Welcome back from what, I hope, was a truly relaxing summer for you all! Last year was a great one for our Bay Section Solo Ensemble Festivals. Responses from our directors were quite positive with a few suggestions for improvement. Our goal for this year can be summarized in the words of world class soccer player Mia Hamm: “...celebrate your successes...and then raise the bar a little higher!”

Our music students realize the importance of our Solo Ensemble Festivals, using them to advance their skills as they strive for improvement. Th us we continue with dedication to making the festivals positive, useful experiences for our young musicians. With this in mind, please feel free to send me any suggestions you may have that can be incorporated into this planning and preparation time.

We will continue with online registration for Solo Ensemble Festivals at: www.Solochair. com. Many of you sent me great suggestions for improving this process and I have incorporated many of them into the site this year. Th ank you for the watchful eyes. If you are new to CMEA, please go to Solochair. com and “Create an Account” for yourself, so you can register your groups. If you have any problems with online registration, please contact me for assistance.

Registration for Solo Ensemble will be closed on December 22. We found last year that several directors needed a bit more time to get their students organized, so we are extending the date three weeks longer. I believe that this diff ers from large group registration. Th e best policy would be to register for all festivals as early as possible to insure you are able to arrange your calendars to meet your student’s needs.

We discovered last year that a few directors, who were forgetting to pay the fees on time, caused some problems for CMEA Bay Section both financially and organizationally. Therefore, I ask that directors be diligent about printing out the invoices and getting their payments sent to the Treasurer as stated on the invoices in a prompt manner. Registration is not automatically deleted if the payment is late, but I will be contacting directors with email reminders of late payments. Depending on the responses I receive from directors, I will then determine what will be done by way of deletion. So, please be speedy with those invoices to the treasurer.

Have a wonderfully musical year!