President's Message

President
Craig Manteuffel

Greetings from your KMEA President! First, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year for 2012! Our superb 2011 KMEA District Mini-Conventions are complete and the beautiful sounds of our holiday music concerts are all behind us. It is now time to look forward to upcoming Music Festivals, more Winter Concerts, and our February In-Service. KMEA Leadership is once again priming for a wonderful 2012 In-Service Workshop! Our convention will be held in Wichita and the dates are February 23-25. I am delighted to announce that Scott Shuler, NAfME President, will attend our convention and will be our keynote speaker at the opening session on Thursday afternoon at 1:00pm. Scott is an expert on 21st Century Skills and will also present a session on this particular subject on Friday. Also, our very own John Taylor, KMEA Executive Director and NAfME SW Division President will be in attendance as a band director and speaker. The convention schedule is full of wonderful concerts and clinic sessions that will satisfy all music educators.

Other highlights of the convention will be a Community Folk Dance on Thursday evening at 7:00pm. Holly Taylor, KMEA Elementary Chair, has organized this event and Peter and Mary Alice Amidon will demonstrate different folk dances that can be incorporated into your very own community event. I am also very excited about this year’s President’s Concert. I have chosen the title, “Music for Life”. You will be entertained by three performing groups that will include performers of almost all ages! The performing groups are the Beloit Community Orchestra, the KU and Lawrence Community Trombone Ensemble, and ZING! a women’s barbershop quartet. These two events will be a great way to begin the first night of our convention. Make sure you don’t miss it!

Our annual in-service workshop is a great way to connect with colleagues, meet old friends, make new friends, listen to some outstanding concerts and clinicians, and visit with our wonderful exhibitors. I promise at the end of the convention, your musical juices will be flowing through your veins and you will be a better music teacher for attending! Don’t delay, pre-register online today at ksmea.org.

On November 8, 2011, your KMEA Executive Council presented information to the Kansas State Board of Education in Topeka. The presentation lasted for seventy-five minutes and revealed the data from the “The Impact of Budget Cuts on Music Education in Kansas’ Schools.” The data was prepared by Frederick Burrack, director of the office of assessment and associate professor of music education, at Kansas State University in Manhattan. Fred is also our KMEA Advocacy Chair. The data showed that Kansas has lost 185 music education positions in the past four years. We were also able to show the board that 48% of all schools in Kansas have lost funding for music education in some form. Explaining this data was our main emphasis, but we also talked with the School Board members about the lack of funding for Teacher In-Service Training. Mike Quilling, KMEA Vice-President, explained to the board that many music teachers have to spend their own money to attend the February In-Service Workshop. The members of the Kansas State Board of Education were quite responsive to our data and very positive towards supporting Music Education in Kansas schools. The information we presented traveled to all parts of Kansas in newspapers, television and radio station news reports, and online educational publications. NAfME received the information and published a Legislative Memo that is currently shown on our KMEA website along with the NAfME website (nafme.org). I also sent an e-newsletter to our members discussing this presentation. At the conclusion of our presentation, I invited all members of the KSBOE to join us in February at our convention. To date, at least three of the KSBOE members accepted my invitation and will be in attendance. If you see individuals walking to sessions and concerts with a VIP ribbon, please introduce yourself and thank them for attending.

Frederick Burrack has once again developed and organized our 2011 budget survey. This will give us a total of five years of data. The Executive Council will once again use this added data to help our Kansas and National Legislatures and KSBOE members to better understand how the educational budget cuts are effecting music education in Kansas.

In conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful KMEA employees. These outstanding men and women are very dedicated and put in countless hours making my job much easier! Please take a minute and glance through our leadership page in this magazine and online. When you see these individuals, please shake their hands and thank them for their continued devotion to our wonderful organization.

Take care and if I can ever be of assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
See you in February!!!

Respectfully,

Craig L. Manteuffel
KMEA President