Date: 13 May 2001, Issue 17 A Special Meeting All Interested AMCA’ers Are Invited "Be Interactive" View Feedback | Say "HI" See: Notable.Items

In On June 8th and 9th the AMCA Board of Directors is holding a two-day meeting to which all AMCA members are urged to participate either with their attendance at the meetings or with comments and suggestions on the web site.

Blueprint for Progress - the Background

Over recent years some members of our association have become concerned over our declining numbers and several attempts have been made to stem this disturbing trend without any real success and to this date our numbers continue in a downward spiral. In response, the Executive Secretary compiled a list of twelve suggested “Actions” taken from various sources and presented this under the heading a Blueprint for Progress in his September “Interactive” column. This plan was the subject of discussion at the October 21, 2000 Board meeting in Kalamazoo, Michigan and at that time the delegates agreed to hold a special two-day meeting in order to debate the suggestions listed. It is hoped that the result will improve and extend the level of service AMCA provides its members.

Past Efforts

Over recent years there have been committees struck and services improved but the membership has not responded positively to these efforts. One has to ask, “Why?” and the logical way to approach that question is to pose the question to our membership ..... and yet we have not yet done that. We need to involve all of our members in these deliberations either by personal attendance or by soliciting their opinions in writing and/or on our web site.

AMCA has not been completely indifferent to the need of improving services and in all honesty efforts have been made over recent years. See the three “Interactive” columns titled Benefits of Membership Parts 1, 2 and 3 written in May, June and July 2000 for a complete listing of the services AMCA now provides. However, this is apparently not enough to hold our association together and we need to reassess all aspects of our organization and its objectives.


The Importance of the June 8/9th Meeting

AMCA must determine what it is that choruses expectations are and make changes to meet those identified needs. If that means changes in infrastructure, then those changes must be made. We cannot afford to carry on with business as usual any longer - we must identify, address and act on the problems that are causing our decline - and make no mistake we are experiencing a serious fall-off in our membership numbers. Your input is needed NOW so that this meeting has YOUR thoughts and opinion to help guide our deliberations. Please take the time to send them along by responding to this column in detail and/or call and make a booking to attend the Milwaukee meeting and participate in person if you can. The AMCA Board needs dedicated and interested delegates, let your district executive know of your interest in AMCA and volunteer to attend as a district delegate. (Most districts are willing to help with the cost of their delegates attendance at meetings.) I hope to hear from you.

Please take the time to react to this column by clicking on Make a Comment.

Bill