Abstract
ASTA with NSOA Leads the Charge
Time for Reflection
As we reflect on this previous concert season, school year, teaching, and performing, summer is a good time to assess our success and plan for the future. It is the same with ASTA. We just completed our mid-year national board meeting. We had time to consider our successes, make plans for change, and look to the future.
Our 2005 national conference was a rousing success. More than 1,000 students, teachers, performers, and supporters attended from virtually every state and many, many foreign countries. Our association programs are bursting at the seams with activities for members. Many of our state chapters are thriving and helping meet the needs of our local members. For the first time in many years, ASTA as a national association is on firm financial ground. Plus, we have a national office staff that works tirelessly for each of us.
However, how can we rest when only one out of every five public schools in America offers an orchestra program? How can we sleep when the majority of students in our country are denied the opportunity to explore the arts through stringed instruments? This is remarkable in a land that considers itself the richest in the world: perhaps financially rich, but strings poor!
It is Time for ASTA to Lead the Charge for Advocacy, Advocacy, and More Advocacy!
It is time for ASTA to use its successes to lead the charge to advocate for the protection and defense of current school orchestra programs and to find means to assist local supporters to create new programs. This was identified as one of the most important priorities in our summit document: Advancing Strings in America. The document serves as the association's blueprint for the future. As a result, our national board has adopted many changes for ASTA. The top 10 include:
The establishment of a new state chapter liaison staff position in the national office to assist state leaders and members with chapter activities and to help develop local advocacy programs;
The establishment of a Strings Advocacy Center link on our national website (www.astaweb.com). A document designed to help develop a grassroots advocacy campaign is already posted, one of many documents and resources to come.
The creation and adoption of a long-range development campaign to assist with the protection and growth of strings in America. More details to follow. Special thanks go to our Development Committee members Leslie Wimsatt and Barbara Eads, who have worked with our executive director in laying the ground work for long-term financial growth of the association, beyond our members' dues.
The establishment of a new development coordinator staff position, who will assist the executive director in carrying out the association's development/fundraising plan.
A reconfiguration of the job responsibilities of the executive director to allow time for development activities.
A reconfiguration of the job responsibilities of the president and president-elect to lead the association in development/fundraising activities
A reconfiguration of the responsibilities of all national board members to include a fundraising priority among their board duties.
The purchase of new advocacy software called Capwiz. Through Capwiz on our national website, you will be able to communicate directly with local and national government leaders to support string performance and instruction. You will also be alerted of all arts bills before Congress, and eventually even at the state and local levels. Capwiz made its debut on our website in June.
Sessions at our 2006 and 2007 conferences that focus on advocacy, including special sessions for parents. Parents of string students are often the most effective advocacy leaders in our profession.
The establishment of procedures to carry out the related financial and programmatic issues among our staff in the national office. This spring, our executive director applied for sources of funding to assist in advocating for strings in America.
In short, this is an exciting time for ASTA to embark on focused advocacy efforts. As Alice Sheeban from Oakwood-Windsor Elementary in Aiken, South Carolina, states: “Orchestral experiences should not be a function of family income. At this school (Oakwood-Windsor Elementary, where 78 percent of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch programs and where no school string program exists), we are determined to have instrumental education meet the students at a personal level. Our families appreciate all we do for them, but we need to do more. Assistance from any source will help more of our students flourish as they embrace orchestral experiences.” That is the vision for ASTA!
Bob Gillespie, President
P.S. Don't forget to plan on being at the 2006 National Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, March 8 through 11. More than 180 sessions are planned, and a special performance by the Kansas City Symphony, conducted by Isaac Stern's son, Michael Stern, will help open the conference! What a treat!