Fall season in our MTAC San Diego Branch got off to a glorious start. The atmosphere was joyful – we all enjoy reconnecting with our friends and making new acquaintances and I really want to say “Thank you” to the MTACSD Board of Directors for their excellent preparation for all of us.

Brian Goral, 2^ndV.P. made the room very inviting with the beautiful bouquets which some lucky teachers got to take home! Yuko Maruyama put together a very helpful and well-written brochure, as well as a handy bookmark, both of which we can use as we organize our annual teaching calendars.

The chairs who spoke about their events gave precise details and updates and there wasn’t a wasted minute as Eleanor Hum took us through the entire CM guideline booklet which she had put together.

President Miriam Cole brought more excitement to the proceedings as she honored volunteers for their service, withholding the first “Harmony Award” until the very last announcement. The first recipient of that new award is Sun Yung Cho who was an ever-present figure at our events, always willing to give time and energy to help make events run smoothly. Of special interest in the honoring of volunteers was the award that went to Risa S. who is a music student and who was present and volunteering at almost every event in our 2017-2018 year.

Another special thank you goes to each teacher who brought books for the Music Exchange Table and to those who took some books and left a donation. The amount collected this year was $299. That amount will be added to the KIM fund, allowing a low-income, gifted child to have music lessons.

We are truly a blessed branch. The thoughtful plans that our Board of Directors put into action are meant to provide paths to professionalism. The wonderful aspect of their planning is that our Board makes the whole proceedings enjoyable!

Submitted by:
Jaclyn Summers
H. B. Goodlin Foundation Chair

The Fall Breakfast on Monday, September 18, was a visual and inspirational delight.

Teachers were treated to the lovely setting of table linens, bouquets at each table, and “swag bags” for each attendee with their tissue frills adorning each place setting. Thanks to our new Second Vice President, Brian Goral, for making us all feel so special. Tim Broadway, our outgoing Second V.P. brought the coordination of the venue together and brought the new caterer into our lives. Good find, Tim, and thank you for your excellent work for so many years.

Our new Corresponding Secretary, Alla Kesser-Gross, did a terrific job with the notifications/invitations to the Fall Breakfast, and we thank also the behind-the-scenes work of our new Recording Secretary, Angelina Hardy, and directors Lee Galloway, Dan Yu, and Mitzi Koler.

Hearing our new President’s opening greeting in all languages represented by our membership highlighted the international constituency of our San Diego branch. I want to thank Miriam Cole for accepting the position of President of the Board of Directors. Having led us once before in that role, she is well-poised to bring about the dreams that she has for our branch.

I am sure that every teacher was pleasantly surprised to see how committed our new First Vice President is to the integrity and development of our branch. The new website, of which she is the webmaster, is beautifully designed and will serve its many purposes well. We can all thank Yuko Maruyama for the excellent result of her effort. We can thank her entire family also for the outstanding video about Kids Into Music (KIM). Many of us probably realized for the first time, while watching the video, exactly what the program is all about.

Our KIM music exchange/donation table was a success once again, bringing in over $100 in funds for the KIM program. Thanks to Chutaphin Yeager, our new Membership Secretary and Hua Wang, our Treasurer, for hosting that table for the past several years.

And finally, the excellent booklet which stapled together all the information we could possibly need about participation in Certificate of Merit, produced by Eleanor Hum, is just the tip of the iceberg of all the preparation and work load that Eleanor and her CM Committee experience annually on behalf of all our students and us. She and her committee are the lifeline between us and the State MTAC CM program. Thank you, Eleanor, and thank you, Board of Directors, for a delightful and informative morning.

Our Fall Breakfast has become much more than a mandatory meeting. It is a once-a-year touchstone for the integrity and professionalism of our branch, and, just as importantly, it provides a place where long-time members and new members can meet, interact and enjoy each other’s friendship.

Jaclyn Summers
Immediate Past President