In the last 5 months, there have been so many opportunities for personal and professional growth during this very uncertain time. We’ve seen people and companies give of their time and resources to come together and help our programs and our students in ways that we have never seen. We have watched as many people have put on their thinking caps and have not given up, when that would have been easiest thing to do, but have blazed a trail using various kinds of technology to show us that we can do what we do in so many different ways, and that brings us all to today.

Today we are looking at the new school year and as I write this, there are still so many questions. I know that ALL of us want answers. We want them now. Actually, we wanted them five months ago. But the reality is that we can only take each moment, and with the best information that we have, do the very best that we can for our students. The last three ABA PD sessions have been great. One on ways to fund our programs without selling anything, and two that were extremely motivational during a time when we need positive things to help propel us back to what we do as teachers. Jerell Horton made a great point that resonated with me again, one that I heard very early in my career, we need each other to get through the things that we are going through and we are better when we lean into and learn from others whose teaching styles, opinions, etc. may be different than ours. This helps us grow as a person and as an educator and will hopefully make us better for our students.

I wish I could tell you there will not be challenges in the days ahead, but there will be. I wish I could tell you that you will agree with all the decisions that your local LEA makes, the AMEA leadership makes and the ABA leadership makes, but again we are human and this won’t be the case. But I do know that if we allow ourselves the ability to take a step back and soak in the reasoning behind decisions, even if we disagree with them, I bet we can then have the discussions that need to take place to help pave the way for decisions in the future. Also, to help these decisions before they are made, we need to be advocates for music education that our administration and local school districts turn to for questions about the arts. This takes time to cultivate but is well worth the effort for you to put into being the calm presence that has the well thought through plan, that is fact driven. If we want to have our seat at the table, it takes ALL OF US cultivating the relationship at the local level being the go to person for the arts.

Things to think about in the days ahead:

1. Plan for Fall activities –

a. Plan for traditional with modifications, a hybrid option and a possible virtual option

i. Remember, if you fail to plan you have planned to fail!!!!

2. Start now planning Concert Band literature your band for the next academic year – and how you might have to do Virtual concerts and live stream these or record these and make them available to parents

3. It’s not too late to recruit – put together a video of your leadership students encouraging younger students to be in band –ASSUME THAT ALL YOUR UPCOMING STUDENTS ARE GOING TO BE IN BAND AND GO AFTER THEM!!!!!!!!!

a. Go back and watch the Peter Boonshaft PD session and the Jerrell Horton PD session for some great ideas here

4. Use this time to market your program in a positive way!!!
5. Look at your finances and how you will manage them in the Fall since most of us missed a fundraiser

this Spring

Upcoming ABA events

Solo and Ensemble – Our bylaws allow for Solo and Ensemble to occur anytime from October through May. Each district has been encouraged to offer two solo and ensemble events next school year for our students. This is something for each district to discuss and see what works best for your district.

AMEA 2021 – All legislation that was going to be voted on at the All State festival (2020), will be moved to the 2021 AMEA conference so that the membership will have the opportunity to discuss the legislation before we vote on the legislation.

AMEA has a Music Teaching Resource page at myamea.us where we can all go to find resources to help during this time. You can also place your ideas and resources here to help us build this site. Also, remember be proactive and positive as we move forward. The future of our programs will depend upon how we handle this time with our students and their families.

Stay focused on what really matters, and that’s the students!!! How can we do what we do for our students in whatever form teaching will take this Fall. Face to Face, Hybrid, A and B days, Virtual. How can we give them the absolute BEST experience whatever the platform learning takes this Fall?

Stay strong!!

This is your association. Let us all strive to make it better so that we can serve the students and the bands in our state better. We are ABA and together we CAN do great things!!

Terry

As the school year has begun with 14 hour days, beginners with their new instruments, Friday night football games and preparing for all the events of the year, don’t forget to register for the AMEA Conference in Montgomery, January 16-18, 2020. The conference is a great way to network with other professionals, attend some outstanding clinics and concerts and re-energize yourself as you begin the second semester of school. We have planned clinics that cover a wide range of topics that we hope will inspire you to “take something back home” to your program.

There were twenty-six applications submitted to be considered to perform for the conference. The selection committee had some outstanding groups from which to choose, from all around the state and all different sizes and types of band programs. It is exciting to see the quality of the programs in our state continuing to improve. The groups that were selected to perform include: Troy Wind Symphony, Wicksburg High School Band, Albertville Middle School Advanced Band, Pizitiz Middle School Band, Mortimer Jordan High School Band, James Clemens High School Percussion Ensemble, Tuscaloosa County High School Wind Ensemble, and the Grissom High School Symphonic Band 1. Make your plans now to be in attendance for these concerts!!

We are currently working with Carl Hancock to develop a new version of ABAfest. After talking with him, we feel that the new site will be an improvement over the old one and will be able to offer more to the membership. The current ABA directory and cumulative list are both available on the myamea.org site. Please take a moment and check the information on the directory and make sure that it is correct. If any corrections are needed, please send those to your district chairman so that we can get as complete a directory as possible.

We are currently working on a plan to be able to register for All State and MPA if we aren’t ready to launch the new ABAfest site before those deadlines hit. Any information about how we will register will come from either me or Doug Farris and will be sent to you through email. Again, its imperative that we have your most up to date information and email to make this happen.

The legislation that was published in the last Ala Breve will be voted on at the AMEA conference. Please make sure that you have read the proposals and are ready to discuss them. Do not hesitate to contact me or any board member if you have any questions about these. We will get a link to these put on the myamea.org site soon also so that you will have access to those there.

