Sally Taylor, chair of PRS for Music Foundation

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"It became very clear in a very short amount of time that I and my fellow trustees had made a very big mistake...either we needed to remove the chair or we were going to have a walkout of the trustees."

by WebAssistant — last modified Jul 21, 2010 12:57 PM

About the chair

Name: Sally Taylor

Chairs: PRS for Music Foundation www.prsformusicfoundation.com

Job: Director of the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Exchange

Interview Date: 18th December 2009

About the interview

A little cajoling and humour

Sally Taylor is quick to dispel any myths of gender inequality when it comes to taking command of an army of male trustees. In fact, she feels that being a member of the fairer sex is actually advantageous.

“One can use a certain amount of charm, cajoling and humour in a way that a man might feel would be a little demeaning,” she explains, “I’ve never found it to be a negative issue at all.”

Sally chairs two organisations. Streetwise Opera is an inspired charity that uses opera and musical theatre to help homeless people move forward in their lives and assimilate back into society. They run weekly music programmes in 11 homeless centres across England and stage professional opera productions. The other group that Sally chairs is the PRS for Music Foundation which is a grant-giving organisation that supports music across all genres.

The best and worst of chairs

She has learnt the job 'through osmosis, having experienced the best and the worst of chairs; those who impart their invaluable wisdom and those who throw their toys from their prams when they don’t get their way. She also has some wisdom to share on the matter of chair selection.

In one organisation Sally has been involved with, the trustees decided it would be beneficial to bring in a new chair who had not previously been involved with the organisation. Sally and her colleague chose the ideal candidate, and he took his place at the helm.

But it soon became clear that the individual concerned had 'rather alot of time on his hands'. He began to interfere with the way the organisation was run. He even started rearranging the accounts in a way no-one could understand. Sally was faced with a dilemma. They either needed to remove the chair, or face a trustee walkout. At first, he was indignant and Sally began looking at how to go about removing a chair, which she says is 'not impossible'.

To everyone’s relief, he soon realised things were not going according to plan.

“We gave him a dignified way out and he took it,” Sally explains. “If he had not, I would have had to take legal action.”

Familiarity breeds contentment

Sally says there is a clear lesson to be learnt from their mistakes:

“The grass is always greener attitude is not the same here,” she says. She goes on to explain that if there is someone suitable on the board, they may be a wiser choice than parachuting someone in. If you already know them, trust them, and can work with them, then these are valuable attributes.