Here’s our newsletter for October ’23:
Greetings, Colleagues! October 1, 2023
On September 29, Barbara Lanza, Holly Altenderfer, Rosemary Fraley and I met with Keri Shultz at the RMF offices to discuss the current status of our two college scholarship accounts: the George Haage Scholarship, given to students who continue lessons after high school; and the Helen Smith Scholarship, given to students accepted into an accredited college as a music major. In either case, the student must have studied with an RMTA member who has maintained active membership for two years.
The purpose of our meeting was to discuss how to better utilize these funds, especially the Haage fund which has gone unused for several years. We worked to clarify the scholarship description to clearly show its intent, removing any reference to required college credits so as to allow students to continue private study after high school even if they are not doing so in college. This may allow for more RMTA students to qualify in the future. (FYI, here is how the RMF Scholarship booklet currently reads: Open to students who are not enrolling as a music major, but plan to take music credits. Monies will be paid directly to the university/school/music teacher for reimbursement of lessons. Scholarship will not be applied to general tuition costs.)
However, to accomplish the above change in wording requires us to amend the RMTA Bylaws. The Board voted to eliminate Subsections 1,2,3 of the Bylaws to keep the overall description more generic and flexible. Now your online vote is needed to either keep the current bylaws as written or adopt the proposed amendment. (The Smith Scholarship parameters remain unchanged.)
CURRENT BYLAWS WORDING –
ARTICLE VIII. STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
Section 1. All scholarships are available to students who have studied with a member in good standing who has maintained active membership for two consecutive years. The Haage and Smith Scholarships are managed by the Reading Musical Foundation.
- Haage Scholarship: Awarded annually to a high school senior who has been accepted into a recognized school of higher learning and will be studying music privately.
- Smith Scholarship: Awarded annually to a high school senior who has been accepted into a recognized school of higher learning as a music major.
- Additional Scholarships: The Executive Board will annually review funds with regard to the availability for additional annual scholarship awards. Awards will be made through the already established Reading Musical Foundation scholarship programs.
PROPOSED AMENDMENT: KEEP the Section 1 wording as is and DELETE subsections 1,2,3.
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO CAST YOUR ONLINE BALLOT NO LATER THAN NOVEMBER 1, 2023.
DS PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL
Please join us in celebrating our students’ hard work on Sunday, October 15th at the Showcase Recital, 3pm at Immanuel UCC.
NEW EVENT!! SIDE-BY-SIDE: “Partners in Music”
The September newsletter included a teaser about a new event for us in collaboration with Immanuel United Church of Christ in Shillington who graciously hosts our two student festivals and about anything else we need. The two piano concert will take place Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 3:00 pm. While it will feature mostly piano duos, trios, quartets, we hope an instrumental or vocal ensemble will also be part of the mix. What I need to know now is who is participating? No details…just an “I WILL PARTICIPATE!” email from you. Also let me know if YOU want to be part of a teacher quartet! Some details are attached to this newsletter.
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- Caring for yourself is not self-indulgence, it’s self-preservation. ~ Audre Lorde
- “6 Hidden Practice Skills of Expert Musicians” – an interesting read by Gerald Klickstein on his website “The Musician’s Way”
Stay inspired!
Millie
