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MSBOA State Conference – Amway Grand Plaza
Grand Rapids, MI
January 21, 2006
11:00 AM
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Minutes
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The executive board for the Michigan Chapter of IAJE met at the Amway Grand Hotel in conjunction with the MSBOA State Conference under way on the same weekend. All members were present, including Brian Coyle, Kevin Dobreff, Bob Nixon, Danny Jordan, and Max Colley III. The following topics were discussed.
It was brought up by President Coyle that kids are not collecting money from the scholarship awards won by individuals based upon their performances at the 2005 Detroit International Jazz Festival. Letters have gone out to those who have received them.
The state chapter has a bank account balance of $5,000.
The national office of IAJE is trying to get state chapters more involved. It was mentioned that Michigan is doing better than many other state chapters.
Our website is up and going well. Much was said about the fantastic job Denis (webmaster) is doing with the site. One concern is just getting the word out to let people know about the website. We would like to make it the central focal point for communication. It is great for publicizing events.
Another goal for the chapter is to increase and stress membership and outreach. We need to market ourselves better. Possibly send out flyers and we could maybe get the mailing list from MSBOA of everyone that attended the conference. We would like to have a greater presence and let people know what we can offer. Examples could be real hands on help either via the website where one could ask questions and have someone help them with that or have actual clinicians come out and go to the schools and help.
The last main topic talked about was the fact that we the state chapter would like to have a stronger relationship with the state organization (MSBOA). We don’t want to compete but partner with MSBOA. President Coyle has had some encouraging meetings with their Paul Stanifer, Executive Director of MSBOA. The state chapter would like to see every MSBOA jazz event as an IAJE-sanctioned event. One sticking point is in the judging forms for festivals. IAJE has more of an emphasis on Improvisation. One other issue is the Sight-Reading component that MSBOA has. We are in total agreement on how important sight-reading is, but seeing as it doesn’t even count towards the final rating it would be more beneficial to have a 20 minute clinic based upon the performance. And to assign judges to the band, then go out with them and discuss and clinic based upon a prepared performance.
Other topics included the possibility of a true all-state jazz band, which would be selected by audition.
It was also discussed that there were only 3 events at the conference that were jazz and 2 were at the same. More planning needs to be done in this area so as to relieve conflicts in artist performances.
Respectfully Submitted,
Max Colley III
IAJE Michigan Secretary
