state of the art, and he offered to set this up for us in Salesforce, by way of sponsorship and a charity investment. We run entirely on volunteers, so we want to make sure that everything can be done as easily and quickly as possible. As it stands, it’s going to save us at least half in time.
In the past, we have also had some IT problems that caused registrations not to go well. Those are now taken directly into the solution. So nice that musQueteer optimizes this for us. This way the volunteers have more focus on the young people and their music.”
To learn more about Woudschoten, visit www.zomercursuswoudschoten.nl.
Photo credit: Otto Dekkers. https://www.ottodekkers.nl/
Ask our specialists
Want to know how Salesforce can also help your organization save time and streamline processes? If so, please feel free to contact Arnd Jan Prause, Founder and Consultant at musQueteer
