Oregon Suzuki Association Meeting Notes

February 26, 2009

The meeting was called to order by Laurita Jauregui at 9:41 am.

1. The first item on the agenda was the new teacher forums. Forums will be held once each month on Thursday mornings from 9:30 – 11 am. The first forum will be held on March 19th at Laurita Jauregui’s house – the topic will be “Etudes & Note Reading” Come ready to share what you do and don’t do and with any questions you may have. Teachers are encouraged to bring any books they use to show to the group.

The goal of the teacher forums is to build community and to come together to share ideas.

It was agreed that the April 23rd Forum will be held at Martha Shackford’s home and the May 28th Forum will be held at Andrea Hawkins home.

Possible topics to be discussed at future forums that were brought up at the meeting include: working with parents, Studio Policies, Problem solving individual student issues, working with very young students – maturity & motivation, audition prep – sight reading, Baby and Toddler classes, How to handle students who can’t pay in these difficult economic times, and Supplementary pieces/ materials.

Teachers are welcome to submit more ideas for future forums through the OSA’s yahoo group.

The next item discussed was what events teachers would like to see the OSA host. Currently the OSA is holding the monthly teacher forums and has in the past held informal summer BBQ’s. and play in concerts.

Ideas shared included collaborating on student recitals, a round robin workshop where local teachers and students had short individual master classes and may include a final performance (like a mini workshop/institute), and Martha Shackford proposed hosting a workshop on teacher ethics.

The third item on the agenda was an update on the OSA’s dues policy for this year. September of each year will now be registration month (rather than a few teachers renewing each month). The cost will be $25/year. Since the OSA is just restarting this spring, the cost for this year is prorated to $12.50.

Other membership issues were raised. Members were reminded that they must be an active member of the SAA (Suzuki Association of the Americas) to be an OSA member. Parents are using the OSA website to locate new teachers so be sure your information is current and updated. You may list your general area of town instead of your address if you prefer. The OSA is using electronic communication whenever possible so be sure to join the Yahoo group.

The final item on the agenda was the OSA scholarship fund and Non profit Status. There has been interest in the past to establish a scholarship fund. Since the group’s focus is to be a teacher organization perhaps this will include scholarships for teacher training. In order to be able to raise funds for this the OSA is looking into getting federal nonprofit status. So far the obstacle to doing this is the cost and the time involved for completing the paperwork. The OSA is currently an Oregon nonprofit but has never been/applied for federal non profit status.

The SAA’s teacher scholarship program was discussed. Specifically the fact that money goes unused from that program each year and teachers are encouraged to apply (there is a strictly observed deadline so look ahead for that). It was also suggested that the OSA could help get our teachers that information so they can easily access it.

The question was asked “why do want federal non profit status?” Currently the OSA cannot accept tax deductable contributions and with out fundraising it would be hard to raise money for the scholarships the OSA is hoping to one day offer.

The floor was then opened to anyone who had information to share. Martha Shackford shared about the upcoming tour group from Chicago “Allegro!!!” led by Ed Krietman that will take place this April. He will be bringing advanced Suzuki students to perform at Warner Pacific College. Laurita Jauregui also shared her experience teaching in Mexico and appealed to teachers to save used materials like books, shoulder rests etc so she can take things down with her to support the Suzuki program in Mexico, where materials can be hard to come by.

The meeting was adjourned at 10:51 am.