The Aftermath of AMTA14

Things got a bit busy yesterday, and I got a bit too tired to string together any coherent type sounds, utterances, what's the... Oh, right - WORDS, so I missed a day. Then, I got home and started this post but was exhausted and stopped writing when my eyes started to blur. Today, however, I had some sleep, so here goes the post.

Yesterday, I left the conference at 6:30am (my time) and just started streaking across the country. I got home about 9 hours later, finally got some sleep, and am still buzzing from the drive, so, lucky readers, you get my jumbled, disjointed thoughts about AMTA14 which has ENDED!

First of all, let me say that AMTA14 was a wonderful conference. The hotel wasn't bad (it was taken over by a body-building competition that included some very unnatural tanning procedures - very confusing, but GREAT people watching opportunities - there may be a "just-for-me" songwriting project in it for me soon). The food was good and at pretty decent prices. Second, while there was lots of work involved in this conference (for me, anyway), I didn't feel as rushed as I usually do during this long week. I had time to sit and think, which was one of my meeting assignments, and I was also able to spend time with old and new friends alike - from all over the world and from all different sources. It constantly amazes me how much my music therapy world has been expanded through my involvement in AMTA, OCMT, AMTAS, AIAC, and other music therapy related acronyms. Third, I was able to expand my perception of this thing called music therapy through reading, discussion, and talking to people that I highly respect and hope to emulate.

Here's an overview of my week...

1. Drove from home to Louisville in a constant downpour and through mysterious traffic jams that had nothing to cause them... 9.5 hours later, I arrive in Kentucky to find that my conference roommate is stranded in her home town, waiting for a flight. We talked via cell phone several times during the afternoon. I attempted to stay awake until she arrived, but didn't make it. I remember waking up in the night and seeing a lump in her bed and thinking, "Oh good, she made it." That was it.
2. Woke up and crept out of the room so I didn't awaken said roommate. Fortunately, we had a suite and so I was able to move into the front room and do things while closing her into the other room. I hope that AMTA finds more suite hotels! That was AMAZING!
3. Found my meeting room and met with most of the amazing people that are on the Association Internship Approval Committee (AIAC) from AMTA. These people are wonderful and make my job as committee chair very easy. We laughed and laughed during our 10-hour marathon meeting. We also finished recording an e-course for AMTA members, established our goals for this next year, and discussed important internship matters with each other and with the Academic Program Approval Committee members. We ate lunch together and used our treat bags to celebrate all the work we've done this year. We missed our National Office liaison, Jane Creagan.
4. Work finished, I went to dinner with a bunch of Texas music therapists. If you have never spent time around Texas music therapists, I highly recommend that you do so. This group of therapists doesn't seem to know a stranger and offers ideas, opinions, attitudes, and celebrations to all. I don't know if it's my Texas roots that leads them to me and me to them, but I celebrate them and their adoption of this lapsed-Texan into their fold.
5. Crashed after sending talking points to AIAC members and trying to organize my (get this!) two CMTEs for the next day.
6. Woke up REALLY early. Went to the presentation room to set up and had a minor panic over connecting the computer to the laptop. The AV guy showed me where the cord was and all was ready to begin. I had 15 participants who wrote music, offered suggestions, wrote things on big pieces of paper, and then watched these people be creative with each other. It was a great group of people for my first solo-CMTE presentation. I have lots of ideas to put together in another handout for the attendees, but I have until Jan. 1 to do that. I did have to stop a person from taking my handouts who hadn't been in the CMTE - fortunately, she did so without arguing.
7. Finished cleaning up from CMTE #1 and traveled up and over to get to CMTE #2 where I was met by my WONDERFUL AIAC members. We led a new version of our CMTE, Supervising the National Roster Intern, and they were magnificent! We hadn't heard each other present yet, but they all referred to each other's modules when sharing their own topics. It flowed well and we ran out of time (as always). I think the 70 attendees got lots of information out of us.
8. End of day two - kinda. Quick trip to the room to change out of bad shoes and into the styrofoam shoes and to drop off stuff before heading to the Opening Session. Keep in mind that all of these things happening now have happened BEFORE the conference has officially started! The conference officially starts at the opening session when 1600 other music therapists arrive.
9. I always buy five tickets for the Chance Drawing at the Exhibit Spectacular. I figure the $5 helps AMTA in a very small way, and I won something this year (the second time I've won something, by the way). This year I won a basket full of paints! Last time, it was five YouRock Guitars. This time it was
   
   something completely for myself. I'm starting to figure out what I'll be painting for myself, my family, my friends, and my clients with all of these color choices. What a great gift to encourage my creativity, and it only cost me $5!
10. After the Exhibit Spectacular, I was invited to the President's Reception. I spent time talking to old friends, new friends, and strangers before finally hitting the wall of exhaustion and heading back to my room. This is early on Friday morning.
11. A couple of hours of sleep.
12. Friday conference time arrives. I have to go before the Assembly of Delegates to present a change to the National Roster Internship Guidelines. If you have never been to an Assembly meeting, I would encourage you to do so. It is a fascinating part of how our Association works. The delegates are very busy making decisions and recommendations for how we operate and what we do as music therapists. My motion passed with a small request for an addition.
13. I went to the ONLY concurrent session that I could choose and attend. I chose to go to a session about being an intern. It was very good, and gave me a perspective that I'll be placing in my internship handbook and embedding into intern seminars.
14. Business meeting (which I ditched, but had every intention of going to until I found a media friend that I really wanted to personally connect with!!) was shoved aside for lunch. After lunch, I went to the Special Target Population networking event and chose a completely new table - Trauma. We talked quite a bit within our group, and now we have a Facebook group specifically for MTs like us. The rest of the afternoon had an ETAB meeting until the keynote speaker, John Creswell, presented a discussion about mixed methods research. Then I went to the Master's Level Entry presentation to hear about what the MLE subcommittee or task force or whatever they are have done for this process. After that, I did the introvert's dodge and went to my room where I changed into my pj's, ate some of the food that I had brought with me, and went to sleep when I wanted to do so - about 10pm.
15. Saturday's activities can be summed up in two words - meetings/roundtable. I spent the morning in an ETAB meeting, took a break for lunch, went back to an ETAB meeting, and then left in order to facilitate the Internship Director/Academic Faculty Roundtable. We talked about all kinds of things that affect both parties - interstate educational agreements, paid vs. unpaid internships, music skills, how to find internship sites, and lots of other things. It was a good conversation.
16. Dinner with old friends and a discussion with my conference roommate finished up the day.
17. When I woke up on Sunday, I looked at all of the presentations still ready to be presented and felt that getting home was a bit more important than learning, so I packed up the car and left.

Overall, this conference was a good one. I met lots of people, was challenged to think about music therapy in ways I had never conceived of before, and was allowed to share my views about things with people who appear to respect me. Now it's time to unpack, get organized, and start all over again on the work that I love to do.

Thanks for reading, readers! How was your week?