Congratulations! Another successful year is winding down. I am hopeful that your memories of this year are happy ones and that your Festival experiences were educational and up to the high-expectations of our Bay Section Board. I have received many evaluation forms, and over 96% of them were extremely positive. I am looking in to the suggestions that were also made for improvement.

At this point, I wish to applaud our hard working Solo Ensemble Hosts for their endless hours of work concluding with a job well done:

Area I Brian Wilson

Area II Sharon Calonico

Area IIIa Gregory Conway

Area IIIb Victoria Schmidt

Area IV Dan Davies

Area Va Joseph Kelly

Area Vb Nancy Moser

Area VI Ben Latham

Area VII Bruce Tipton

Area VIII Rob Barnes

It once was remarked during a moment of high stress that hosting Solo Ensemble was a “thankless job.” However, when we receive the student remarks such as Mel’s below it becomes clear that all we do for our students in music is never thankless. Working toward positive musical opportunities for our students is revered by the students, their families, and all the directors that participate in these festivals.

"Thank You, Mrs. M., for signing me up for Solo Ensemble. This was one of the most incredible days of my life, I will never forget it. I was nervous during my solo but it turned out OK, and our ensemble was good but we played better at school, but our judge gave me very helpful comments. We were all screaming when we saw we got a “Superior.” Then I saw I got a "Superior" on my solo too. My grandma was so proud of me that she took us all out to dinner. I definitely will sign up for band in high school next year. Can I wear my blue medals on my vest when we go to the band festival?”

For me personally, this is “Thanks” on the very top level! This is why we music teachers keep striving to create the best possible musical experiences for our students in the Bay Area. I sincerely appreciate all the people (directors, parents, students) who helped us provide the festival experience for literally thousands of young musicians.

Solochair.com Update

Kudos! to all you directors who were so positive in working with the Solochair.com site. Adding the Large Group and Conference Group registration to this site has greatly improved the organizational work. Being only the second year we have tried online registration and expanding it, we have discovered some areas that we need to improve. Many of you have sent me e-mails with suggestions such as: “Please put the price of Solo and Ensemble on the first pages so we know how much it costs before we register our students.” Obviously a very helpful comment. Prices are now listed on the first registration page. Suggestions such as this are appreciated. Keep them coming.

One problem we have discovered is that payments are not always being made in a timely fashion. Each director has three weeks after registering to get their payment sent to the treasurer who immediately records it on Solochair.com. Deletions can only be done by the Large Group Festival Representative, and Solo Ensemble Representative. Directors cannot return to the Solochair site and delete students from their invoices. I have been reluctant to delete invoices that have not been paid on time and this has become a problem for CMEA this year. Some students were left out of full festivals as other directors neglected to get payments in on time. Some directors canceled students late and did not pay for the cancellations. This particularly was unfair to students that were not able to register for their first choice of festival. Our festivals are nonprofit ventures and when we lose funds it can cause some festivals to lose money. This could result in less offered the following year.

Therefore, the board has decided that next year we will need to be more active in requesting timely payments for both Solo Ensemble Festivals and Large Group Festivals. As difficult as it will be, we will begin to delete unpaid invoices after three weeks. Directors will be given notice before this action occurs. Students will not be able to perform if the invoice is not paid in a timely fashion. This will be more fair to us all.

Enjoy your summer and take your well deserved vacation. Remember to organize early next year and get those registrations and payments done before the deadline.

Vivian McNulty
Solo & Enesemble Festival Coordinator