The Texas State University ACDA chapter began as a small five member group…it now has 50 national members. You might be asking, “Well how did y’all do that?” That was only two years ago! Weekly member meetings were not becoming a big hit, so we decided to re-group and focus on something new and inviting. We focused on educational workshops, which could appeal to all different kinds of music majors. We utilized our resources within our school and community e.g., professors, local high/middle school directors, faculty advisor, campus services, local educators, and our members. In order to bring highly experienced educators to our campus like Craig Hella Johnson and Matthew Oltman (previous artistic director for Chanticleer), we pushed fundraisers and socials to the forefront. We put on different socials/fundraisers each semester to help (1) recruit members (2) network (3) membership involvement (4) fund workshops. Remember with socials and fundraisers to keep it simple, fun, interesting, inviting and start small. They could be as simple as an ice-cream social or fundraise by selling your own designed personal ACDA T-Shirts. The sky is the limit with fundraisers and socials and you’ll soon find that they really do help expand the chapter in a more positive light! Once you’ve utilized your resources then you can put on great informative FUN workshops. Workshops should always serve a purpose. Try and make them as interactive as possible that way you bring a ton of people to these great workshops provided by your chapter! Workshops have helped us tremendously grow and increase our chapter numbers. Remember start small and never give up!
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