Up until five years ago, the music ministry at my new job was run by volunteers in the church. They are a lovely older couple whose family has been in this church for its entire 80 year history. The director before me did not respect these people, or their 30 year unpaid commitment to managing and building the music program there. Even the current pastor gets irritated with them sometimes because they still like to sit up front and "lead" the hymns. I had a chance to talk to the wife yesterday. I need to know what music they've done recently, what they haven't done in a while, what do they like, what they don't, and so on. From my perspective, this couple is going to be very helpful to someone like me, coming from the outside and not having a clue about any of those things. I think it's only natural that they still want to feel "useful", and I don't have an issue with allowing them to pretend-lead the hymns (you can't really hear them anyway). The wife also purchased a Christmas cantata with her own money just before they hired the previous director, but I found the parts still in the wrapping. She was sad that they didn't use any of it. Maybe we won't use the whole thing, but I know it will make her happy if we do a few pieces from it. Considering the music fund is in the negative at the moment, I will barely have enough to scrape together enough for the two pieces I want to purchase-buying another cantata is out of the question right now. I don't know. I'm more about working with people, and I'm not about to disrespect these people. I didn't realize their influence until they explained it to me yesterday. Have any of you had a similar experience? How did you handle it? Or, how do you maintain your authority while making people like this feel like they still get a "say" in things? I feel like they deserve that.