Committee Updates

Highlights from the OMEA Leadership Academy

BethAnn Hepburn, OMEA President-elect

OMEA members new to leadership positions and additional members interested in potential service, participated in the OMEA Leadership Academy with the OMEA board of trustees July 11th on the campus of Otterbein University. Each of the OMEA districts were invited to have members attend the event. OMEA was well-represented in all of our areas: Choral, General Music, Instrumental Music, and Orchestra. Representation from our many areas provided a broad perspective of needs and critical issues to consider in an effort to create new opportunities for the future.

The event started with an empowering presentation “Activating Your Leadership Voice” by Emily Quick Schriver, Chief Executive for The Matriots. Emily began by sharing her story as a high school band student in Reynoldsburg as a student of Brian Stevens, OMEA President, and how her leadership experiences began in band. She stressed that it is critical for leaders to have a voice. The five components of the leaders V.O.I.C.E are values, opportunity, insights, courage, and engagement. Ultimately, she said, “the real power of leadership comes when we engage others on the journey”.

V.values- Our values are the first and foremost. First, identify what you care about and what is important to you. This will guide what direction you move.

O.opportunity- We create our opportunities and opportunities for others. We gain opportunities by thinking about our network. Ms. Schriver presented the idea that everyone we meet throughout the leadership academy is part of our network.

I.insights and inspiration- We gain insight by listening to others in our network, our own personal experiences, and the advice of mentors in our profession. Be inspirational to others, lift people up!

C.courage- courage is an empty space between fear and action. This aspect is critical for leadership. If we spend all of our time in fear, then we would never move forward.

E.engagement- to be an effective leader requires involving others. If you lead by giving directions only and always telling people what to do, you will not be an effective leader. Provide the opportunity to listen to others as you work through critical issues, engage in solutions and ideas to move forward.

The leadership academy was designed to engage the participants and create opportunities for each participant’s voice to be heard. The OMEA members in attendance at the academy shared their ideas through round table discussions. In the morning voices session, Ms. Schriver stressed that a leader has to plan for the future, yet still relies on the past. Understanding what has happened in the past can be used to build what's going to happen in the future. Therefore, before the round table discussions, two additional presentations occurred in order to provide an understanding of OMEA’s past and current operations. The leadership academy participants had a presentation by Mark Hensler, OMEA Professional Development Director, on the history of OMEA titled “How We Got Where We Are” and an overview of the organization’s structure, workflow, and finances by our Executive Director, Jay Wardeska.

The leadership participants were able to actively engage with the OMEA Board of Trustees through five roundtable topics that provided the opportunity to let everyone’s voice be heard. The roundtable topics were titled AE initiatives: Something for everyone?; Beyond AE: Engaging our membership in non-adjudicated events; and Keeping teachers teaching, Equity, advocacy, and mentorship. These round table discussions brought new ideas and were a valuable way for people to express their concerns over our current limitations and ideas to support teachers and students.

If you are interested in attending the next Leadership Academy, please reach out to your district leadership to be nominated to attend, so YOUR voice can be heard.

Thank you to the participants in this year’s Leadership Academy:

Rebecca Schwartzkopf Brett Grime Jacob Donofrio Lauren Eckersley Grace Dickmann Adam Verbsky Corey Schwartzkopf Jen Beair Brian Patton Kalee Bondzio Joe Fudale Eric Watts Lauren Zetts Austin Blair Caren Atanackovic

Nathaniel Rogers John Rodesh

Cynthia St. John Jesse Bobbit Danielle Shaub Elizabeth Barkan Phillip Smith Sarah McVaney Justin Schwertfeger John Barrett Daniel McPherson Maggie Bowlby Darius McBride Aaron Wilburn Rick Duffus Nicholas Young Nicholas Michael Brian McDonough

Trustees

Brian Stevens, President Dan Ruckman, Immediate Past-President BethAnn Hepburn, President-Elect Stephanie Bonitz, Secretary Hilary Patriok, Editor of Triad Tim Hoagland, Treasurer

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