Make that investment
Recently I gave a presentation to the executive board of an organization I was hoping to turn into a client. I put forth the question "If you only had typewriters, telephones, and a mailbox, could your organization continue to function without modern computers and the Web?" The looks being exchanged around the table were fairly obvious. I then said "If your organization depends on technology in order to function, then it would follow that you would invest in it more than you currently are." And later that day I had a new client.

ISW Registration overhaul in the works
KMEA is working on technology upgrades in the ISW Registration area. We are working with NAfME to borrow some loaner laptops to serve as registration terminals during ISW. Our goal is to make it possible for a member to renew their membership, register for the conference, and vote for the 2015 President-Elect while at one of these stations. Most of this hinges on our ability to connect our web server with NAfME's membership database in order to perform queries of membership records in real-time. These query results would be used to render the proper forms on-screen for our members, including a voting ballot. Another possible use of these query results would be the ability to have all KMEA members, including those NOT attending the ISW, to be able to vote for the President-Elect from home or on a smartphone. A good deal of work remains to be done to make this a reality, including much-needed improvements on NAfME's side, but we are getting there.

Digital Signage expansion
ISW 2014 saw the initial set-up of the digital Hall of Fame displays on various screens around Century II (see example below). We have been told that additional screens are to be in place for ISW 2015. We are also looking into installing a digital interactive display in the Connecting Lobby which would allow visitors to navigate certain areas of the KMEA website (Hall of Fame, Directory of Retired Music Educators, KMEA Awards, etc) on a large screen. My goal is to make it possible for visitors to be able to control the display from their smartphone.

Kansas Music Review gets tweaked (again)
This is the 13th online issue of the Kansas Music Review. And so far we have remained consistent in one area of KMR prep, which is that nothing stays the same. Every issue of the online Kansas Music Review so far has seen some kind of new innovation applied to the source code. And this issue is no different. Following a meeting of the KMR Publication Team in June, some minor tweaks are being applied to the overall appearance of the KMR for this issue in order to improve the ease of use for the reader. Code changes are occurring in the navigation bar, advertising code, and content linking. Most of this work is behind the scenes, but the reader will be able to see a few tweaks on the screen compared to previous issues.

KMEA Website improvements
During the 2014-2015 school year we intend to work up a new KMEA website. The current site still contains code leftover from the original vendor design. Over the years the site has grown considerably. The original site was a miniscule fraction of the current site, in terms of both the number of files, and the scope of operation. Every once in a while I take a look at the original home page of the current KMEA website, which had been designed by a 3rd-party vendor, and I wonder if we haven't created a monster. An upgrade will require a meticulous effort to shift information from the old to the new. The website now has several thousand files on the web server all working together to help us avoid typewriters, telephones, and the mailbox. No sledge-o-matic will be employed in the making of the website upgrade, though the temptation may be there!