Welcome to the Fall 2021 IMEJ and the start of a new school year. As I am writing this, we are quickly becoming overwhelmed with the news of the Covid-19 Delta Variant, and I know that many of us are feeling fatigue and anxiety about how this pandemic continues to impact our world. I am hopeful that we will be in a much better place and are well into the routine of the year by the time you are reading this.
It is important for us to have, from time to time, a conversation about what the ILMEA board is and what we work to accomplish together. It is not hard to imagine that there are some of you who wonder why the Board will take seemingly quick action on certain issues and not others. Or why we make a decision on a topic that you were not even aware was an issue. While not all of you have been involved in an ILMEA Board meeting, I assure you that every decision that the Board makes is rooted in the ‘why’ surrounding taking action. Why should we keep something the same? Why would we change it? Does adding or adapting something that we have make things more equitable for students around the state? As a stakeholder in an independent ILMEA, you have a vested interest in our programs. Maybe you send students to district festivals or participate as an attendee at one of our Professional Development offerings. Maybe you rely on the high-quality articles in the IMEJ or access our social media accounts for resources during Black History Month. Whatever the reasons, you also have a ‘why.’
As the Board of Directors, we strive to be receptive and responsive to your voice. We listen, discuss, and ultimately make our decisions after careful consideration of many points of view and the impact on our students. Also, we recognize that some important voices that are welcome at our table are not yet engaging with ILMEA. We strive to keep our members informed of our work and examine how we can make something that is successful. Here are some of the items we accomplished during our summer meeting along with some of the reasons behind why we chose to move forward with them.
As you may already know, all auditions for all divisions in the Junior and Senior levels will be employing virtual auditions in 2021-2022. During the summer meeting, the Board decided to take action and implement virtual auditions for the All-State instrumental auditions this year as well. Students will re-audition upon selection to All-State and will find out their ensemble and chair placements weeks before they arrive in Peoria. Why did we take this action? This is an opportunity for our instrumental students to arrive at IMEC prepared and confident. We believe that our students will enjoy a far more robust musical experience beginning the minute of the first downbeat of rehearsal, which will now be on Thursday morning for all students. And this step will improve the social emotional well-being for students arriving at All-State by eliminating a potentially stress-filled beginning to their experience and replacing it with music-making from the start. Board committees have worked to identify an equitable process that will challenge students with a high-stakes audition while also taking into account many December schedules. Please look for more information on this later this fall.
In other audition news, beginning with the 2022-2023 school year, all 9th graders in every ILMEA District will be eligible to audition at the senior level and they will also be eligible for All-State student programs at IMEC 2023. Why did we take this action? Exclusion of any group of students runs antithetical to the core values of ILMEA. Decisions about who to send to auditions have always been at the directors’ discretion and this will continue to be the case while making the programs more inclusive to all senior level students starting in 2022-2023.
After hearing feedback from many of you, the Board acted on a few other items that will be enacted during this next year. First, you will now see financial reports on our website beginning at the conclusion of the current fiscal year (the fiscal year runs April 1-March 31; reports will be posted shortly thereafter). Why did we take this action? The ILMEA Board supports transparency and embraces the chance for our members to see where our revenue comes from and what money is spent on during the year. The State Office will be working diligently to present a snapshot that will be available next year.
Second, the Board has added two additional awards categories. In addition to our current awards, we will now accept nominations for an outstanding early-service educator award and an outstanding student teacher award. Why did we take this action? Many of our more experienced educators have commented about seeing many of their early-service colleagues who are doing fantastic things in their classrooms and communities. We felt strongly that we wanted to include those newer teachers who excel in their roles. More information on these new awards and our existing awards can be found at www.ilmea.org/awards.
There will be more chances to let us know what your thoughts are as we navigate being an independent ILMEA. There will be a listening tour, a Stakeholder Survey, the return of our Emerging Leaders program and more. Our goal is to be advised by those who are passionate and thoughtful advocates for music education throughout Illinois. Thank you for all that you have done and all that you will do on behalf of the great art that is Music.
In your service,
Jake Stouffer
ILMEA State President
president@ilmea.org