SAA Conferences Strengthen Chapters

Did you know that attending just one SAA Conference leads to stronger Suzuki dedication and membership? To strengthen your organization, encourage your members to attend by sharing this video.

Encouragement, Inspiration, and Excitement: SAA conferences are for everyone!

Also:
- Read here about one teacher’s first conference and how it influenced her.
- Registration is open now
- And for your choice of rooms at the Hilton Minneapolis, please use this link.

Special plans for Chapters are in the works and will be announced soon!

Chapter Promotion Help

We have a new policy that the SAA office can help your Chapter with 2 emails a year to SAA members in your area. We suggest the topics be about your one biggest event, and one about recruitment into your Chapter. Talk with your boards, and reach out anytime!

	Spotlight

The Suzuki Alumni Project visits the North Texas Suzuki Association!

“NTSA will be hosting a Suzuki Alumni Project benefit recital in March featuring Dallas-area native Ayane Kozasa. Kozasa will do an evening of viola master classes and an evening recital on March 16th and 17th. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to be working with the Suzuki Alumni Project.”

“Yumi Kendall and Kei Fukuda have been most helpful and we are excited by the opportunity to welcome Ayane Kozasa to perform for our Suzuki Community.”

Click Here for details.

Sustainable Suzuki” Conference in Ontario

Congratulations to the SAO for a vibrant Conference with an invigorating theme!

“The 2017 SAO Conference was held in Waterloo, Ontario, November 4 and 5. The theme was“Sustainable Suzuki”. Sixty people attended the teacher day, from Ontario and Quebec. 236 children and several teachers participated in the Saturday student events. The student day was an incredibly exciting event for the people involved. There were classes for pianos, basses, cellos, violas, violins, as well as two Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) classes. The instrumental students had a group lesson, an enrichment class, and a play-in at the end of the day. For enrichment, the younger students had the chance to take a signing and rhythm class,while the older students (ages 10 and up) had an hour of Creative Ability Development. The student day also had a silent auction, which raised $750 for the SAO teacher training bursaries. The teacher day theme of ‘Sustainable Suzuki’ created the space for many interesting interpretations. Carol Tarr was the special guest speaker. She shared some reflections on her lifelong journey with the Suzuki Method in the morning, and in the afternoon she related to idea of ‘Sustainable Suzuki’ to finding creative ways to engage young students.”

	Solution Finders

Changes to Protocol at Greater Philadelphia Suzuki Association

This year GPSA decided to focus on making the board of the Chapter a more sustainable and attractive organization for future members serving on the board. They renovated the pattern of new to experienced board members, and changed their record keeping habits as well.

“We also brought several new members onto the board this year, although we tried to strike a balance between our valued members with experience and our new members with energy and innovation. We are very excited to see how this configuration helps us move forward in coming years. … We have begun using officer’s emails for GPSA communications so that when the officer positions change hands, the new officers will have access to communications with the previous officer. We are also beginning to store the minutes from Board meetings, membership lists, forms, etc. on the new Google Drive for GPSA. This is taking a while to implement, … but we will continue our educational and organizational efforts!”

Suzuki Association of Ontario Looks to the Future

Strategic plans to establish values, goals, and directions, are a great tool to help organizations to make choices and achieve results. The Suzuki Association of Ontario is refreshing theirs to check with current board priorities and needs.

“A group of current and former board members plan to meet throughout this year to work on creating a new strategic plan for the SAO. Our previous strategic plan, created in 2009 is being reviewed by the board to assess what was accomplished, what goals are still important to us moving forward. The review of the old plan will help the strategic planning committee move forward.”

	Leadership Links

If you are reading this newsletter, it is because you are, or have been in a position of leadership in your Chapter Organization. Our culture tends to have rather lofty and inaccessible ideas about what a leader is, but watch these two talks to see how we can be can be leaders in our everyday lives, and how a great leader makes us feel safe.

Everyday Leadership

Why Great Leaders Make You Feel Safe

Reaching Everyone?

Everyone in your chapter leadership should be on the mailing list to receive Chapter Wise, but if there are potential leaders waiting in the wings, former leaders you would like to keep informed, or (horror!) people in your leadership that have been missed, they can add themselves on their personal SAA member page, under “email preferences.”

Chapter Goals:

❦ Connect: Build community among all students, parents, and teachers.

❦ Educate: Provide resources and/or support to teachers and parents, new and current, concerning Suzuki teaching and ideals.

❦ Support: Financially benefit teachers and students for further enrichment (conferences, institutes, workshops).

❦ Celebrate: Arrange Concerts, Graduation, Celebration, Cross Instrument Recitals, Honors Recitals to rejoice in music together.

❦ Respect: Support the Suzuki name/ brand/legacy by assuring SAA membership for teachers, broadening membership, and providing grassroots feedback to the SAA.

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Suzuki Association of the Americas
PO Box 17310, Boulder CO 80308
Phone:1-888-378-9854
https://suzukiassociation.org