MENC is now NAfME

I always get a little nervous when organizations change their branding.  I don't like it when companies change their products' packaging any more than I like it when grocery stores move things around on the shelves so that it creates a new traffic pattern for their shoppers in the hopes that they will buy more than planned on this particular shopping trip.  It frustrates me; REALLY frustrates me.

As of this year, Music Educators National Conference has a new name.  We are now the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).  Our organization has been around for 104 years.  It seems that only recently, our former name has become a problem.  The association's original name, "Music Supervisors National Conference," became "Music Educators National Conference" (MENC) in 1998.  Since that time, as music educators have had to address policy-makers, they were "spend[ing] too much precious time explaining why our initials did not match our name."  Hence the reason for our organization's re-branding.

Michael Butera, NAfME executive director, said, "National Association for Music Education says exactly what the Association stands for -- an organization for music education for everyone, an association that supports music teachers and the profession of music education, a group that isn't inward-looking and static but outward-reaching and forward-thinking."  (Teaching Music: October 2011, Volume 19, Number 2; Page 13).

Because of the name change, the executive board felt it was necessary to lay out a Long-Term Strategic Plan that encompassed four overarching strategic directions:  1. Advocacy 2. Serving the profession and the music educator 3. Research 4. Organizational vitality.

"Music is a universal expression of the human spirit, a basic human need," the Preamble states.  "It allows us to communicate our deepest ideas and feelings, to explore and preserve our cultural heritages, and to celebrate the realms of emotion, imagination, and creativity that result in new knowledge, skills, and understanding.  Every individual should be guaranteed the opportunity to learn music and to share in musical experiences."  (Teaching Music:  October 2011, Volume 19, Number 2; Page 12).

With that position statement, I heartily agree.  No one should be denied the opportunity to make music, to listen to music, to enjoy music and to experience that 'stirring of the soul' that music provides for us.  It is part of our humanity.

Until next time...