Colorado ASTA with NSOA

Colorado ASTA with NSOA

Minutes approved at the CASTA Meeting on Jan. 29, 2005, at the CMEA Convention:

General Membership Meeting

November 6, 2004

I. Meeting called to order by Andrea Meyers

Approximately 27 members were in attendance

II. Minutes from July 22 meeting were read and approved

III. All State Orchestra (Feb. 10-12, 2005) directors were announced: Emri Pallo will conduct the Symphony Orchestra and David Litrell will conduct the Chamber Orchestra

Campbell Harrison asked for volunteers for string judges on Friday, November 11^th.

Steve McNeal brought up that he has a problem judging his peers’ orchestras because of subjectivity issues, and asked if it was possible to hire out-of-state judges.

Nancy Allwein explained that they did not have money in the budget to spend on out-of-state judges and Kip mason asked if we might bring in just one out-of-state judge to save money.

Brett Wallace presented the idea of raising registration fees to help with this problem and Andy thought people would complain about a fee hike.

Kip pointed out that marching band festivals charge upwards of $200, which pays for 10 judges and asked if we could put the judging dates in a 5-day window so they could be used for all regions of the state. She also pointed out that we need to address the issue of groups avoiding CHSAA because of judging discrepancies.

University faculty judges were presented as a possibility, but some felt that would present problems related to recruiting, etc.

IV. ASTA National Conference in Reno (Feb. 23-26, 2005) will be featuring presentations by three Colorado teachers: Margaret Berg/Amber Martin/Katherine Tischhauser. Early registration is December 15.

Herb Kress anticipates results for National Honors Orchestra by December 1^st and Kip announced that Colorado sent in 200 tapes

A motion for CASTA to contribute $150 to sponsor a session at the national conference was presented and passed unanimously.

The group was asked for contributions to the Colorado Basket for the silent auction this year. Apparently last year’s basket was meager compared to those from other states, so we will be making our own this year and it will be postmarked for the recipient. Any members willing to help assemble the basket should email Margaret at berg@buffmail.colorado.edu.

A motion for CASTA to contribute $100 towards the travel fees for each presenter from Colorado was presented and passed unanimously.

Kip pointed out that we should support this convention and that it is quite inexpensive as compared to IAJE and Orff National Conventions. She also explained that the National Orchestra festival will be held in March of 2006 and that she was trying to move it earlier to avoid a CSAP conflict. She also announced that Mark Smith will be conducting the National Honors Orchestra in Reno.

V. Summer CASTA/CBA conference (July 21-22, 2005) was moved to Cheyenne Mtn. HS in Colorado Springs and will have Sandra Dackow in attendance. She will be doing a reading session.

Andrea asked that any ideas for presenters be sent to her.

VI. Rocky Mountain Viola Society Viola Day will be on April 16, 2005 at Fort Collins High School and if anyone wanted more information to contact Sue Temple (stemple@comcast.net) or Margaret Miller (margaretm@adelphia.net). Julia asked that directors encourage their students to participate.

The festival involves all-day ensemble playing, a performance, and a guest artist holding a master class. The fee is $35 and includes lunch and a t-shirt. There are now 100 college students involved

VII. Cellobration will be held on April 30, 2005 at Douglas County HS and will involve cellists that are at a High School level of performance, or Suzuki Book 3 equivalent. There will be a cello orchestra and there are people from CU, UNC and CSU involved. Contact Andrea Meyers for more info (Andrea.Meyers@dcsdk12.org)

VIII. Middle School CASTA String Camp will be held on Aug. 3-6, 2005 and applications are available from CMEA. David Koch will be attending. The camp is in its 12^th year and continues to be filled to capacity.

Kip presented a motion for CASTA to contribute 2 ongoing annual scholarships to the camp in the amount of $450/year and was passed unanimously. Cameron explained that they might have some tax issues due to their status as a non-profit organization having an account with such a large sum of money and Heather Landen offered to help to work that out.

IX. The Primrose Festival will be presented as part of the AVS conference and will feature Daniel Foster. There will be a link on the ASTA website.

X. The next CASTA newsletter will include the opportunity to nominate people for the Outstanding Teacher of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards and the group was asked to contribute nominations.

Someone requested that a list of teachers be printed in the newsletter for assistance. There will be a nicer plaque awarded this year as well.

The deadline for CMEA hall of fame awards had passed but the group was encouraged that it was important to nominate for next year.

