It has been a year since I began my two-year term as Chair of the SAA Board. The Board is to be a visionary Board, but it is also of great benefit to look at the work of the Board in the past year and see how it has affected the SAA membership and our place in the world.

At each meeting we are apprised as to how the SAA is doing financially through monitoring reports prepared by our Executive Director. We noted that one of the distinctions of our organization is that we train teachers and educate parents. A large amount of our budget goes to maintaining and expanding what we do in education. The three-fold purpose of the SAA is to:

  1. Promote early music education through the Suzuki method of instruction.
  2. Educate parents and teacher members.
  3. Set guidelines and criteria for Suzuki-based pedagogical instruction.

As a non-profit Board, it is our duty to make sure our program expenditures are true to our purpose.

Along with monitoring the financial side of the SAA organization, the Board has charged itself with fundraising. The Annual Fund drive is the responsibility of the Board and our goal of $40,000 was again met in 2007-2008. The Board spent time personalizing fundraising letters and planning the drive.

The Board also charged itself and the Honorary Board committee to connect with our Honorary board members which resulted in interviews of each honorary member published in the Journal. We have charged ourselves to connect with those members yearly and have already seen evidences of interest by this group in what the SAA is doing. Many of them have given their financial support to the SAA.

A vision of having a parent committee became a reality at our Conference in Minneapolis. The committee is in dialogue about funding of the parent education project as well as advising the SAA Board on ways to connect with our parents and alumni.

The SAA Board has discussed our linkage with other organizations of similar interest such as the National Guild of Community Schools, for example. We were pleased to note that the ECC! course was offered at the March 2008 ASTA Conference. The Board was interested in how that can be used in other venues as an outreach tool. Other such collaborations are being investigated.

The Board has learned more about Latin American perspectives. Marilyn O’Boyle met with us in September, 2007. She provided us with a history of the Encuentro, the festivals, country associations, funding, and teacher training in Latin America. The Board fully endorsed the proposal of supporting Latin American participation at the 2008 Conference.

We realize that communication with our membership in an ever-changing world must reflect those changes. The web (as many of you learned at the Conference) is very important as we share information with each other. A Suzuki alumni website was discussed as a way of staying connected with our young members. Our parent committee has already discussed ways in which the SAA can connect better with our membership.

Your board has reviewed the SAA teacher web survey and is evaluating at every meeting how this information can be used to shape our Ends statements and address our members’ needs. Our policies must reflect those needs and stay true to the Suzuki philosophy.

The SAA Board met at two universities which offer long-term teacher training, the University of Hartford (the Hartt School) and the University of Evansville. A questionnaire was sent to long-term teacher training schools and is being compiled as an aid to those doing and considering the possibility of long-term training.

At the University of Evansville, we were able to meet with university administrators to present an overview of the Suzuki method and the importance of long-term teacher training.

The Board in the past year has also taken time to review the philosophy and goals of the SAA conference. We are looking at the need for the conference to remain teacher-centered and to focus on teacher development and teacher education. Future themes are being explored.

It is essential that the Board remain visionary, looking toward the future of the SAA. We are by nature, a membership of “doers” as seen by the number of volunteers who contribute so much to our cause. Our Board evaluates itself at the end of each meeting to see how well we are “using our visionary hats.” Sometimes we do better than others. It is easy to become “doers,” but as a Board, we must continue to look forward in our thinking as we imagine what the SAA can be like in our changing world.