Chair's Report
SUE ARNEY
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It is my great delight to present this report for the 2024-2025 year, a period that has shown continued growth in activities, membership and visibility within the music education community.
The following report responds to our activities aligned with the ASME National Strategic Plan:
1. Leadership and Representation
Highlights of the past 12 months have included:
Emerging from our project to map music education networks across the state, we successfully supported the newly established Wodonga Music Teachers’ Network, a community of practice led by local primary music teacher and ASME member, Aaron Silver, within the Wodonga Federation of Schools. As a result of many conversations, Felicity O’Halloran and Sue Arney represented ASME Vic by travelling to Wodonga to deliver two workshops as part of their inaugural mini conference on 28 October 2024.
Across 2024 – 2025 we contributed to discussions led by the Advisor to Katie Hall MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Creative Industries, about the status and future of music provision in Victorian schools. Sue Arney, Chair, was subsequently invited to participate in the Ministerial Roundtable for Music Education on 6 August 2025 at Arts Centre Melbourne, led by the Department of Education, and with the Minister for Education, the Minister for Creative Industries, and Katie Hall MP. ASME Vic prepared (in a very short time) and distributed a draft paper with suggested strategies for consideration. Sue has now been invited to participate in the Music Education Working Group with an initial meeting called for 18 September 2025.
2. Professional Learning
In continuing to work towards establishing our “point of difference” within the professional music education association space in Victoria, our workshop program involving around 280 participants (up from 250 in two years ago) was delivered over the past 12 months:
Wodonga Federation of Schools Music PL Day – Felicity & Sue 8 October (30)
Ready, Set, Go: VCE Music Units 1 & 2, 3& 4 Cont Perf – Rachel Gorman 7 November (35)
Ready, Set, Go: Primary and Secondary Music mini conference 22 January (44)
Jessie Lloyd’s Songbook Launch (supported) 12 May (70)
TASME – a day of workshops by Sue Arney representing ASME Vic 10 May
Early Career Music Teachers: Let Us Buy You a Drink! (in person social event) 16 April (15)
Primary Performing Arts Specialists – (Dept of Ed, Drama Vic, AusDance) 30 April (30)
Applying for Music Teaching Positions (Danny Van Bergen) 23 July (34)
Deakin University Composition workshop (Ros McMillan) 30 August (22)
I would like to mention two new events that have been particularly exciting:
Ready, Set, Go! Primary and Secondary Music Summer mini-conference, 22 January
The aim of this day was to provide a kick start for teachers, particularly graduates, early career and career-change teachers before the start of the 2025 school year; to gently include other associations with a view to working towards a larger collaborative event in future; to set up the potential for annual ASME Summer and Winter Conferences; underpinned by the new Victorian Curriculum and the Teaching and Learning Model 2.0. Three streams were offered - primary, secondary, and popular music education. We initiated collaborations with the Department of Education, VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority), VOSA (Victorian Orff Schulwerk Assoc), Kodály Victoria, Musical Futures and SongMakers. The day was very successful both operationally and financially and serves as a potential model for further events.
Primary Performing Arts Specialist Workshop
30 April
This online workshop was led by Felicity O’Halloran and Alisa Porteous in response to calls from Primary Music Specialists who will, in the forthcoming Victorian Curriculum 2.0, be required to plan, teach, assess and report on Drama and Dance in Levels 3 & 4, many without experience in these areas. Felicity and Alisa were able to bring together representation from the Department of Education, Drama Victoria and AusDance to present resources and starting points for teachers. This collaboration sparked excitement, and a full one-day conference is planned for 2025 with funding support from the Department of Education.
Thank you to Council for driving and participating in our workshop program, in particular Mick Travers, Felicity O’Halloran, Brad Merrick, Matt Roche, Heather Morcom, Emily Wilson, Alisa Porteous, Jemima Bunn, along with ASME members Ros McMillan, Dawn Joseph and Aaron Silver. We also value our partnerships with Melb University Faculty of Education and Deakin University in our workshop program.
3. Research and Resources
Victorian Journal of Music Education
I acknowledge David Forrest for his ongoing commitment to editing VJME. This is a valuable journal of which we are very proud.
