Global Reporting for Classical Music

What is Global Reporting for Classical Music (GRCM)?

GRCM is an independent and secure record-keeping and reporting effort to combat sexual harassment, as well as other types of abuse and misconduct specific to classical music institutions. It has been created in conjunction with, and powered by Spot, makers of online software designed by researchers to more appropriately tackle harassment and discrimination in the workplace by alleviating reporter trepidation.  Since our soft launch, it is now functioning online, and as promised, those wishing to report may do so.  We plan a hard launch by Summer 2020.  The goal of $8610 is what we must reach by Feb 2021.

Meanwhile, thank you for your patience as we prepare our task force, online materials and tallying criteria. To have a truly high-quality, reliable service,  we must build it one careful step at a time.  

What is getting reported and to what end?

We want you to have a global tallying system, run by trusted, even-handed industry professionals, cataloging issues reported by victims of harassment, assault, intimidation, discrimination, racial or sexist slurs, body-shaming, bullying, substance abuse and other aggressive behavior in the workplace, private lessons, educational settings, and even places of worship. This covers union and non-union entities, which is to say, anyone, anywhere that makes the classical music workplace less safe.

Why an independent reporting system for classical music?

The classical music industry suffers from an epidemic of sexual harassment and abuse that until recently has gone largely unaddressed, and our community remains under-served.  The global policy has always been to look the other way and keep your mouth shut, We are going to change that.

- When investigating sexual harassment claims, music-related organizations face liability and publicity concerns that may motivate them to prioritize keeping things quiet over protecting their employees. 

- Reporting misconduct can label someone as a troublemaker and hurt their chances of getting hired in the future. Even though retribution is illegal, it can be difficult to prove and easily attributed to “artistic considerations”. 

- Labor unions represent both parties if both the miscreant and victim are members. They have little influence in schools, religious organizations, and non-union companies and their record of handling reports has been inconsistent.

- There is no reliable central database that tracks serial offenders. 

- There is no central place to keep time-stamped records of recollections of an event, no current way to pass them on while protecting yourself, and no obvious and reliable organization to pass them on to. 

- We work all over the globe as classical musicians. There is presently no international organization that tracks misconduct.


How exactly does it work?

After an incident occurs, you “talk to Spot” by answering questions posed by an artificial intelligence (AI) bot. No human can see your words until you give permission. The sooner after the incident you begin the report, the clearer and more accurate your details will be. When you provide your email address to the bot it will be encrypted and not viewable by anyone – not even the technicians at Spot. You can save, return to it, edit and re-save, and then send yourself a time-stamped copy of your report or print a hard copy for your records, all without divulging a single detail to anyone else. All reports you submit will be saved and viewable only by you, accessible through your email (use only your private devices, not a work computer, or someone else's device). You can choose to share the report anonymously with the volunteers administering the system, you can choose to have them share it (while protecting your identity) with someone you designate, or you can request advice on what steps to take next. You can remove identifying information from any report you submit and request coaching to ensure your identity cannot be deduced from the information you provide. With your permission, your data can also be submitted to be tallied with other reports. If a large number of reports are submitted discussing a particular predator, the task force can advise union administrators or other appropriate parties of the rising data on that person.  Global Reporting is completely transparent about who has been appointed to the task force, with a document that introduces everyone who has been authorized to view reports. If you know someone on the task force you trust, and prefer that person handle your case, or if you prefer someone not see your file, at the bottom of your reports, in the TITLE field, you may also:
-choose a person on the task force, first and last name, to handle your file, by using -ATTN: Robert Gardner (meaning you prefer this person be the primary Spot TF member on your case, but not necessarily exclusively)
-EYES ONLY: Robert Gardner (this means that person is the only person authorized to see your file, everyone else is blinded to it)
-BLIND: Robert Gardner (this means that person(s) is excluded from reading or having anything to do with your file, but remaining task force can assist).

Does it have to be a recent event?

You may submit any and all incidents, recent or decades old, with the offender living or deceased. It may be that other (living) parties enabled that offender.  We need to know what happened to you, or know what you witnessed in order to follow up with adequate and fair action.

I am a witness to something egregious, but the victim does not wish to act.

Witness accounts are extremely important in this process. And do not forget that what you saw also had a negative effect on you and your work environment. Do try to get permission from the victim, always. But if you cannot, you can still do right by them, and do the right thing by continuing to take action. Please report everything you saw and keep the victim's name anonymous in your report. We will coach you in removing any identifying information that would enable someone to deduce who it is. It will count in the overall tally on your offender, and help us push toward making your workplace safer.


What if I already reported elsewhere?

