ABA: Thank You!!

THANK YOU!!!!!! Thank you to everyone who helped to make All-State 2021 a success!! It took many hours of planning and implementation to make it happen, but the end result was five OUTSTANDING concerts from our students. Thank you for your patience as we navigated uncharted waters through this event to do everything possible to have a safe event for everyone. Thanks to the District 7 Band Directors and Meredyth Petersen who organized all the percussion needs for the bands. Thanks to our band hosts and percussion coordinators who went above and beyond to make sure the students were taken care of during the event. Thanks to the University of North Alabama Wind Symphony and Studio Lab Band and Dr. Lloyd Jones for a wonderful night of music on Friday night. And finally, Thanks to the ABA Executive team and Board of Directors for your leadership, hard work, and dedication to make this happen for our students. You are to be commended for going above and beyond the call of duty the past year to make sure that our organization met the challenges that were before us.

I write this as we are all looking at the end of a very difficult and trying year, and hopefully a year that we will NEVER repeat. But even with everything that has come our way, those in our profession have done what we always have done: we take a step back, look at the problem before us and we set a path forward for our program. Band has continued this year in many different ways, BUT IT HAS CONTINUED!!!!! Being flexible will always produce better results if we truly look for the ways that it can benefit our students.

The last 18 years of my career have been spent in service to my students and to ABA. I’ve served as Vice- Chair, Chairman, Recording Secretary, President-Elect, and now President, and will serve two more as Past President. It has been a joy of my life to serve ABA and the membership during this time. What we do is about service. First, we serve the program, school, and community in which we live and teach and pour out our passion for music into the lives of these students daily. But we must always keep in mind, it’s not about us, it’s about the students we serve, and the outcomes should ALWAYS be about them. Then, we need to actively serve in our state association to make sure that it is strong, that it has a unified voice that is heard on music education issues that affect our students. ABA is only as strong as YOU and I as the members make the organization. YOU must be involved, or it weakens both ABA and our parent group AMEA. I encourage you to make a new commitment in the coming year, to be active. Attend AMEA, All-State, MPA, District meetings and help to make YOUR organization be a voice that MUST be heard!!!

We are ABA and together we CAN do great things!!!!!!

Terry

UPCOMING ABA DATES
SUMMER CONFERENCE (JUNE 15-17, 2021) HAMPTON INN, ORANGE BEACH, ALABAMA
ALL-STATE BAND (APRIL 6-10, 2022) ARTHUR R. OUTLAW MOBILE CONVENTION CENTER, MOBILE, AL ALL-STATE BAND (APRIL 27-29 2023) VON BRAUN CENTER-HUNTSVILLE, AL
ALL-STATE BAND (APRIL 25-27, 2024) VON BRAUN CENTER-HUNTSVILLE, AL