Church Choir (Volunteer versus Paid) Question

[PraiseHymn]

You raise a valid point. Now, lets keep in mind, they will pay for our flight, they will pay for our food and they will pay for our hotel. HOWEVER, how do you deal with the missed days at work (your secular job)? How do you deal with the fact that you might not have the savings to draw from to make up for time lossed on your job.

The minister of music is on staff with the church. This IS his job so regardless his natural needs (i.e. mortgage, car note, utility bills) get paid for by the church. No loss there. Our musicians that we use are NOT our own. We outsource. Yup we sure do, they are from various UPCI churches accross America and when there are major performances like this, they get flown in and paid to play for us. So their needs are taking care of as well.

I opted to talk on this site because I dont want to look like an individual that is sowing any seeds of discord amongst other choir members by being a busy body and asking what other people feel about this. I guess for now, I can only think about myself and my own needs and leave everyone else to make their own decisions. As someone said earlier, for those that can go GREAT but for everyone else, you just have to miss out on this one.

I'd say 85% of our choir is not use to traveling to these type of functions, for them THIS IS a once in a lifetime deal and so most will probably be willing to take off, leave their families and go to New York City. I personally just might be in the minority of people that have traveled all over the world, sung with the best of the best choirs out there, and on top of that I am a New York City native, so thats home for me.

Again, I just wanted to open the floor up to discussion to see what others thought about this scenario thats all.