The following appeared in a memo from a budget planner for the city of Grandview When the Grandview Symphony was established ten years ago the city of Grandview agreed to provide the symphony with annual funding until the symphony became self sustaining T

In the budget planning memo of the Grandview city, it is suggested that the financial funding for the Grandview Symphony should be discontinued due to successful achievement of its growing audience and that now it has become self-sufficient. The writer grounds his idea based on the observation that recently, the symphony has enrolled a ‘high-profile’ inductor, who has been successful in providing eminent musicians into its performing team. Also, the second evidence quoted is of the increasing financial support from say, private parties, has resulted in escalating attendance in its outdoor concerts. However, two questions can be raised before the recommendation is formally accepted.

In the first place, does the hiring of a high-profile contractor – who was able to bring renowned musicians to the symphony – prove that the Grandview Symphony has become self-dependent? The ‘two-year ago’ gap creates a logical fallacy of relating the past happenings to the present. Perhaps, it may be equally possible that the contractor may happen to have done it free of charge? The symphony could have hired the contractor to persuade the musicians for one particular event, say, cancer hospital fundraising. For the same reason, the private organizations may have played their part to share funds to support the cause of fundraising, resulting in the increased contribution. If the assertion is true, it proves that the recommendation does not hold any water.

Secondly, what if the Symphony’s outdoor night concert series was joined by any external people, who were not part of its regular partners or contributors? Say, for example, the people who came to spend some time outside may have found it a recreational activity to refresh themselves, resulting the observed ‘tripled’ attendance in the concerts. If this possibility is true, it significantly undermines the drawn conclusion out of the observations.

Conclusively, in order to investigate whether the Symphony’s has become self-reliant or not, a recent observation should be conducted that can truly assign the nature of its audience and its private contributors. After the big picture of the whole scenario is evaluated, it will help the Grandview city in deciding if it is feasible to keeping funding the symphony or to discontinue it.