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Rehearsing the 2017 SM Survey
It is nearly time for the Stage Manager Survey! Started in 2006, the 6th edition of this now biennial study of American stage managers will start in November. As we prepare for the survey launch, we want to know if there are any questions that you would like to see asked in the 2017 survey.
The 2015 edition of the Stage Manager Survey had a record-breaking 1,662 American stage managers participate. Many of us learned our profession in small programs or through on-the-job training with a single mentor, so it can be hard to predict what is “normal” for a stage manager. Opportunities for groups of stage managers to meet have increased in recent years, but are there regional differences in what we do? Do you ever wonder if you are the only stage manager facing a particular challenge – or the only SM to have solved a common challenge in a particular way?
We need a few weeks to test and retest the survey prior to launch (everyone needs a full dress rehearsal prior to Opening!), but we wanted to open the survey to recommendations until October 2nd. We cannot promise that all recommendations will be included in the 2017 survey. Also, we have received a few recommendations for really great topics that cannot be effectively researched in an online survey. But we want this biennial study to address our profession as it stands today.
Please post your recommendations in the Comments section. Or, if you would prefer privacy in your recommendations, you may e-mail them to davidjmcgraw at sm-sim.com.
If you would like to read any of our previous five studies, or to sign up for the mailing list for this year’s study, please visit www.smsurvey.info. The mailing list is only for notifications of the survey launch and then the survey report. All survey reports are released under a Creative Commons license so that you may share the information freely for non-commercial use.
We will also announce the survey launch on this SM Kit blog series. We hope you will choose to participate – we are all in this together.