wisconsin music educators association president
Using Your Resources as a Support System Lynn Seidl, WMEA President
If you can imagine WMEA structure as a pyramid, with the executive director, the board and coun- cil and the staff at the Wisconsin Center for Music Education, who do support work for WMEA at the
top half of the pyramid, with the WMEA membership as the fuller, bottom half, I think you will have a good visual im- age of how the organization works. The membership provides the base and those members, working with musicians in all areas and age ranges, provide the basis of our strategic plan and our path to planning for the work of WMEA, whether that be professional development, the Wisconsin State Music Conference or advocacy
efforts. What members need in order to do effective work is what the leadership of WMEA strives to provide. It is at the core of everything we decide in our board and council meetings.
It is the collaboration of the WMEA lead- ership, staff and chairs of our projects that accomplishes the work that is done. Each of these are used as resources to provide and decide upon professional development for music educators and advocacy for our music education profession. The use of each other as a resource and knowing that the adage “two heads are better than one” is valuable. Using the resources available to yourself, or in this case, our organiza- tion, is essential and can allow brainstorm- ing, and the ultimate decision-making, to be more efficient and successful.
With today’s technology, resources are even more at our fingertips. Facebook groups, the internet, smartphones and inventive apps for just about everything imaginable, have made finding answers and doing research a much less formidable task. When I think of the advancements in technology that took place during the length of my teaching career, it is mind boggling. Today’s music educators have a plethora of resources from which to choose and can reach out to communicate with countless experts on any subject. One example is “Amplify” which was launched by NAfME in November. Amplify is an online platform that connects 60,000 music educators, leaders and advocates and is just one example of an excellent resource for music educators. It is avail- able to all NAfME members, and if you are a WMEA member, you are a member of NAfME. If you are not familiar with Amplify please go to
community.nafme. org and get started with it today.
As I near the end of my term as WMEA president, I want to thank the resources that I relied on during my term. Leyla
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Sanyer, Jim Scheuer and Kati Seiter were always willing to lend a hand and to listen and advise. I truly appreciate working with them and consider them friends as well as invaluable resources of knowl- edge, experience and common sense. The WMEA Executive Committee, Board and Council are dedicated educators who work hard for the students in music education, providing resources with their writing and their work for our state conference. Our executive director, Tim Schaid, and staff at the Wisconsin Center for Music Education do much of the work behind the scenes at the offices in Waunakee and deserve a huge thank you for their dedication and for also being a constant resource for WMEA and myself.
I also want to thank the WMEA members who work so hard for our music students all over the state. Membership in WMEA has been a vital part of my life as a music educator. My hope is that you can feel the same way about WMEA. I look forward to the next two years on the board as the immediate past president and working with the incoming president, Kati Seiter, the incoming president-elect and new and returning board and council members.
Whether “engaging” is used as a verb or an adjective in “engaging support systems,” it is imperative that we find our resources and use them in order to do our crucial work in music education. WMEA is part of that support system, and is striving to provide those resources to you. Please take advantage of them and let the leadership team know if there is something that you feel would make the organization an even better resource for you. Thank you for the work that you do! It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve you.
Lynn Seidl is the current WMEA president. Email:
lynn.a.seidl@
gmail.com
April 2018
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