Favoring variable chair placements

My college orchestra director had the right idea about chair placements.  He told me during my freshman audition that seating was rotational.  It wasn't a precise rotation, however, as in volleyball.  Typically, each section would have three or four seating arrangements per year, resulting in up to four different concertmasters and two or three different principals in the non-violin sections.  That way, multiple talented musicians got to have a turn at having a lead role, and the other musicians got a chance to hear pieces from different perspectives in the room.  Once, he told the orchestra, "Some years, over the course of a school year, I've been able to take all of the second violinists and make them firsts.  Some years, I haven't been able to do that."  That impressed me.  It would have been even more impressive if he'd said, "Some years, I've been able to take all of the second violinists and make them trumpeters," or "I've been able to give each trombonist a turn at playing timpani."  Admittedly, it would have stretched the definition of rotational seating, though.