Paul Swoord Exeutive Direcor
Notes From the Executive Director
I would like to thank President Jeff Melsha and the entire MMEA board for all the hard work and effort that went into the making of the 79th in-service/ workshop. All too often, people forget that these dedicated officers are full-time teachers, many of them with a full class load. As a former President, I understand the difficulty of balancing the needs of your family, inspiring your students and scheduling a conference! Bravo on a job well done!
Once again, we had a very strong attendance with 1,604 Active members, 215 Retired members, 327 exhibitors and 462 collegiate members. When you combine that with the all the musicians, parents, friends that come in and out of Tan-Tar-A, it gives us foot traffic of well over 10,000!!
I was very pleased with our registration staff, as we were able to get everyone on their way in a short amount of time. Tan-Tar-A understands the importance of having everything set up so we can begin our process. We had a record number of pre- registrations which helps cut down the onsite line. We will continue to make improvements in the registration process.
Mentoring For the past two years, MMEA has taken on the challenge of establishing a very practical, useful, and meaningful mentoring workshop. Mentoring Chair Steve Litwiller, Past-President Gary Brandes and President Jeff Melsha have worked feverishly to establish what I believe to be one of the finest new teacher workshops in the country. The array of clinicians that volunteer and offer genuine support, insightful techniques, and modern solutions is very uplifting. This is a project that I know you will hear more about and we are very excited about nurturing its growth and outreach.
Website and Social Media I would like to recognize Rob Nichols, MMEA Web
spring 2017 |
www.mmea.net
Director for his work on our website. The MMEA site recently underwent a major overhaul, and Rob did a great job of communicating with the board and keeping everything running smoothly during the entire process. I hope that you will check it often, as this is where you will find information regarding conference registration, clinic/performance schedules, and other pertinent news. MMEA also has a Facebook site
www.facebook.com/groups/ MMEA428 and Twitter account @mmea428. MMEA maintains these sites as a way for our members to communicate with each other regarding topics, questions, and concerns about music education. We are very careful to keep it from becoming filled with ads and non-music related jabber. If you are not already a member of the MMEA Facebook page, simply go the link above and request membership.
Membership Several members do not know that when you join NAfME, you are also joining MMEA. Our state dues are among the lowest in the country, and I would invite you to do a comparison of other states. MMEA gets $17.00 per membership. I would still consider that a bargain in today’s world. The conference registration fee helps offset clinician costs, hotel and other operations associated with the conference. Registration fees are NOT membership dues, I am frequently questioned why “we” have to join NAfME if we have already paid registration. In a nutshell, NAfME membership includes your state dues while registration covers the conference.
A few years ago, NAfME did away with hard copy membership forms and now processes membership online. You can still fill out your membership online and mail a check. The NAfME website is also where you update your membership. The database that MMEA uses for the website is downloaded directly from NAfME. MMEA does not enter or correct any data on the member database. If you are not See SWOFFORD, p. 17
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