Dr. Frank Buck - AMEA Historian
Doing Good Things… Remembering We Did them
We spend our days doing good things. In our haste to move forward, we often pass up the opportunity to reflect on a job well- done. Author and speaker Roger Hinkins said, “Increasing your self esteem is easy. Simply do good things and remember that you did them.” It’s good advice to us as individuals. It’s also good advice for us as an organization.
AMEA has been doing good things for kids since 1946. Look at that list of past presidents which appears in each issue of Ala Breve, and you see names of people who helped shape the direction of music education in this state. Every year, we recognize the Outstanding Music Educator, Outstanding Administrator, and Barbara Odom Award winners, and those awards are reported in Ala Breve. When those awards are bestowed, we are applauding people we know. We have heard their groups. We have seen the results of their work.
But time passes, and if we are not careful, our history gets away from us. Those entering our profession will only know of what has gone before if we preserve it today. That’s what this article is all about.
When Dr. Sara Womack asked me to take on the role of AMEA Historian, I gladly accepted. Some specific short-term plans are underway. In the not-too-distant future, we will have a page on the AMEA website with the picture and short bio of every former AMEA President. We will also have a list of past recipients of the Outstanding Music Educator Award, Outstanding Administrator Award, and Barbara Odom Award.
Researching old issues of the Ala Breve and talking with numerous people has
ala breve
provided much information, but there is more to gather. The more years which have passed, the harder it becomes to gather that information.
“Crowdsourcing” The term “crowdsourcing” was coined in 2006 in an issue of Wired magazine. It involves finding answers through an “open call” to a large body. Its results echo the truth of the Japanese proverb, “None of us are as smart as all of us.” To help me fill in the remaining holes, I am using crowdsourcing—asking
for your
collective help with the bits of information you may have.
Specifically, I am trying to answer these questions:
Who was awarded the Outstanding Music Educator Award for each of the following years: 1984, 1986, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008?
Who was awarded the Outstanding Administrator Award for each of the fol- lowing years: 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2006?
Who was awarded the Service Award, later renamed the Barbara Odom Award, for each year from 1988 through 2002?
Can you provide information, or con- tact information for someone who can for the following AMEA Past Presidents: Walter A. Mason (1948), John J. Hoover (1952), S.J. Allen (1976).
If you, or a colleague, was the recipient of one of these awards in a needed year,
please email me at
Frank@FrankBuck.org and let me know.
State Band Contest Another arm of the project being undertaken is compiling Alabama State Band Competition Festival programs and ratings from its inception in 1947 through our present-day Music Performance Assessment. In 1974, as a 9th grader who aspired to be a band director, I began making it a point to secure a program each year and copy into it the ratings from State Contest. At the point where I realized my records were more complete than what ABA had archived, I began trying to secure this information from 1974 back as far as I could go. Right now, I am all the way back to 1952.
Some holes remain. For some years, I have final ratings, but am missing ratings from individual adjudicators. For some, I am missing ratings from a particular day of the festival. Again, I am turning to “crowdsourcing” to fill in the holes. Visit
http://bit.ly/StateContest (case sensitive, no spaces) and view exactly what data is still missing and how you may help.
At the point where we have gathered as much information as is possible, and the search process is considered “finished,” the plan includes duplicating all of the programs, scanning them, and posting it all on the ABA portion of the AMEA website. Everyone will be able to see schools, directors, program selections, and ratings back through the history of this event.
We do good things. Remembering we did them just might be the key to even better things ahead.
39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52