Great things can happen with small numbers - Forum focus: local associations - music association services

American Music Teacher, August-Sept, 2003 by Lisa Schuler

The last event of the year is the Honors Recital, held in May. The recital recognizes students for performance excellence at the Music Rally. The adjudicators "star" the best performances, and the selected students perform in the Honors Recital. The local newspaper takes a large group picture of the students and features them in the paper. Attention given to students' hard work and achieved goals creates motivation for next year's activities.

We--DTMTA--want to encourage small locals to be active! Our success as a local is a combination of aggressive teaching, state MTA support and community support. Another boon is living in Langdon, which has only one school system's extra curricular schedule to deal with, and "everyone knows everyone." All of us have taught the children of the school's teachers, superintendent, principal and town ministers. We work with the music in our respective churches and teach children from other churches. Because of these solid teacher-student relationships, the schools and churches give use of their facilities for free. We make sure all events are publicized; therefore, the community and its organizations are very aware of DTMTA's existence. They call upon us and our students for a variety of performance opportunities, and Durum Triangle supports them.

There are many benefits to being a small MTA. Planning for events such as the Music Rally is easy because there are only three teachers. There aren't any committees or sub-committees. We all live a couple blocks apart and know, respect, support and learn from one another. We have worked hard together for a long time. The focus is on our students: What can we collectively do to enhance their piano study? Another benefit to being small is the students know and support each other. They talk about the Music Rally at school, and as a result, there is an element of competition and camaraderie that pushes many students to achieve their best.

Kathleen, Laura and I were so surprised and extremely grateful for the National Local Association Award from MTNA. The $500 award will be used for future events for our students and music education in the community. MTNA and NDMTA provide the backbone and support Durum Triangle MTA needs to be successful. Please remember that great things can happen with small numbers.

BONUS BYTES

For more ideas about local association programs, go to www.mtna.org, click on American Music Teacher, then click on "Tell me more about Bonus Bytes."

RELATED ARTICLE: Spotlight on local association programs.

To help local associations plan for the upcoming years activities, it may be useful to see what other groups have done. The following program titles and descriptions were culled from local and state associations' newsletters. These events range from hands-on activities to help with MTNA-related programs, such as Professional Certification and running an independent studio, to presentations about various aspects of music and pedagogy. Peruse the list to find inspiration and ideas.