This is the regular President's Report to the IMEA membership, dated January 15th, 2010 and presented at the IMEA Business Meeting at the Scheman Center at Iowa State University.

January 15^th, 2010

Scheman Center

ISU

Ames Iowa

I want to start by expressing my sincere “kudos” to Martha Kroese for her excellent work on the conference.  There is much to do in establishing a successful conference from contacting the presenters and gathering all the information concerning bios and photos to building the master schedule.  Individual space needs and the rooms available must be taken into consideration along with the special needs of each presenter regarding audio-visual equipment.

After the schedule goes to the printer the final planning begins with our extraordinary on-site Equipment Chair Charles Grim who takes care of everything (and I mean everything from Kodaly instruments to digital technology) making sure that things run smoothly and without interruption.

Thanks to all of our helpers at the registration desk and to all the officers and drivers for their willingness to transport clinicians to and from the airport and hotels. In short, a successful Iowa Music Educators Conference is made up of many, many people and thousands of details.  The Conference and the Iowa All-State Music Festival are the largest and most important events that we sponsor as an organization and I am so very proud of everyone involved in the successful implementation of each.

The upcoming year suggests that IMEA along with our sister and brother organizations throughout the state will be busy trying to help individual districts and programs as the effects of the 10% budget reductions by the Governor are felt.  As an organization we are prepared to help with advocacy materials (go to http://www.iamea.org/index.php?option=com_docman&Itemid=98) found at the IMEA website under IMEA Docs.  While any sort of advocacy is good, the kind that takes place right now is the best kind.  Talk with your administrators, booster groups (even if you are not a high school person) and especially the parents at the concerts about how you are meeting the standards and bench marks.  One music educator in the state actually lists the standard/benchmark under each title in the program.  The best advocate for your program is you and the time is now.  Contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for additional help or additional advocacy materials.

Keep up the GREAT work in educating the young people o Iowa.  We need your enthusiasm and expertise as never before.

Stay in touch…I care.

Respectfully,

David Law

President - IMEA