News for Members and Followers

RTOS Accomplishments 2025

• Concerts
  • Eight concerts held, plus a Celebration of Life concert for Rush Shaner.
  • Sponsorship was received for the artists for three concerts (Donations received from Ludeke family for the Zach Frame concert, Tom and Jan Brewer for the Nancy Wildonner concert and Russ Shaner and his memorial contributors
• Community Outreach
  • Community outreach programs were presented by Chris Van Stean, Gary Brumbaugh, Bob Bower and Tim Wagner
  • Gates Historical Society March 2025
  • Eastside YMCA March 21, 2025
  • Greece Strawberry Festival June 16, 2025
  • Greece Library Sept. 10, 2025
  • Rainbow Seniors October 14, 2025
• Convention 2026
  • Website created and populated by Richard Neidich
  • Schedule and budget created by Bob Bower and Ken Dorner and approved by ATOS July, 2025
  • Artists and venues scheduled by Bob Bower
  • Received ATOS grant of $21,000 for organ repair August 2025 application prepared by Bob Bower, Richard Neidich and David Peckham
  • Save the Date cards were designed by Bob Bower and Richard Neidich and were printed and donated by Visit Rochester and distributed at the 2025 Convention
  • Bob Bower and Russ Shaner contracted artists with unique themes for each concert which greatly improved our advertising ability and gave us the information we needed when suggesting programs of interest to new people.
  • Bob Bower created the ATOS 2026 Convention Video, presented it at the 2025 ATOS Convention and posted it on YouTube.
• Maintenance Projects:
  • Wiring completed in preparation for new Blower, supervised by Brian Volkmar
  • Humidifier installed by Bob Bower and Brian Volkmar
  • RTOS-Grierson Console removed and taken to David Peckham for repairs/restoration on pneumatics, stop contacts and a lot of new wiring.  The Console was returned in October.
  • Kevin Scott is refurbishing the Eisenhart organ in preparation for the convention performances
• Support Equipment
  • Storage areas were sorted and unwanted materials donated or discarded.  Space needed reduced. Bob Bower negotiated for space in the Auditorium Theatre – more convenient and less costly. 
• Financial Management
  • RTOS Treasurer’s books were audited by Richard Neidich.  In his report he said ” Our treasurer, Robert Hunter, is doing an admiral well organized effort in managing our financial transactions and records associated with the domain of the RTOS treasurer…These efforts, in coordination with having an accountant prepare our annual reports, provide RTOS will have a set of records and underlying processes that will be hard to improve.”
• RTOS Policies
  • Two New policies were created:
    • Whistleblower
    • Conflict of Interest
• Fundraising
  • Monroe County Arts Grant applied for in September and notice of award for $8,750 to be received in November.  Application was prepared by Chris Van Stean, Gary Brumbaugh, Bob Bower, Richard Neidich
• Education:
  • Eastman Bunch presented a program March 23.   Professor Bill Porter coordinated with Brian Volkmar to schedule practice and teaching times in the middle of the wiring project.
  • Camden Church was invited to present the second half.  RTOS arranged for lessons with Jelani Edington for him in summer 2025.
• Safety:
  • The first aid kit at the West Herr Auditorium was updated as the result of an incident during one of our concerts.  Member nurses Susan Shukis and Geraldine Speck assisted along with Matt from Security.
• RBTL Relations:
  • Russ Shaner’s piano was donated to West Herr Auditorium and RTOS provided a plaque. Bob Bower coordinated the effort and Gary Brumbaugh designed the plaque.
• Organizational Changes:
  • Bob Bower was named 4/23 Crew Chief. 
  • Gary Brumbaugh was named Publicity Chair and Richard Neidich was appointed to fill the Past President for the remainer of Russ’s term. 
  • Shawn Gorden was appointed as Director to serve the remainder of Richard Neidich’s term.
• Publicity
  • Gary Brumbaugh created new posters, programs and social media announcements for each of the concerts as Publications and Publicity Chair. Gary also worked with RBTL staff to include our upcoming concert information in their mailings, expanding our community reach.
  • Richard Neidich, webmaster, updates the website with new materials for each event. 
  • Gary Brumbaugh posts RTOS content on Facebook and Instagram.  RTOS Facebook Group membership increased from 214 to 232 members and RTOS Instagram Followers increased from 93 to 155 since last November. 
  • Bob Bower posts concert videos with artists’ permission to the RTOS YouTube Channel.  Subscribers increased from 772 to 888 subscribers to date in 2025. Bob also created and posted the 2026 ATOS Convention video with Ken Double’s voice over.