XI. Cameron announced that 3 Colorado composers were represented at the Midwest Convention

XII. Steve McNeal asked for ideas for a workshop for High School Orchestra Conductors and announced that the Summer CSU camp will be July 10-16 and will feature Wes Kenney.

XIII. Gail and Steve will be conducting the Adams County Orchestra festival the weekend of November 10-12.

XIV. Treasurer’s report: Nancy assures the group that we are “ok” and have upwards of $5,000 in our account.

XV. Fred Jewell announced a new logo for the newsletter and asked for solicitations of businesses for the Colorado Basket in the Silent Auction. He also encouraged the group to send him anything for the newsletter and someone asked that he bring newsletters from other states to CMEA. Deadlines for 2004-2005 will be December 1 and May 1.

Kip encouraged the group to write an article and send it to Fred, that other states have more items in their newsletters and that it is important that we work to send these items in because other states see them as well.

Fred announced that his computer will accept any text format except for Microsoft Publisher and asked that anything for the newsletter be sent to: fredjewell1@comcast.net

An electronic newsletter is being worked out and Fred also announced that we need more advertisements. Andrea asked that directors allow Celestial Travel to bid on trips because of the amount that they contribute to the newsletter.

XVI. Kip’s National ASTA report included that NHSHO will be in 2005 then moved to even-numbered years starting in 2008. The ASTA Solo Competition will be in 2007 and be on odd-numbered years. The ASTA national conference, Alt. Styles competition, and National Orchestra festival will be held annually: Kansas City in 2006 (March 8-11) and Detroit in 2007. These dates will be voted on in the next national ASTA meeting and shouldn’t change.

Kip also announced that ASTA is working on a National Certification Program that is a system of certification for students

Students on a regional level will purchase music from ASTA and perform an audition for certification – Campbell Harrison and Carol Tarr volunteered to help judge for site auditions. No taped auditions will be accepted.

The purpose for the program includes motivation to practice and an item for students’ resumes. This is also done in New Jersey and Michigan. CASTA will be responsible for hiring judges.

XVII. Andrea thanked all UNC faculty and students on behalf of CASTA for a great weekend and called the meeting to a close.

Original Minutes taken Nov. 6:

General Membership Meeting

November 6, 2004

I. Meeting called to order by Andrea Meyers

Approximately 27 members were in attendance

II. Minutes from July 22 meeting were read and approved

III. All State Orchestra (Feb. 10-12, 2005) directors were announced: Norman Paulu will conduct the Symphony Orchestra and David Littrell will conduct the Chamber Orchestra

Campbell Harrison asked for volunteers for string judges on Friday, November 11^th.

Steve McNeal brought up that he has a problem judging his peers’ orchestras because of subjectivity issues, and asked if it was possible to hire out-of-state judges.

Nancy Allwein explained that they did not have money in the budget to spend on out-of-state judges and Kip mason asked if we might bring in just one out-of-state judge to save money.

Brett Wallace presented the idea of raising registration fees to help with this problem and Andy thought people would complain about a fee hike.

Kip pointed out that marching band festivals charge upwards of $200 which pays for 10 judges and asked if we could put the judging dates in a 5-day window so they could be used for all regions of the state. She also pointed out that we need to address the issue of groups avoiding CHSAA because of judging discrepancies.

University faculty judges were presented as a possibility, but some felt that would present problems related to recruiting, etc.

Herb Kress anticipates results for National Honors Orchestra by December 1^st and Kip announced that Colorado sent in 200 tapes

A motion for CASTA to contribute $150 to sponsor a session at the national conference was presented and passed unanimously.

A motion for CASTA to contribute $100 towards the travel fees for each presenter from Colorado was presented and passed unanimously.

V. Summer CASTA/CBA conference (July 21-22, 2005) was moved to Cheyenne Mtn. HS in Colorado springs and will have Sandra Dackow in attendance. She will be doing a reading session.

Andrea asked that any ideas for presenters be sent to her.

The festival involves all-day ensemble playing, a performance, and a guest artist holding a master class. The fee is $35 and includes lunch and a t-shirt. There are now 100 college students involved

VII. Cellobration will be held on April 30, 2005 at Douglas County HS and will involve cellists that are at a High School level of performance, or Suzuki Book 3 equivilant. There will be a cello orchestra and there are people from CU, UNC and CSU involved. Contact Andrea Meyers for more info (Andrea.Meyers@dcsdk12.org)