Annual Music Conference Held in Indianapolis

By Emily Cerling

Each fall, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) hosts its Annual Music Conference to better serve directors of high school state music festivals throughout the country. This year, the conference was held November 9-10 at the Courtyard by Marriott Indianapolis Downtown.

Twenty participants from 16 states, as well as NFHS assistant director Kent Summers and NFHS Music Committee chairman Mike Plunkett, attended the conference. The meeting was designed to allow those who direct or coordinate music activities and festivals at the state or national level to exchange ideas and share information about issues concerning high school fine arts programs.

"Directors come to find how other states run festivals, and how they can incorporate those systems that work into their own programs," Summers said.

One discussion point was the "Computer-assisted Assignment of Music Festival Adjudicators," conducted by Reg Romine of the Kansas State High School Activities Association and Charles Briel from Indiana. With computer technology becoming more accessible, coordinators are able to enter adjudicator information into an electronic database, as opposed to writing it down on a sheet of paper. This program enables coordinators and directors to more efficiently assign and schedule adjudicators to festival events.

Other adjudicator topics were discussed as well, including national standards and certification for music directors, the differences between practices at small and large schools, and the development of an effective music adjudication form.

 The seminar "Effective Mentor Programs," which addressed a new method for guidance to new music directors, was presented by Iowa attendees Alan Greiner, Leon Kuehner and Elizabeth Fritz. It outlined the particulars of Iowa's music director mentor program.

"When a school gets a new music director, there is no guarantee he or she is going to make the program successful," Summers said. "With the mentor program, an experienced director helps guide him or her through the first year of teaching in order to keep the program on track. The nuts and bolts of Iowa's program were really spelled out in this seminar. It would be great to have other states implement this type of system."

Emily Cerling is a fall semester intern in the NFHS Publications/Communications Department. She is a senior at Butler (Indiana) University, majoring in integrated communications.