AUGUST 2004 NEWSLETTER


The September newsletter will be sent to you a couple of weeks before the first meeting, with specifics, deadlines, etc. If you have any items for that newsletter, send to me, Doris Erickson (see box at end) Meanwhile, a message

From the President: Here’s hoping that your summer is going great, that you have gotten some rest, and that you are refreshed and ready for the new school year. You will find the new contest list enclosed.

I hope to see all of you at the first meeting of the year on Tuesday, September 21st at 10:15 AM at the H&H Music Store, 713 FM 1960 West. By then we will have the new yearbook ready, the calendar and budget voted in, and all the committees and chairmen set for the new year.

I am looking forward to a fabulous 25th Anniversary year!

Your President,
Becky May


Check Your Listing in the Yearbook: Those of you who have e-mail have already been asked to make sure you want everything the same in the new yearbook as in the current one, and we’ve received some corrections. To those who haven’t checked yet, or who are reading this request for the first time, please ask yourself: Have you moved? Have you added or subtracted any subjects you teach? Have you changed your e-mail address? Do you want your cell phone or fax number added or deleted? The new yearbook is being prepared now, and we want it to be accurate, as I’m sure you do. Please send any corrections to Doris Erickson by September 1st (see box at the bottom of this newsletter.) And if you haven’t paid your dues by that date, your name won’t be listed at all!

Colleen Bell Elected: Our own Student Affiliate Chairman and Second Vice President, Colleen Bell, was elected to a three-year term as a Director of the TMTA Board. Her biography in the Spring 2004 issue of Texas Music Teacher told us more about her extensive background than even we knew. We already knew that she’s terrific. Congratulations!

Joanna Garcia Retiring: Joanna has been gradually cutting back on teaching, not taking on new students as the older ones “age out.” Now that the last one has graduated, she has taken the final step and retired. She has been a member of CCMTA for over 20 years and has served in just about every position from president on down. She was a kind and capable judge, who will be remembered fondly by those who learned from her. We will certainly miss her, but we wish her much happiness in her retirement.

Barbara Cowen Judged in California: She was invited to go to Garden Grove, California to judge music participants in national finals for the Church of God. The Summerfest event took place at the Anaheim Convention center with approximately 2000 in attendance and covered the fine arts, as well as other events (public speaking, theater, dance, crafts, solo voice and instruments, ensemble music groups, etc.) She said that in addition to the working “fun,” she was able to spend time with a bridesmaid at her wedding 43 years ago, who was also her best friend during high school years.

She took a road trip visiting relatives around Texas and sightseeing historic Texas places in Fredericksburg and Austin. She came home just long enough to teach for four weeks, and then was off again to Salt Lake City to visit a friend and go sightseeing in Yellowstone National Park, Jackson Hole, etc. She’s very thankful to have these opportunities, she says, after the traumatic events in her life the past few years. We were privy to those events and are so glad she was able to get away and enjoy life again.

Furthermore. . . We have to start with some sad news: Linda Anthony’s mother died earlier this summer, and we offer our condolences….If you watched Ronald Reagan’s lying-in-state, you might have seen Becky May’s son, Roy. A graduate of Westpoint, he is a member of the Old Guard, stationed in Washington, and was assigned to be one of the ones to guard the casket around the clock… Ellen Bush has recently been voted in to Who’s Who in America, due to be published in October. She went to a family reunion in Arkansas, where she saw her brother and sister for the first time in 15 years… Diana Cooper starts teaching in an elementary school this month, so she won’t be able to come to meetings. We’ll still see her, though, at our events… Lynn Jordan just spent 10 days in Las Vegas… We have received resignations from Jennifer Trent, who won’t be teaching this year, from Crystal Beltran, who wants to pursue other interests—especially singing, and from Cathy Lysinger, who got a college teaching offer she couldn’t refuse from Dallas and is moving away. We’ll miss them all, hoping they may return some day.