In February, 1966, during my 30th year as a music educator, I accepted the position of Executive Director for GMEA. I resigned from my job as band director at Jonesboro High School and spent the remainder of that school year holding down both jobs, thanks to the understanding of my principal, Dr. Grady Kilman, my assistant director, Kevin Stauffer, and the GMEA office staff and officers. That was twenty years ago and now seems like a good time to reflect on those years and where we have come in that time.

The 1990’s were a time of economic stability and prosperity as well as a time of almost unprecedented growth for Georgia. During that period, the population of the state increased by twenty-five percent. More families meant more students, more students meant more schools, and more schools meant more and bigger music programs. All that meant more GMEA members and more and larger student music events. That growth presented a mix of …show more content…
The traditional form of advocacy has always involved what we call, “storming the state house,” which has turned into turning thousands of students and parents loose on legislators and other governmental officials. Somewhere along the way, it occurred to me that this approach is too often like wetting your pants in a dark suit. You get a warm feeling, but nobody notices. Our approach has changed over time, and we now devote much of our energy and resources to making friends and being friends to individuals and groups, including local school boards, school superintendents, and other educational groups, who can and want to help us. One initiative we have undertaken in recent years has been a partnership in the, “Vision for Public Education in Georgia,” also known as, “The Vision Project”. Another is that we now exhibit at the annual winter joint conference of the Georgia School Boards Association and the Georgia School Superintendents