Count Me In - the West Yorkshire Music Board

Count Me In - the West Yorkshire Music Board - is an initiative from West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), and not affiliated with Launchpad. We have been asked to share this information with our Future Leaders network, and created this webpage to make the information more useful.
For further information on the music board, please contact Paddy Buggy at WYCA: Patrick.Buggy@westyorks-ca.gov.uk

We are very pleased to share details of the new West Yorkshire Music Board!

The Board will meet three to four times a year to discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the music industry across West Yorkshire. It will play a key role in shaping the recommendations that will feed into the Creative Industries Action Plan Board and supporting the Combined Authority's development of a Live Music Strategy for West Yorkshire, which will explore how the region can support, grow and protect its live music scene.

Membership will include Local Authority representation which is being finalised separately. This email, and the application form below, are for external members working within the live, commercial, skills and education subsectors.  

What we're looking for:

  • Professional and lived experience of working within the West Yorkshire music industry

  • A strong understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing the sector, and a willingness and enthusiasm for collaboration and advocacy

  • Commitment to attend three / four meetings per year with some reading and follow ups in between

  • Sharing Combined Authority priorities around strengthening access, inclusion, and regional diversity

    .

Board membership will include up to two early-career or emerging leaders to both support leadership development and future leader pipelines, and also bring fresh perspectives into discussions. 

Candidates for these positions may be have been in the industry for only a couple of years or be a recent graduate, and have limited or no previous experience in governance or board structures, but share the Board's commitment to positively supporting the music ecosystem while building on their own strategic and leadership potential. 

Emerging leader members will be considered full Board members, with additional flexibility in how they participate in discussions while developing confidence, networks, and strategic understanding.

Key notes:

  • The Board will be chaired by the Combined Authority. Full Governance and participation notes are in the attached Terms of Reference

  • We anticipate membership being approx. 20. Not all applicants will be appointed immediately, but we hope to draw on the wider pool of expertise through guest participation or through future appointments as priorities evolve 

  • The Board will have an initial weighting towards 'live', as the Strategy is developed. This is not to the exclusion of other areas of the industry - membership will be balanced 

  • This is separate to the Music Network, currently out to tender,

To apply to join, please complete the form here: COUNT ME IN - A Board for Music in West Yorkshire – Fill out form 

Timescales:

  • Deadline for responses is midnight 30th September

  • We aim to respond to applications and share the outcome in early October

  • The first meeting of the Music Board will then follow in the first week of November

When you press submit on your application, you should see a note acknowledging your application, but also sharing a link to an anonymous Equality, Diversity and Inclusion questionnaire. This is completely optional and cannot be used to identify you, but please take a moment to complete this, as it will support us in ensuring our work reaches as many people as possible.

To help you prepare for the application here are the main Questions that require long form answers:

Experience and Expertise

We're interested in your experience, but also how you think and what you notice about the sector, and how you think it could be improved.

Please provide a short bio, including aspects of your experience that are most relevant for this Board (1000 Characters max)

Which parts of the West Yorkshire music ecosystem are you best connected to? Please describe the artists, organisations, communities, audiences or networks you regularly engage with. (1000 Characters max)

What are the most important opportunities or challenges for music in West Yorkshire, and how could the Board help respond to them? Why would you like to contribute to that work? (2500 Characters max)

Tell us about a time when you worked with people or organisations with different priorities or interests to achieve a positive outcome. What role did you play and what did you learn? (1000 Characters max)

What perspective, experience or insight do you bring that you feel is currently missing or underrepresented in discussions about the West Yorkshire music sector? (1000 Characters max)