#1 ACDA’s signature publication, Choral Journal, has been our instrument for communicating scholarship, pedagogy, announcements, news, conference information, membership news, and all aspects of our work in the choral art through ACDA from our beginnings in 1959. This flagship monthly periodical keeps you connected to every aspect of our professional choral work. Go to http://acda.org/cj.asp
#2 ACDA’s online app and electronic version of Choral Journal keep you connected to ACDA throughout the day, at any time. ACDA’s app is available for downloading at your online app store. The online version of Choral Journal is also available through ACDA’s website. Go to http://acda.org/cj/Dec2015/index.html
#3 This January 2016 issue of Choral Journal is one of the largest single volume issues in our history due to the greatly expanded offerings of our seven Division Conferences. Don’t miss attending one or more of these great conferences beginning next month. In addition, our State ACDA Chapters offer excellent conferences, reading sessions, retreats, and symposia throughout the year. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=divisions and http://acda.org/conferences.asp
#4 Vote for your next ACDA National President. Two exceptional leaders are running for another great benefit of ACDA membership, and that is for a leadership position in our Association. Be a professional citizen by voting in this election that closes at the end of January. Voting in your state, division, and national elections is an important benefit of professional citizenship. Go to https://acda.org/page.asp?page=news&id=1975
#5 Also be a part of history and vote for the Constitution and Bylaw changes that are now online. These changes will restructure the way ACDA does its work at every level of our organization by creating new Standing Committees and reforming existing working groups. Go to https://acda.org/page.asp?page=news&id=1975
#6 Add a new discipline to your professional life by becoming a mentor in ACDA’s national Mentorship Program, or find a mentor in the program by signing up to be a mentee in the program. Start giving back to your profession from your bank of knowledge and experience. Go to https://mentoring.acda.org/
#7 Take advantage of ACDA’s practical online publication, ChorTeach. This publication was created to offer practical ideas and resources to assist us in our pedagogical work as choral directors. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=chorteach
#8 Broaden your choral outlook to include international choral perspectives by reading the International Choral Bulletin, the official publication of the International Federation for Choral Music. As an ACDA member, you automatically become a member of IFCM. Take advantage of your IFCM membership by reading and participating in international offerings such as the World Choral Music Symposium in Barcelona in 2017. Go to http://icb.ifcm.net/en_US/
#9 Use the Musica Database, free of charge, as an ACDA member. Your membership in ACDA gives you free access to the more than 140,000 choral literature entries in the Musica Database. In addition to finding choral literature, you will find many additional resources related to your literature search such as pronunciation guides, videos, translations, and more. Go to http://acda.org/musica.asp
#10 If you haven’t used the Search capabilities for Choral Journal, you will be delighted to discover the speed at which your search will take place. In addition, all volumes of Choral Journal are now available online for your search. For those of you that teach, this is a great resource covering a world of choral topics. Go to http://acda.org/archivecj.asp
#11 The latest addition to the National ACDA archives is a large set of scores as marked by Robert Shaw. The ACDA archives hold many treasures for the interested researcher, and you can discover finding aids to these holdings by visiting the archives pages on the ACDA website. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=FindingAids
#12 ChoralNet is ACDA’s professional and social networking site. ChoralNet, along with ACDA’s other social and professional networking connections through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, will connect you to classified ads, announcements, daily blogs, forums, an international chorus directory, choral networks, membership communities, and many more areas of practical choral information that are added by the minute, in real time, as well as archived for search capabilities. You can also get ChoralNet in a daily feed by registering for this free service. Go to https://choralnet.org/
#13 The ACDA Career Center offers news about professional choral positions that are opening or available throughout the United States and the world. Positions and vacancies are posted daily and cover a wide variety of types of jobs. Go to http://acda.careerwebsite.com/home/index.cfm?site_id=18712
#14 Repertoire and Resources is the proposed name to one of ACDA’s longstanding working areas. This proposed title is replacing the name Repertoire and Standards to more accurately reflect the work of this area of ACDA, and to more accurately reflect our intentions. No matter what type of choir you direct, ACDA has a category of help for your particular area through our Repertoire and Resources Standing Committee. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=repertoire
#15 State Chapters of ACDA exist in order to make our association relevant to your career at the grassroots level of work. Our ACDA State Chapters are designed to engage members in the activities that matter most to you where you live. As a member of ACDA, you are automatically a member of your state chapter (a few states require additional dues). Leadership opportunities expand when you take advantage of your own state’s activities. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=chapters
#16 ACDA.ORG is the virtual location for the American Choral Directors Association. Every benefit listed above can be found on ACDA’s official website. In addition, ACDA.ORG can be your gateway to your State Chapter and your Division Chapter’s offerings through their own websites and newsletters. Take time to explore and become familiar with all of the tabs and dropdown menus of our website, and those of your Division and State. Go to ACDA.org
#17 ACDA Radio provides a streaming source of the best and latest choral recordings from a large variety of sources and recording labels. Thanks to our collaborative partner Naxos, ACDA is able to offer a non-stop source for choral listening. You will find new releases streaming at “First Listen”, and you will also find choral music stations by period and style. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=acdamusicradio
