AVA: Fall Updates and Reminders

Greetings!

I hope you all have had a wonderful summer and have enjoyed some time to rest and prepare for this year. I enjoyed seeing many of you in July at the ACDA Summer Conference in Tuscaloosa. I especially enjoyed connecting again with this past year’s All-State Middle School Mixed choir clinician, Tesfa Wondemagegnehu, and hearing everything he had to share with us. I left the conference refreshed and ready to jump head-first into the school year. If you have never attended this conference, I encourage you to do so in the future. It always gets me back in “school mode” and excited to start back. Thank you to the Alabama ACDA leadership for organizing and providing great sessions and social events.

NAfME Membership

If you have not already done so, please renew your NAfME membership. In order to log onto the website to register for AVA events, your membership must be current.

AVA Mailing List Sign-Up

In addition to having a current NAfME membership, the AVA also requires annual sign-up on the AVA mailing list in order to receive communications. All directors must complete this even if there have been no changes since the previous school year. The link to sign up for the mailing list is on the AVA website at www.myamea.org/ava. Please make sure to complete this as soon as possible to ensure you don’t miss any important information.

Summer Board Decisions and Changes for 2019-2020

The AVA had another productive meeting this summer to plan for this year. I will be talking in more detail at Fall Workshop about some of the decisions that were made, but here are a few highlights:

● We will continue with our usual in-person auditions for this year’s All-State auditions. No changes will be made at this time, though we are still considering moving to recorded auditions in the future.

● The All-State Festival registration fee was increased to $35 to account for increased costs due to moving our festival to the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

● The All-State Show Choir Festival will be held during the AMEA Conference this year and will not perform during the All-State Choral Festival. As decided by the membership at our All-State General Membership Meeting, ASSC students are no longer required to audition for the All-State Choral Festival.

● The SCPA Adjudication Rubric was reevaluated and the point spread for each rating was adjusted slightly. The new point range for a superior rating is 74-88.

● The SPCA Adjudication Form was changed to include the Auxiliary Information Form. Each directorwill now complete the auxiliary form as part of the adjudication form in order to provide the adjudicators with background information about the choirs.

● The Sight-Reading Rubric was changed in order to include a dotted-quarter note at the Advanced Middle School/ Intermediate High School levels.

2019-2020 AVA Events

Please visit the AVA website to find the dates for all events for the year. Be aware now of all registration deadlines and plan ahead to avoid paying any late fees.

Fall Workshop

Our next event will be the Fall Workshop at Huntingdon College on Friday, September 6. I am so excited that this past year’s High School All-State Choir clinician, Derrick Fox from the University of Nebraska- Omaha, will be joining us. We will also have All-State music information sessions, mini break-out sessions, and our General Membership Meeting. Registration is now open on the AVA website. I hope to see you all there!

Thank you for taking the time to read about our organization. I would like to encourage you not only to read but to also “jump in” and serve where you are able. We all bring different areas of strength to this organization and are all needed in order to best function. As I begin my final year as AVA President and sixth year on the board, I can truly say that serving our organization is worthwhile, rewarding, and fun. Thank you to everyone who has helped out, even in ways that may seem insignificant. I can assure you that no task is too small or not appreciated.

Please let me know if I can be of service to you in any way or if you have any questions or suggestions about our organization. You may email me at meg.jones.ava@gmail.com.

I wish you all the best for the starts of your school year and I look forward to seeing you all at the Fall Workshop!

Sincerely,

Meg Jones