Please submit your report to us as well, and let us know where else you have reported, and whether you were satisfied with their attention and outcome. We also seek to work with unions and other entities gathering reports to share anonymized metadata from submitted files, which should sync-up with your report. Considering your report may be anonymous, we will make every effort to prevent duplication of reports on an offender. Your submitting directly to us is also an added way of keeping other entities honest while contributing metadata to our tallying system.


You can see general examples of how Spot reporting works here: https://talktospot.com/reporting 


Who is organizing this?

My name is Robert Gardner . I’m an American baritone, conductor, and voice teacher living in Europe. Having witnessed the harassment of a colleague who recently publicly disclosed that incident, I felt moved to support her. And being a victim myself, I continue to feel that it is vital that we do more to stop the sexual harassment and abuse that pervades our industry. Since I began working on this project it has attracted many supporters, and your support of this campaign will add another essential voice to our dialogue. It is a priority for me that this project be a grassroots, transparent, and democratic effort, as well as safe and confidential.


Who will see the reports I submit?

We have selected and published introductions to our initial volunteer task force composed of members of the classical music industry who are proven allies with no conflicts of interest or biases toward entities known to be protecting predators. Task force members are/will be carefully vetted for sensitivity, trustworthiness, and their knowledge of the issues. Spot will provide them with ongoing training on how to use the system, ensure discretion, and provide resources for accessing legal information governing the different countries where our users work. We have, and will continue to disclose the names of all of the members of the task force and the manner in which they were selected. You may, if you wish, have the option to request that a certain member handle your report, or that a certain member(s) not see it. Since every access to a report is logged, and any action taken on the file also irrevocably logged, the task force members are able to police each other to ensure that all requests for restricted access are honored.


The task force can also deliver your report, selected excerpts from it, or a paraphrased description, to someone you choose, such as an authority at a producing organization, a union official,  or other authority. Alternately, you can simply allow us to keep track of your data, which will help us to issue warnings especially about repeat offenders.


Who will be able to report?

Anyone, musician or non, working or performing in the classical music industry, as well as students or workers in educational or religious organizations. For example, we invite victims of harassment, intimidation, discrimination, racial or sexist slurs, body-shaming, bullying, substance abuse, or aggressive behavior in the workplace, private lessons, or educational settings, to tell their stories.


How will Spot protect my identity?

This AI bot design enables you to choose at every step how much of your identity to reveal. Reporting can be anonymous, or you may choose to keep records solely for yourself. The AI bot asks for your email address, which is immediately encrypted. No one at Spot or on the task force will see it. And if you begin to file a report, but do not save it, whatever you wrote is erased completely and cannot be recovered by anyone. If you choose only to save it, the task force sees only that someone used the system, but cannot see who, or any other details. Whenever you decide you are ready to have assistance on your report, you can give permissions to the task force, or specific persons on it. You may still remain anonymous while reaching out to the task force. We can contact you through the bot while you remain anonymous. If a follow-up or any other action is needed, we can request the bot send an email to your address, which remains encrypted. Your email will contain a link to join the bot again, to move ahead safely and anonymously. This crucial service is unique to Spot, and not available with any other reporting method.

While some may express the concern that the creation of an anonymous reporting system may increase the likelihood of false accusations, this is not borne out by statistics. Under any circumstances, false reporting is extraordinarily rare. GRCM intends to take action as data rises on a culprit, so even if the false reporting numbers were higher than the research, we will have ample proof in numbers.


What sorts of recourse will there be?

The primary goal of this effort with Spot will always be in taking the reports you choose to share, keeping you and your report safe, and passing your report or anonymized metadata from it to people who have the capacity to improve the situation directly. We will advise them that you (or someone) have made a credible report and that we  are assisting you (them), and we will be monitoring the situation to encourage them to take appropriate action.

Another main goal will be to set the success metrics for the industry, and give positive feedback to presenters and other entities who are compliant with those metrics. The over-arching goal will always be focusing on making the workplace safer. In an effort to bring light into this dark area of our industry, we must try to give as much positive reinforcement as we can. 

However, this organization must also have the strength to act on behalf of victims.

Especially if there have already been multiple reports made about the perpetrator named in your submission, you may be invited to share your name or contact info with others who submitted similar reports. A task force member could also facilitate group conversations and offer advice.  Keep in mind this is a global arena, not a single jurisdiction. The vast majority of reports will not see a courtroom.

Considering that a quantity of complaints about a specific perpetrator might be established, your task force member(s) may take a number of actions, most likely with someone in the union of which the offender is a member. Depending on the strength and severity of each case, or group of cases, this may include a variety of actions:

--If the union or other authority decides the perpetrator needs sensitivity training, this can be administered and certified by Spot. The task force can confirm whether that person has taken the required steps.

