TN Musician Vol. 72, No. 3

Vision
My vision would be to implement the goals of our organization
as stated in the TMEA bylaws (Article
II, Section 2). As with many state music organizations
that sponsor All-State music ensembles, we
tend to spend most of our time and energy meeting
our first stated goal: “Encourage and provide
students with opportunities for high quality music
experiences.” We should continue to do this by continually improving
the quality of our clinicians and ensembles. I feel TMEA
could do a better job in achieving our second goal: “Actively promote
and provide the best resources and opportunities for professional
development.” I know that during my time on the TMEA
board, we made a concerted effort to increase attendance of elementary
and middle school music educators at our annual conference.
We must continue these efforts and begin to target our marketing
materials and social media campaigns to reach potential
members and conference participants who may not be bringing
students to participate in the All-State ensembles. TMEA must
strive to provide stellar clinicians for all areas so the professional
development needs of our current and future music teachers are
met, and our knowledge and skills related to teaching is increased.
We must also do more to meet our teachers’ professional development
needs outside of our annual state conference. Perhaps
we could more successfully use social media to allow teachers to
share inspirational stories, videos of a successful lesson, or lesson
plans. That medium allows a free and accessible way for music
teachers to easily interact with one another. TMEA area chairs
could supervise those discussions to ensure quality advice is being
shared. We should encourage more article submissions for
the Tennessee Musician from our members via a “call for papers”.
We can also partner with our regional music education organizations
in the state to potentially offer workshops at their meetings
throughout the year.
I believe the President of TMEA should regularly meet with the
presidents of the other arts education organizations throughout
the state to be sure we have a unified voice and consider how legislation,
policies, and funding may impact all arts programs in our
schools. I developed this special board of arts education leaders
in Arkansas before taking the University of Memphis job and we
were successful in having proposed state bills and policies that
would have negatively impacted the arts in the state pulled or significantly
altered.
We should extend these advocacy efforts to promote the importance
of music to our district superintendents and school principals.
I believe TMEA should coordinate presentations to share at
state school administrators’ conferences and partner with principals
who are strong music advocates. By reinforcing our Opportunity
to Learn Standards, and asking for protection and integrity of
our music classes, we could provide a strong, supportive voice for
our members who often feel devalued and ostracized.
TMEA is a wonderful organization and has had wonderful leadership.
We have great potential to meet the goals established in our
bylaws. I believe in the power of music and have devoted my life to
promoting and protecting its place in our schools. I have served
numerous music education organizations in my career and it
would be the honor of my life to serve this organization.
The last goal in which I think we should continue our efforts is in
the area of advocacy. NAfME has had great success in establishing
a coalition of various music organizations to promote the importance
of music in our schools. They have also been aggressive and
active in advocating for music’s place in our schools as evidenced
by legislative achievements in the past 10 years. TMEA is on a
great path to implementing some of these strategies at the state
level, and I believe we should increase our level of involvement.
Tennessee Music Education Assocation | www.tnmea.org | 21