A MESSAGE FROM YOUR PRESIDENT ELECT

Ben Lawson OMEA President Elect

I am excited to start my term as your president elect. This will be my second stint on the OMEA Executive Board and I am looking forward to working with such an amazing team. Each member of your executive board cares deeply about our organization, the students we serve, and the teachers that make music with students every day.

Since 6th grade beginning band I have benefted from the work of the Oregon Music Education Association. For almost 30 years my calendar has revolved around OMEA and school events, festivals, honor ensembles, conferences, athletics, soloensemble and state competitions. These are the events that made a diference in my youth. They are the events that gave me focus and direction as a teacher, and they are the events that I look forward to each and every year. I did not realize how much I relied on the stability of these events, and the experiences they provided until a pandemic told us we couldn’t have them.

This time of the year I am usually hunched over my laptop feverishly making calendars, selecting music, reserving buses, preparing for events, and planning on making the school year better than the last. But this year, I feel like a frst year teacher who is miss-assigned. I don’t know what to expect and I don’t know how to replicate the aspects that make a music classroom special in a virtual world. In the back of my mind, I am constantly thinking about next year. What instruction and inspiration do I need to provide now, so that when we are able to return to normal, we will be ready to go at it again and have all the experiences a typical school year provides.

My biggest worries are not about how well my students play or how many make the honor ensembles or if we can qualify for state. My focus is keeping ALL of my students in my program. I want them engaged in the activities provided. I want them engaged in the music community and I want them to maintain their love for music. I am going to rely on my student leaders more than ever this year. With all of the new technology available I feel that the term “Ok, Boomer” is directed right at me. With the help of my student leaders I will do everything I can to recreate and sustain our music family in a virtual world. I can deal with the fact that the musical growth of my ensembles will not meet my usual expectations and that we won’t be able to perform in the ways we are used to. I will struggle deeply if students leave my program because band and choir just isn’t the same anymore in this new environment.

Even though we are in unprecedented times and that we all wish our life could go back to normal, we must stick together as a community and support each other. We must adapt to the situation and deal with the things we cannot change. My thanks go out to our 2nd VP and Conference Chair, Kristi Stingle who is working tirelessly to create our frst virtual conference, to Todd Zimbleman, our treasurer who diligently monitors our fnances, and to Dave Becker who spent years making sure we had fnancial reserves to make it through a crisis. I would also like to thank Carolyn Sutton, our Executive Director who is the backbone of our organization and keeps us moving forward as an organization despite whatever crisis we may fnd ourselves in.

While the phrase “We are all in this together” is seemingly overused, the sentiment rings true. The struggles of a music teacher are unique and we need to rely on each other for help. We must reach out and support those who are struggling. We must share our successes and failures with others, embrace the virtual events, and look out for the new teachers in our area. We are truly, “all in this together” and I look forward to supporting all of you these next six years. If you have any successes you would like to share, concerns you would like addressed, or ideas you have for the future, my door is always open.