ASME Victoria Bulletin
At the end of 2024 we welcomed a new editorial team for the ASME Vic Bulletin in Karen Heath, Stephanie McArthur and Matt Roche. I congratulate the team for engaging in a process to review the Bulletin moving forward, resulting in the continuation of a quarterly publication now produced in Google Sites, resulting in a saving of $2,000 annually.
Resources
We continue to update and add resources to the website, with some freely available, others to ‘members only’.
4. Sustainability and Growth
The ASME Victoria membership has continued to grow over the past 12 months with a slight increase from 213 to 219. Our request to ASME National to continue free student memberships is having a great impact in this space.
Website and Social Media
Our Facebook page currently has 879 followers (up from 804 this time last year). Our social media sub-committee posts ASME Vic events, promote resources from our website and share relevant events/news/research from other sources.
We continue to add content to the Victorian Chapter section of the website. Thanks to Matt Roche for continuing to investigate ways to make the most of the website.
We’ve had two pull up banners made to accompany our events – big thanks to Karen Heath for designing and arranging their production.
Support for the National Conference
As we look forward to ASME’s 25th Annual Conference in Brisbane 26 – 29 September, we have been pleased to offer six bursaries to the value of $3,000 to support members to attend. Keynote speakers have been featured in the Bulletin, and social media posts have encouraged the music education community to attend.
Communication with members
Communication with members has continued to occur through dissemination of the quarterly Bulletin and through direct email twice per term.
Awards and celebrations
The 2025 ASME Afternoon will be held this Sunday, 14 September in The Mayor’s Room, Hawthorn Arts Centre, and will celebrate:
The 2024 Graduate Teacher Award recipients:
Hina Sasuga (Deakin University)
Keishel Lee (Melb Uni FoE)
Prokhor Veresov (Monash Uni)
Esther Battersby (Melb Uni MMPT)
Stephanie Dixon (ACU)
ASME National Music Educator award recipients:
Katie Hull-Brown
Tim Topham
An interview with special guests Marg Arnold and Helen Champion, both former Performing Arts Managers with VCAA, as well as Helen with ACARA.
Looking forward:
As I step down after five years as Chair of ASME Vic I reflect that we have much to be proud of. Together, as a Council we can celebrate some of the following achievements over these past five years:
Our membership has more than doubled
Our Facebook followers have more than tripled
We have engaged with pre-service teachers by campaigning for free student membership
We have held annual planning days to discuss and program our yearly events
Our annual workshop programs have attracted a growing number of music teachers from all backgrounds and settings
We have developed a policy of paying our presenters whilst keeping registration prices low and covering costs
Our partnerships with other professional learning organisations, along with VCAA and the Department of Education, have strengthened
Our financial position has remained steady and even grown somewhat
Our Council has been activated through the allocation of roles and responsibilities
We have promoted the brand “ASME Vic” to delineate from other organisations in Victoria
During this time, we have continued to consider the following Guiding Questions in our planning:
Why are current members with ASME?
What is our point of difference?
What will consistently draw people to ASME?
What/who is our community/tribe? How do we build our community?
Brand awareness: how do we work to develop this?
Our challenges have been, and will continue to be:
Continuing to be a valid organisation that fulfills an important role in the Victorian professional music education landscape
Aspiring to find and fulfill the point of difference in this space
Continuing to activate and engage Council members and general members with a dual focus on further building our community and strengthening our programs.
And finally . . .
A huge thank you to the Office Bearers team of Matt Roche, Heather Morcom and Mick Travers for their enormous contributions over the last 12 months. Matt, as Deputy Chair, has taken on various roles including website investigations, social media, Bulletin and events. As Secretary Heather, has demonstrated amazing organisation skills and attention to detail, and Mick has continued to take care of all Treasurer duties – even whilst travelling solo for many months through South America!
To finish, a huge thank you to our large and vibrant Chapter Council who bring a plethora of fabulous ideas to every meeting and work to bring about many valuable events, projects and resources through their voluntary contributions. We are so fortunate to be able to have such a marvellous group who represent a range of ages, experience, teaching settings and viewpoints who work collegially and harmoniously.
Sue Arney
Chair, ASME Victoria
10 September 2025
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