Visions.(In Unison)(Music Teachers National Association)

My ideals for the next biennium presidential "In Unison" columns are to inform, to advocate, to challenge and to question. "In Unison" may not always be an appropriate heading. In Fact, some of my contributions might more accurately be described as "In Counterpoint" or even "In Cacophony."

I would like to congratulate our new officers and offer my heartfelt thanks to the outgoing officers. The outgoing officers have all been conscientious volunteers, giving tip endless hours and energy on behalf of MTNA. We will especially miss the talents and wisdom of Ben Caton and Wayne Gibson as they leave the Board of Directors.

Our Immediate Past President, Phyllis Pieffer, was truly a very special MTNA president during the past two years. First of all, she is a first-rate parliamentarian. Her sessions on Robert's Rules of Order at our Leadership Summit continue to receive rave reviews and probably are our most valuable offerings. As immediate past president on the board, Phyllis will continue to keep in line our tabled motions, friendly and unfriendly amendments and frequent points of order. Phyllis has wisely led us through important governance changes, significant modifications in the National Competitions and a revised Code of Ethics. Our published Essential Skills are the result of her perception and leadership. During her term, progress has been made to widen MTNA's influence on the international stage. By most every benchmark, MTNA has grown under her able guidance. Our challenge will be to build on these initiatives.

At the beginning of my biennium, it seems appropriate to articulate my vision for MTNA. The desired dream that immediately jumped into my mind was to never again hear the words, "But it went perfectly in the practice room." Now, back to realistic goals. Our dominant vision always will be to continue enhancing our mission "to advance the value of music study and music making to society and to support the professionalism of music teachers."

My vision also would be to reduce the number of adults who say, "I used to take piano lessons--I used to play the piano--I used to play the clarinet." If we could just mobilize all the adults who once studied music, our concert halls would be full, our music studios would have long waiting lists and our income would match our training, experience and contributions to society.

My vision is to have a renewed interest in creating better music sight-readers. MTNA's support of this professional goal could take several tracks. We could share the ideas of successful sight-reading programs, standards and competitions. We could organize collaborative festivals, duet and ensemble competitions, expand our chamber music competition, create music reading lending libraries and encourage music fund-raising read-a-thons. But most ...