Welcome to the Wichita Metropolitan Music Teachers Association, affectionately referred to as WMMTA (pronunciation: wom-ta)!

Wichita Metropolitan Music Teachers Association (WMMTA) is a professional music teachers organization located in Wichita, Kansas. Our membership is open to any music teacher residing in Wichita or any of the surrounding communities and currently includes teachers of piano, keyboard, violin, viola, voice, clarinet, saxophone, organ, guitar, flute, choral music, composition, theory, piano pedagogy, technology, computer lab and education. We pride ourselves on being a friendly, inviting group in which music teachers of all ages and with all levels of experience will feel at home and will be able to benefit from our services and activities. As an organization dedicated to providing its members with the best possible services, WMMTA is thrilled to utilize this website to supply its members with continually updated information about upcoming events and opportunities. In addition, this site will also allow us to provide our members with valuable resources.

Whether you are a long-time WMMTA member or are just checking us out for the first time, we hope this site will meet your needs and contribute to your success as a music teacher. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions. Enjoy your visit!

It is with a great deal of excitement (and more than a little trepidation!) that I have agreed to serve as the WMMTA President for the next two years. I know you all will join me in expressing thanks to Wendy Stevens for the vast amount of energy and time she has poured into our organization over the past three years. I am so grateful for the steps she has taken to infuse us with a vision for the future and I hope and pray that I will be able to continue down the same path so that WMMTA will grow and thrive for generations to come. For this reason, I have selected “Carry the Torch!” as our theme for the year. I see this theme as being multi-faceted and want to outline three ways that I see WMMTA members “carrying the torch” in the year ahead.

1. Share the Vision! At a Vision Meeting two years ago, WMMTA members identified three key areas in which to expand our efforts: Publicity, Recruitment, and Member Relations/Needs. We have made great progress in these areas, but there is still much that can be done. Many of our studios are currently operating at full capacity and we continue to get requests on a regular basis from students looking for teachers (Margaret, our wonderful Referral Chairperson, begs regularly at board meetings for names of teachers with openings in their studios!). As we improve our public visibility, we need to be able to assist potential students in finding dedicated teachers with a high standard of excellence in their teaching. One of the best things we can do is encourage other teachers we know to attend a meeting and join WMMTA. I believe that there are many teachers in the Wichita area who would love to be part of such a beneficial and energetic organization…if they only knew we existed. So let’s “carry the torch” this year by coming along-side other music teachers in the area and inviting them to join us in our mission!

2. Get ready for an Olympic Festival! Build up the excitement in your studios, because in July of 2008 WMMTA will be hosting an Olympic Festival full of activities and events you won’t want to miss! In March, we’ll be holding a workshop chock-full of ideas to help you plan your own summer camp that will help prepare your students to be a part of this unique festival. But don’t wait until then! Check back soon for ways you can begin implementing festival ideas in your studio right now!

3. Create an attention-grabbing public image for your studio! As Independent Music Teachers we bear a huge responsibility to not only be excellent teachers, but to run our businesses in a professional manner. Every business operating in the 21^st Century should have a website. While it may seem like a daunting task, any teacher willing to devote a few hours and a bit of mental energy to the task can have their own studio website up and running. Join us later this year for a practical workshop on navigating the options and setting up your own studio website.

So, grab your torch and let’s all join together to make this year one of the best ever in our own studios and in our organization as a whole!

Looking forward to a fabulous year!
~Natalie Wickham, NCTM