--advising their union or their employer(s) to begin an investigation as required by law

--advising their union or their employer(s) to suspend the person while under investigation,  depending on severity

--advising their union or their employer(s) to sever the relationship in the worst cases where resolution cannot be reached

--advising when a case deserves to be prosecuted in a court of law

--issuing a web page listing the entities who have failed to satisfy best practices regarding a case(s)

--issuing a web page listing the entities who have upheld best practices regarding a case(s) in exemplary fashion

Task force members also maintain relationships with mainstream media writers in the case that going to the court of public opinion is the only recourse. With Spot, we intend for all reasonable options to be at your fingertips to make the strongest, most compelling case for positive results.


Why Spot?

I researched several independent reporting systems and hotlines, including Lighthouse Services (the company used by Actors’ Equity), allvoices.co and stopitsolutions.com among others. Spot stood out for the following reasons:

- Spot is a front-runner in research and technology. They are active in ongoing studies and have established a reputation for defining industry standards, including in the area of administering state-mandated harassment and discrimination training. They host companies that oversee hundreds of thousands of employees and potential users. They rapidly develop and implement effective techniques based on the most current available data.

- Spot is the only service currently available that is capable of offering two-way anonymity, enabling sharing of information and responses to questions while protecting reporters’ identities – an absolute necessity for musicians. This also best enables resolution before situations escalate. 

- Spot’s staff responds extremely quickly to customer concerns.

- Spot was developed by Dr. Julia Shaw and Dr. Jessica Collier using groundbreaking research on harassment and reporting. The anonymized metadata from our reports will become essential components of their future research, alerting us to important trends and strategies in our field as they become established and available. 


Here are some informational videos about Spot and its mission:

https://vimeo.com/322939927 


https://www.ted.com/talks/dr_julia_shaw_what_to_do_if_you_have_been_harassed_at_work 



How can I share my concerns or input?

We want to hear from as many musicians as possible. We have a Facebook group you can join to discuss the development and implementation of the service and provide feedback here. You can also write me directly with questions and concerns at [email redacted] . If you have any questions you feel should be answered on this GoFundMe page, please feel free to suggest them to me as well.


I’m not on Facebook - how can I get involved?

There are several ways you can help advance this cause, including spreading the word about this project to friends and colleagues in the industry, helping us to secure ongoing funding, forwarding this GoFundMe to friends, or volunteering any skills or talents you may have that would be useful to the project. Please contact me at [email redacted] to discuss any help you would like to offer. I will reply to your message as soon as I am able.


Where will the money raised here go?

Spot has graciously offered to tailor their service to meet the needs of a grassroots, international database for classical musicians, without being tied to or sponsored by a specific company. So your money does not go to a company or non-profit at this time. All task force members are trusted volunteers, and we aim to keep it that way. Spot charges $6930 per year to develop and provide this service to an unlimited number of classical music or genre-related professionals. This is the exact amount asked for in the campaign, not a penny more. The amount now posted is the amount received as of February 2020  ($1680) plus the amount needed for the new campaign, to get us into 2022. 

In the fall of 2019,  in preparation for our soft-launch, Edmonton Therapeutic Massage and Cynthia Ganga, whose practice is dedicated to women who are recovering from sexual violence, offered a matching grant of up to $100 per donation for this GoFundMe.  This was a tremendous help in launching the system, but the matching grant is now fulfilled, according to the donors we had at that time, and that campaign has now ended as a new one begins. Now we seek the full $6930.00 to cover Feb 2021-2022, or 3465 if we need to buy 6 months time. Spot has been exceedingly gracious about this launch.


We will also be reaching out to organizations that have a vested interest in addressing sexual harassment in our industry, such as the American Guild of Musical Artists (who has now declined to participate in GR, though its President donated generously), the American Federation of Musicians, Opera America, the National Opera Association, the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education (former MENC), the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the American Guild of Organists, in addition to other international organizations, in the hopes of securing their support. But we will not accept any funding that comes with a requirement, written or implied, to give up or share control with an institution, or to relax our standards. This service must remain independent, subject only to the demands of those who need and use it, and I am committed to ensuring ongoing support so that it can continue into the future.

I am the sole contract signatory and assume responsibility for the future of this service, but am welcome to other appropriate parties willing to co-sign and share the burden. All reports filed are saved and backed up using cutting-edge encryption techniques. The Spot dashboard will always contain these files, even if the service is discontinued, and those files will remain the property of the account holder. If ownership of this service should ever pass to another administrator, it is Spot policy that only active task force members will have access to any of the reports that have already been filed or will be filed after that time.

I look forward to working with you to improve our art form, one safe workplace at a time.
Robert Gardner