Chair's Report

The Calendar represents a great deal of discussion by various sub-committees of Council in its instigation, followed by a great deal of dedicated work to bring each to fruition. I acknowledge the work of this voluntary group of dedicated teachers, students and academics who create these opportunities out of a desire to contribute to the sustainability and growth of music education. The hours spent in meetings and in planning, promoting and delivering these events all takes place out of work hours, so I offer my heartfelt thanks to the hard-working Council who make ASME a great community with which to belong. 

After the joyous and very successful Summer Conference I was contacted by a music teacher who asked if such days could be held during school hours to allow teachers to attend in their work time. I completely respect this request and support the work of teachers being kept within paid work hours where possible. My own doctoral research, however, shows that whilst there is a slight preference for music teacher professional learning to be held during the school days, significant percentages of teachers prefer school holidays and weekends, citing the priorities of teaching VCE classes, rehearsing weekly ensembles, teaching classes who are only scheduled once a week, preparing for performances, along with those instrumental music teachers who are only paid for the time they are teaching face-to-face. This is perhaps illustrated by the large numbers of teachers who happily attended the recent “Season” of professional learning opportunities on weekends throughout February and March reported on in this Bulletin.

Our professional association is not the only one that is either completely run by or mostly guided by volunteers. It is seldom possible for such groups of volunteers to arrange time release to set-up, deliver and pack-up professional learning activities during their own work time. With this in mind, the 2025 ASME Vic Calendar also represents our collective capacity to deliver what we hope is an interesting and varied program that is well-spaced and accessible to all those around the state.

All the best to each of you for a successful year, and I look forward to catching up with many of you through 2025.