#18 The International Journal for Research in Choral Singing is ACDA’s scientific professional online journal. Scholarly articles appear in this electronic publication intended to bring you the latest scientific research related to choral singing. These peer reviewed articles come from scholars in the United States and around the world. Go to http://www.choralresearch.org/
#19 The ACDA National Staff is located in Oklahoma City, OK, at your National Headquarters. If you are passing through Oklahoma City, you are invited to stop by and visit our staff, the McMahon International Choral Museum, and our national archives, all located in our offices at 545 Couch Drive, OKC. If you have a question or a membership need, you are very, very welcome to call us at 405 232 8161, or email us. We close the office at noon (CST) every weekday, but otherwise, you will find a friendly voice on the phone. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=contactus
#20 Insurance, car rental discounts, industry offers, and other special promotions and offers are regularly presented to our membership, and are particularly helpful to individuals who are not already connected to an institution or other source for such resources. The list of additional personal benefits to you are regularly updated on the ACDA website. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=memberbenefitcodes
#21 As a member of ACDA, you have the benefit of being able to sponsor your students for one of our many Honor Choirs offered at the State, Division, and National levels. Member sponsors are the only way our young singers can apply and audition for these life-changing events, and most teachers take personal and professional pride in helping their students qualify for these excellent and one-of-a-kind ensembles. As students continue their education, ACDA members are able to sponsor students for the ACDA Student Conducting Prize, the Raymond Brock Student Composition Prize, and the Herford Dissertation Award. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=memberbenefits and http://acda.org/page.asp?page=awards
#22 As a member of ACDA, you have the opportunity to attend the event that professional choral directors around the world know as the best of its kind, the biennial ACDA National Conference. The next ACDA National Conference will be March 8-11, 2017, in the choral city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Conference Committee for this event is in full gear right now, and registration will open this October. You will not want to miss this event as one of the greatest benefits of memberhship. Go to http://acda.org/conferences.asp
#23 An important benefit of ACDA membership, but one that is hard to qualify, is the professional networking benefit that takes place as you engage your professional Association. As you add a thread to a Forum, enter a discussion Community, or Reply to a Post or Blog, you are networking. This networking only intensifies as you attend State, Division, and National Conferences, Symposia, Retreats, Workshops, Reading Sessions, and the great variety of professional gatherings that take place through ACDA. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=special-events
#25 As a student, membership in ACDA is easy and a significant start to professional citizenship. Many of our colleges and universities throughout the USA have ACDA Student Chapters as part of their understanding of the full pedagogy that builds the choral professional. Increasingly, high schools are starting ACDA student chapters. Go to https://acda.org/Editor/assets/Youth%20and%20Student/StudentChapter%20Listforwebsite10-12-2015%20%287%29.pdf
#26 One of the four pillars of ACDA’s Mission Statement is ACDA’s work toward inspiring excellence in choral composition. Hundreds, if not thousands, of choral compositions have been commissioned by ACDA, its chapters, and its members. Choral compositions for all voicings, at all levels of application, and at the very highest level of accomplishment, have been brought to life because of ACDA’s commitment to inspiring excellence in choral composition. This is a benefit to ACDA members as well as the choral profession. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=awards
#27 And speaking of ACDA’s Mission Statement, as a member of ACDA you are a part of the professional choral community that has adopted the purpose of “Inspiring excellence in choral education, performance, composition, and advocacy.” You can display your Certificate of Membership proudly as a statement of our collective mission. Go to http://acda.org/ and http://acda.org/page.asp?page=acda_history
#28 ACDA is a part of a world choral community, and through our International Conductor Exchange Program, ACDA is able to endorse and sponsor conductor exchanges with countries throughout the world. This program now has ACDA alumni who have been a part of national exchanges with Sweden, Cuba, China, and South Korea. In August 2016, ACDA will host the choral event of all the Americas, America Cantat VIII, in the Bahamas. This festival is for choirs as well as individual singers and directors. Go to http://america-cantat.org/
#29 If you are an Industry Member of ACDA, ACDA gives you the opportunity to present your products and services to the greatest pool of choral leaders throughout the world. Industry Members of ACDA are themselves a benefit to all categories of ACDA membership. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=mediakit
#30 My first leadership position outside of my teaching institution was as a State Chair for Music in Worship in ACDA’s Repertoire and Standards structure. One of my first articles to appear in a professional forum was in an ACDA state newsletter. One of my first juried article publications was in the Choral Journal. My first contribution to a book publication was part of a project that began as an ACDA Research and Publication monograph. For me and hundreds of others, ACDA has provided the membership benefit of leadership opportunities that helped build our careers. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=leaderinfo
#31 As I have reflected on my professional work, I have come to realize the incredible benefit of giving back to my profession, both in terms of service and in terms of money. Becoming an early contributor to ACDA’s Fund for Tomorrow gives me the satisfaction as an ACDA member of contributing to the ongoing choral work that ACDA is all about. Go to http://acda.org/page.asp?page=Fund4Tomorrow
And finally, we are all a benefit to other ACDA members as we individually engage in any of the benefits of our Association, and as we advance our collective choral mission. My hope for this New Year is that all of us discover new ways to engage in professional citizenship at a deeper and more meaningful level.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.