AVA: MID-SEMESTER UPDATE

Ginny Coleman

FALL WORKSHOP RECAP

I was glad to see many of you at Fall Workshop.  Thanks so much to all who helped make this year’s Fall Workshop a success.  I hope that you enjoyed interacting with your colleagues from around the state.  I was thankful for the opportunity to watch Judy Bowers teach.  It is evident that she has spent many hours in the classroom doing just what you and I do every day.  What a refreshing approach to professional development.

Please thank Jim Schaffer for securing Dr. Bowers as our clinician.  She was excited to get to interact with the music teachers in Montgomery, where her grandchildren go to school.  If you have the chance, thank Dr. Bowers for providing her services to us free of charge.

The handouts and presentations from Fall Workshop can be found on the AVA website.  They include the notes from Dr. Bowers’ sessions as well as the All-State presentation, and other notes from our meeting.

Please continue to send your feedback about Fall Workshop.  How can we better fulfill our mission through our Fall Workshop event?  If you have ideas, please let us know.

POLICY CHANGES

  • Please remember that the new deadline/late fee policy is as follows:
  • Registrations are due AND payments must be postmarked by the deadline. There is no longer a “deadline” and “absolute deadline.” There is only one deadline.
  • Schools are scheduled in the order that payments are received. Your registration does not reserve your place in the schedule. Your payment (along with completed registration) does.
  • Only those that have registered and paid by the deadline will be scheduled.
  • Registrations that are not paid by the deadline will be canceled.
  • If your registration is canceled, you will have to re-register and pay a late fee.
  • Late payment period is 2 weeks at $50, 3rd week at $100, and 4th week at $150.
  • No payments will be accepted more than 20 business days late.

To sum up, we have:

  • Removed the double deadlines (deadline and absolute deadline).
  • Extended the late payment period if you want to be extra late and pay extra money.
  • Fixed our system so that schools who have not paid never appear on any schedule. When the schedule is sent, and you discover that your name is not there, that means we have not received your payment and you will have to register again and pay a late fee.

What does that mean to you?

  • Register and pay by the deadline if you want to appear on the schedule.
  • Be exceedingly pro-active in making sure that your bookkeeper sends your check.
  • If you happen to miss a deadline, you still have four weeks to register. But you will only be scheduled where there is an opening.

We hope that these changes will allow us to spend less time chasing payments and policing deadlines and more time focusing on the mission of our organization.

BYLAW VOTE

At Fall Workshop, the membership voted to change the bylaw that deals with how we elect officers.  Here are the differences in the old and new bylaws.

OLD:

  • President-elect selected candidates.
  • Candidate announced at All-State general meeting.
  • After candidates were announced, the floor was open to nominations.
  • Immediate vote.

NEW:

  • Committee consisting of Executive board selects candidates.
  • Candidates are announced at the AVA general meeting at the AMEA conference.
  • Nominations from the membership are accepted for a predetermined time period.
  • Vote at All-State general meeting

CONTINUING INITIATIVES

We will continue to use online registration this year. We appreciate you helping us work out the kinks in the online registration process.  Please be sure to read the instructions within the registration forms and continue to send your questions and concerns.  Your feedback is valued.

In an effort to connect with our colleagues who are not plugged in with AVA, we will continue to offer a free registration initiative for State Choral Performance Assessment.  Directors may register one choir for free (school fee and student fees waived) if their school has not participated in SCPA in the past three years.  Please share with your colleagues who may be interested in taking advantage of this offer.

UPCOMING EVENTS

We look forward to hearing your students at All-State auditions next month.  Please be sure to check the instruction pages provided in your music packets and on the website and make sure that your students are singing the correct notes for your district.  Like last year, All-State results will not be mailed but will be posted online.  After auditions are complete, look for an e-mail notifying you that results have been posted.

Our AMEA Conference will be held January 18th-20th at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham.  J.D. Frizzell will serve as our Honor Choir clinician.  We look forward to having Dan Davison join us for this conference.  He will present sessions about the male voice and share a reading session­ sponsored by J.W. Pepper.  AMEA President Susan Smith has also secured the popular a cappella group Voctave to present a concert and session.  You won’t want to miss this conference.