I've recently stepped into a assistant leadership role with a community trombone choir I'm in and its got me thinking about what everyone is trying to achieve. Obviously each situation is different but what is you're focus with a community group. As a professional trombonist I feel that my personal goal is giving back to them by helping with an environment to explore and grow on the trombone but am also curious what they want to get out of it. Where have goals landed for you all in the past was it music quality based or providing a place to play or learn just curious what some common goals of these groups are.

My happiest trombone-playing days were being in a trombone choir playing sonorous Renaissance pieces by Gabrieli and his peers. Less so the hipsterish modern stuff.

That is probably not a common preference but it falls under your "quality of music" heading.

That experience was almost all about the rehearsal since there were always negligible audience at our concerts.

If you can find a way to have an appreciative audience for your efforts that would be a plus for the members, I presume. I'd say go play at the mall but... are there still malls?

Sometimes community groups like this get funding from the city or county. If that's the case, I think part of the goal has to include some public performances to demonstrate what the funding is doing. Second of course needs to be the enjoyment of the group members. Sometimes music selection is put to a vote, but I'd really try for a range of music. Marches, movies, renaissance, classical transcriptions, jazz and pop or broadway selections. Raucous to serene. Encourage members to arrange or bring in music. Musescore is doing a lot to democratize music writing.

We had a trombone choir in Indianapolis for a couple years that I played with. Many who played were music teachers in local schools or trombone students at local universities like Butler. I was an outlier as an aerospace engineer who was picking up trombone after many years. I loved the chance to play with people who were so much better than me. I feel like I learned a lot from watching / listening at the rehearsals. A couple folks I chatted with said they enjoyed the chance to play, which didn't come up much during their normal teaching responsibilities. Ultimately the group disbanded, I think due to limited bandwidth from the coordinators, lack of performing opportunities, and unreliable attendance from the folks who played. I enjoyed it while it was in place.

I play in a mandolin ensemble now that is trying to get going after about a decade of hiatus. Every rehearsal has some level of bickering about who is setting tempo, who is taking the solo, and what they did back in the glory days pre-hiatus when they made one CD. We're missing the "have fun playing together" part.