Before I begin with thoughts about the upcoming school year, I would like to invite all NAfME Collegiate members to check out our website at http://www.ksmea.org/cmenc. Scott, Miranda, and I will be working hard to keep this website up-to-date with documents, chapter information, and updates pertinent to activity at the state level. If you have any questions or wish to update information about your chapter, please do not hesitate to email me.

Efforts toward improving state communication with chapters are going well, but we need responses from chapters to proceed. Many chapters were represented at the In-Service Workshop this year, but less than a third of those chapters participated in the board meeting. Meetings happen three times a year and provide opportunities for chapters to be heard at the state level. I look forward to seeing more active chapters in the near future.

The next board meeting will coincide with KCOMTEP on October 9-10, 2011. For those who are not familiar with KCOMTEP, it is a conference organized with KMEA state leaders to provide sessions specifically for NAfME Collegiate members. We are looking forward to clinics from KSHSAA Assistant Executive Director, Reggie Romine, and other leading music educators in Kansas. More announcements about this conference are to come.

As students, we begin each school year idealistically. We go to our classes and read over each syllabus promising ourselves to keep up with the readings and to do all of the work assigned to us. But within a month, we start falling behind on readings, skipping small assignments, and slacking off on our self-inflicted schedules. We have all done it. No one ever means for it to happen but, especially as music majors, our lives get busy.

If you are anything like me, you try to involve yourself in too much and wind up over your head. Every day is full of choices, such as which events to attend, how many hours to work at your job, and in which organizations to be involved. This year I urge all of you to join me by seriously considering your options, while making schedules and beginning coursework. How much time are you really going to spend doing homework each night? Watching TV? Staying on campus?

With whatever choices you make, I wish you all the best for the new school year. I risk sounding like the typical mother, but have a successful school year balanced with many fun times with friends. May it be an exciting and eventful year, and I look forward to seeing you all at the KCOMTEP conference in October.