Finally, I encourage you this Fall to be passionate in your teaching, to be purposeful in your relationships with those around you and to take pride in your profession. We have the awesome task and privilege of being able come to work every day and to teach music to a generation of kids who will be the leaders of tomorrow, so let’s make sure they see our passion for what we do and let’s help them to find their passion along the way.

Terry Ownby
ABA President

As we start this new school year, the ABA board is at the beginning stages of a 4-year evaluation cycle/review where we will be looking at the data from the past four years of MPA/All-State tryouts and see what the data reveals to us about what we are doing around the state. The committee will use the data to bring back recommendations to the board. As we continue to evaluate what we do, please help us by participating in surveys, evaluations at events and using the app for the AMEA conference in order to rate the conference and clinics you attend. Your input is very valuable. Please remember the Alabama Bandmasters is an organization that serves its members, and we can only do this with your input.

ABA Summer Conference 2019 was great and very well attended. Thank you to our clinicians Doug Farris, Jeff Fondren, Mike Guzman, Missy Lindley, David Caddell, Josh Lynch, Nathan Haskew and our Old Fogey series by Harry McAfee. This conference was filled with something for everyone. I know everyone who was able to attend came away motivated and recharged for the new year ahead. We would also like to thank the following sponsors for providing a wonderful shrimp boil that allowed our band family to come together and fellowship:

• Southern Performances, David and Dayna Brannan
• Group Travel Network, Justin Shuler
• Demoulin, Jeff Thurber and Frank Godfrey
• AWB Apparel, Wayne Broom
• Sound Choice Recordings, Chester Bean
• Art’s Music Shop, Paul Freehling
• Simply Bedding, Charlie Colwell

We ended the event by presenting our outgoing Executive Secretary, Harry McAfee, a wooden, hand-made music stand in appreciation for his 9 years of service to ABA.

During the conference, the ABA Executive committee presented two names to the board for consideration for the Executive Secretary position. The board voted in Doug Farris as the new ABA Executive Secretary effective July 1, 2019. With this move, Doug relinquished his position on the board as Past President. The ABA Board of Directors reached out to Mr. John Cooper, a past ABA president, to fill this 2-year term on the ABA board. He agreed and we appointed him to this position during our conference. Also, there are several pieces of legislation that came before the board which the membership will have the opportunity to vote on at AMEA. We will publish these for you to have access to on the myamea site, the ABAfest site and in the pages of the August/September issue of Ala Breve. This will give you time to read and familiarize yourself with them before we discuss and vote at AMEA in January. The board also approved a new MPA Adjudication Sheet that we will be used beginning this year. Your district chairman will have more information at your Fall meeting in regard to this change.

Joel Henson met with the Music Selection Committee and they were able to look at the High School All- State Etudes. We will be moving back to method books for these this Fall. The list of books has been sent out. Please make sure that your student has the book with them when they register at the All-State tryout. The board also approved a new high school scale sheet format for this year.

As the new year begins, I encourage you to become involved. The AMEA and ABA provide great clinics, resources, and concerts that are meant to aid you in being the most effective educator you can be for your students. These events allow opportunities to collaborate, network, encourage and most importantly, learn from each other. Why do we have to reinvent the wheel when our neighbor band director already has the plan? Renew your NAfME membership TODAY and register for the AMEA Conference at the Renaissance Hotel in Montgomery

This summer I have spent a lot of time reflecting on my time as a husband, parent, friend and teacher. It’s healthy to look back and take stock of what has happened in our past, to learn from it, grow from it, and use it to guide us as we move towards the future. As we begin another school year, take a moment and look back at the successes and failures in your classroom. Evaluate and try to ascertain what made it a success and build upon those foundations. I believe that ABA has spent the past 6-8 years looking back at past successes and failures and we are doing our best to learn from these and allowing these experiences to help guide us forward. I believe this must happen for our association to continue to better serve our students and the bands in Alabama. I look forward to this journey with you for the next two years.

Remember the ABA board is here for you. Do not hesitate to contact your chairman or vice-chairman or anyone on the ABA Board. I hope we all have a great start to school and the best year of our careers.

Terry Ownby
ABA President

Hello, colleagues across the state of Alabama. I hope that the summer has provided you time to rest, reflect, enjoy time with family, and achieve all the goals you set for this short time away from school. I am excited to welcome Ben Posey as our Jazz Division Vice-Chair for the next two years. Mr. Posey is a band director at Bumpus Middle School, in Hoover, and is active in jazz education as a teacher. His jazz program at Bumpus continues to grow and many of his students have earned positions in the All-State Jazz Bands.

All-State Jazz Band auditions are some of the earliest auditions on our calendar, and we hope to make the All-State Jazz Band an event that your students look forward to each year.

Registration instructions, audition instructions, and audition materials are available online at myamea.org/aba. Registration and audition recording submissions are all done electronically. Students are required to perform scales, etude, and play-along tunes, all submitted electronically via a link. The deadline for registration and payment is October 30, 2019. The deadline for submitting student recordings is November 13, 2019.

The All-State Jazz Band festival takes place at the AMEA conference on January 16-18, 2020 at the Renaissance Montgomery. We have a stellar panel of clinicians to work with your students this year, including:

• Jim Ketch – Gold Band, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Tom Luer – Silver Band, Freelance Saxophonist, Los Angeles, CA
• Sallie Vines White – Bronze Band, Hoover High School, Hoover, Alabama
• Art Ruangtip – Middle School Band Rowlett High School, Rowlett, Texas

I hope that you have a successful start to your new school year and achieve the goals you set for yourself and your program. I also hope to see many of your students involved in the All-State Jazz Band audition and festival process. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you have along the way.