In the past few months, MEISA has struggled to work with the remaining budget monies we have left. Due to some changes in the way we have had to run things, and some errors with the last executive board, the money situation has left us with quite a learning experience.

Rather that give up and wait for the next executive board to take over, MEISA has decided to take as many small steps as possible to still create change and promote chapter networking. So far, some of the changes we have accomplished are:

Establishing a MEISA Service Month

March will be a mandatory service month for all chapters in every region. They can do any kind of community service that will help save music. Chapters have been encouraged to work together to make larger service days in their area. Some ideas that we have heard are, holding a benefit concert, teaching young kids music at their schools, and holding a small concert at a daycare.

Website and Forum Changes

The website has gone through quite a revamps as we try to promote chapter networking. We have created a chapter map, which lists every chapter’s contact information when clicking on the specific region. The site has also been updated with pictures of the regional representatives and executive board so that faces are more familiar at events between chapters.

Though we can’t get rid of all of the spam on our forum due to the lack of being able to purchase a better one, we have done our best spending hours per week deleting things that shouldn’t be there. We have sent out messages to members urging them to come back and use it as well.

Communication

In the past weeks we have spent a lot of time fixing our master lists to make them as accurate as possible for both the next executive board and for e-mals regarding the upcoming conference.

New and Better Contests

We have created a new Marketing Contest for those who are more interested in the business part of the industry rather than the performance. We are also currently waiting on MEIEA’s approval of our budget so that we can provide better monetary wins for our scholarships, Battle of the Bands competitions, and Outstanding Chapter of the Year Award.

So come and check out www.meisa.org for all of our latest updates and let us know what you think.