Submitted by President, AJ Reimer

 

On July 11 we officially welcomed Lyn Bouma and Matt Hill to the executive board as our new secretary and treasurer. The following week, the five of us met individually to get to work. We have a lot to talk about!

First, we should celebrate everything we are doing well. Everyone in attendance can agree that the summer conference was a huge success! If you were there you saw fantastic performances, thought provoking sessions, and fantastic new pieces to introduce to our choirs. We also were able to celebrate the strong community we have built and continue to build in Nebraska.

 

NCDA also continues to build on some incredible opportunities for our singers. We are happy to announce that we will be using Opus Events for our auditioned ensembles this year. This should make for a more cohesive audition process. More information on this can be found on our website.

 

Sing Around Nebraska and Singing Youth of Nebraska had another strong year for our younger singers. In addition, the Middle Level Honor Choir this summer was fantastic! Our Vocal Jazz festivals and Honor Choir both were able to celebrate strong years, as well. The NCDA Show Choir Competition continued to provide performing opportunities. It also provided critiques that will allow singers to improve during the year. We were thrilled by the success of our first ever NCDA All-State Show Choir. Finally, we continue to host our Church Choir Festival and Collegiate Festival throughout the year. If you have any questions on any of these events, please check our website for the calendar and information.

 

NCDA is excited to introduce our new mentoring program. It will be implemented soon. Mark Harman has written a blog with more information on this exciting time for our members.

 

As you can see, our organization has a lot to be encouraged about! Unfortunately, the executive board has discovered some bad news that needs to be addressed.

 

In 2011, the Nebraska Music Educator’s Association officially became an Affiliate State to our parent organization, ACDA. This meant (and means) that we can run our organization with our own board, hire our own people, and run our own business. That’s a good thing! We also became an official Non-Profit organization. More good news!

 

However, some things were missed when this transition happened. Most notably, we were supposed to file our own taxes and have not been doing so. As a result, NCDA has been dissolved at the State and Federal level starting in 2015.

 

Now, the last paragraph sounds pretty rough, but we have already started the process of reinstatement. A CPA has been hired and the paperwork is in progress. It will take a little time, but we will back to official operating status soon.

 

If you have any questions about this, feel free to examine the minutes from our executive meeting. There are more details there. Also, don’t hesitate to contact any of us! We will gladly tell you all we know about the process.

 

Even though we have work to do, we all still feeling incredibly positive about the future of our organization. Among all of our events and projects, the thing we need to celebrate the most is our membership. The community of choral directors in Nebraska is strong, and will continue to grow!