Month: January 2018

I manage a site called AuditionForms.com which seeks to make better kids by alleviating music teachers of soul-sucking paper work and giving them time to actually teach their students. It’s a bit of a selfish endeavor because I love listening to great high school concerts. It’s my theory that better teachers make better musicians and better musicians make better concerts; a win for everyone!
The site’s most basic goal is to translate paper- and spreadsheet-intensive work that’s been done by hand over the last 50+ years into an electronic workflow. The overwhelming majority of teachers come to the site already knowing what they need to do because they’ve done it many times before, just not in this mode. The fresh-outs dive right in; they’re ‘net-natives and typically move through the site with ease. The veteran teachers fall along a spectrum starting at ‘net-native and ending at ‘net-phobic.
With each release, I watch in wonder as my customers discover holes that I hadn’t seen, play out scenarios that I couldn’t fathom, and create paths across, through and around my designs that are works of sheer ingenuity. And I know that every one of these variances result from a failure on my part and stand as a testament to my customer’s determination to make my product succeed!
As a web developer, a key part of my job is to make the site intuitive. The Japanese call this poka yoke meaning to make a thing so that it can’t be used wrong. Ideally, you shouldn’t need instructions to use the site correctly and the site should be designed to prevent you from doing anything wrong. Ideally, I’d also be 6’3″ and have a full head of hair. Height and hair aside, it’s my challenge is to close the gap between the ideal and reality. I do this by listening, watching (whenever possible) and paying attention to the output of my customers. I encourage my customers to be open and detailed in their criticism. I have had terrific spontaneous input through the use of chat for in-the-moment discussions.
So, if you’re scratching your head while using one of my products, please know, sincerely, that it’s my problem and not yours. Reach out and click that chat button or send me an email. Help me understand how I can make the product better for you and, in turn, make a better product for everyone.

Hi – I’m Rick Retzko. I’m the founder of MFR Holdings, LLC, the parent company of AuditionForms.com and TheDirectorsRoom.com.
I founded the company and these sites following two twenty-year careers in Human Resources and Customer Service, respectively. I’ve earned a Bachelors in Music Education and a Masters in Industrial Relations. I have a beautiful, highly accomplished and gifted wife and we had a loving, funny and patient inspiration of a son whom we aspire to honor every day.
My father was an early computer operations manager, running Burrough’s machines, and my mom operated a keypunch machine in our basement. Given this exposure, I came by my fascination with code quite late in life and without a particular driver other than a need to get something done and the realization that these (then) new personal computers could help me do it. Little bits of knowledge piled one on top of the other until I found myself building computerized tools for my employers and at home to help my wife organize her work as a Choral Director and as a manager of Regional and All-State auditions.
The sheer joy of watching my code come to life and do good led me from avocation to vocation. I took the leap to self-employment in mid-2016 to offer the tools which are AuditionForms.com and TheDirectorsRoom.com to the wider population.
Also along the way, I took up the discipline of writing and I’ve had enough people comment positively that I’m encouraged to continue. Blue Circles are what I make around headlines, book reviews, op-ed pieces, advertisements, etc. that I use to find my inspiration and hook. I try to write about what I know and have done for forty-plus years: Customer Service. At the core, it’s what we all do and I hope you’ll find your own relevance in these words.
I encourage comments and criticism. We all grow stronger with a bit of physical, mental and philosophical challenge!