TN Musician Vol. 71 No. 4

TMEA PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Lafe Cook || Dobyns-Bennett High School
T
hroughout my career, I’ve learned
that great teachers use the
summer to both relax and unwind
from the school year and to reflect upon
and plan for the future. I know that I’m
planning on trying to do both of those
things as much as I can this summer. By
the time you read this message, summer
will be in full swing, and I hope that
you are enjoying some much-needed
time off. As TMEA President, I have the
added responsibility of also reflecting
on our growth and achievements as
an association.
As I look back at the progress we have
made, I am also keenly aware that there
is still much to do. In thinking about
this, my thoughts have turned back to
our TMEA Professional Development
Conference this past April. It was quite
a display of just how fortunate the
students of Tennessee are to have such
great music educators. The selected
TMEA Performing Ensembles continue
It’s time to let the
leadership know that
there is a significant
segment of our
Tennessee schools
who serve a diverse
socio-economic
student population
who struggle to
maintain affiliations
with our regional and
state associations
due to the cost of
membership
at the national level.
to display a high caliber of musicianship
that represents the high standards
of Tennessee music educators. In
addition, the TMEA Spotlight Chamber
Ensemble performances also highlighted
excellence in teaching with a diverse
mixture of traditional and non-traditional
ensembles. And of course, our Tennessee
All-State Ensembles keep raising the bar
higher and higher with their outstanding
conductors and performances. On
top of all that, we have a professional
development conference that brings
together so many exceptional leaders
in so many facets of contemporary
music education.
Reflecting upon those four days in
April, I think about the many people
of our association who also volunteer
and serve TMEA year-round in order
to ensure an excellent experience for
our membership, and for our students.
It can sometimes be easy to take these
individuals for granted as many of us are
not aware of how much goes on behind
the scenes to make our experience in
April something we look forward to each
year. I am so grateful and thankful to the
members of the TMEA Board and Council
and to everyone who volunteers for our
TMEA. Words truly cannot express how
much your leadership means to me and to
all of us across Tennessee.
It has been a very productive year for
TMEA. I am happy to report that our
association has made some significant
progress towards some goals in our
strategic plan. This year we have once
again partnered with the Country Music
Association Foundation. Their unyielding
support of music education in Tennessee
is unparalleled, and we could not thank
them enough for their generosity. As
a result, we were able to launch our
first TMEA Regional Professional
Development Grant, which awarded
more than $8,000.00 for professional
development grant money to the
following organizations:
• West Tennessee General Music
Association
• East Tennessee American Orff-
Schulwerk Association
• Tennessee Chapter of Collegiate
National Association for Music
Education
• Rutherford County Schools
• Tennessee Bandmasters Association
We continue to flourish under the
watchful auspices of our team at Milsaps-
Gowan and the ArtsEd Tennessee. I
can’t stress how important it is to have
lobbyists who are working on our behalf
for arts education in Tennessee and who
are keeping a watchful eye on legislation
that could have a drastic impact on what
we do. I feel good about what TMEA has
done and is currently doing for our music
educators. Yet there are still some things
that I think we should aim to accomplish
as we head into the next school year.
At the conference, I had the pleasure to
attend many of the area caucus meetings.
There were many productive topic
discussions. One of the common threads
that each area shared was the future
of TMEA’s relationship with NAfME.
There were many points of pros and cons.
8 | TENNESSEE MUSICIAN | 2019 | Volume 71, No. 4