president’s
message
WILLIAM McDEVITT
856-794-6800 x2539
billnjmea@aol.com
Website: http://www.njmea.org
W
elcome back to another
school year. I hope that
you are returning to
school recharged and ready for those
smiling faces to enter your classroom.
At this time, plans are well underway
for the 2016 - 2017 NJMEA year of
events.
It has been a busy and productive
summer for NJMEA. It started with
the annual National Assembly in Tysons Falls, VA and has continued with
planning for the 2017 Eastern Division
Conference in Atlantic City.
NAfME NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
For the past decade, the annual
NAfME National Assembly has been
held near Washington, DC. This 4-day
series of meetings and informational
sessions is the only time that representatives from every state in the country
meet to discuss the state of Music Education throughout the country, and the
state of our organization.
Diversity was a major topic of this
year’s discussions. With the mutually agreed upon separation of Michael
Butera from our organization, Michael
Blakeslee has been hired to become the
new Executive Director of NAfME.
Mike has an impressive resume and has
been with the organization for many
years (his biography is available on the
NAfME website). Along with representatives from all of our states, members of
our National Executive Board, and ExTEMPO
ecutive Staff, Mike facilitated some very
difficult discussions. Diversity is not an
easy topic to discuss. It means different things to different people. Racial
and Ethnic Diversity, Socio-Economic
Diversity, and Special Needs Students
concerns were all a part of the discussion. Throughout the coming year (and
beyond) this topic will become infused
in all aspects of our National and State
discussions. We will not just be looking
at diversity within our schools, but also
diversity within our profession. If you
would like to have a seat at the table,
please contact me.
One of the highlights of the National Assembly was “Hill Day”. This
year, NJMEA Board members Joe Jacobs, Jeff Santoro and Debbie Sfraga,
along with 9 NJ Collegiate NAfME
members accompanied me to Capitol
Hill to meet with our elected representatives. We visited the offices of all
12 House members and both Senators.
This year, there was a much different
feeling from the meetings that we have
had in the past. We were not asking for
ESEA reauthorization for the first time!
We were thanking our representatives
for their support of ESSA and asking
for full funding of Title IV, which is distributed in block grants and can be used
to help music programs. Office “Staffers” were very receptive to our message.
Almost every office that we visited had
Staffers that were involved in their music programs when they were in school.
We were definitely preaching to the
choir this time around!
2
FEBRUARY CONFERENCE
Just so we are clear – there will be
NO February Conference this year. It
will return in 2018.
SUMMER CONFERENCE
The 9th Annual NJMEA Summer
Conference was held at the College of
New Jersey on August 2nd. Past-President Joe Akinskas and his team did an
excellent job planning an educational
and informative series of workshops for
our members.
NOVEMBER CONFERENCE AND
ALL-STATE
Nancy Clasen has once again put
together an excellent series of workshops for music teachers at the NJEA
Convention in Atlantic City. There
are fewer sessions this year because of a
new on-line process for session proposals. Along with the workshops will be
concerts by our All-State Jazz Ensemble
at the Claridge Hotel on Thursday, November10th and the All-State Chorus
and Orchestra at Convention Hall on
Friday, November 11th. Please note the
change of site for the Chorus and Orchestra this year. We have been moved
out of Boardwalk Hall for (hopefully)
one year. These concerts will once again
be performed at the NJ Performing
Arts Center in Newark on the following weekend. The Jazz Ensemble will
be held on Friday, November 18th and
the Chorus and Orchestra on Sunday,
November 20th.
OCTOBER 2016