No TME Tuesday Post Today - Rant Ahead

It is Tuesday, the day I usually spend talking a bit about what I do when I am designing the things that I do with my clients - what I call Therapeutic Music Experiences (TMEs). Today, though, I feel the need to write about something else.

Last evening, I attended a Zoom meeting for internship directors and academic faculty members. I am not sure who was on the invitation list, but I think there were a bit more academic faculty than IDs - not many, but skewed towards faculty a bit. This meeting was called by the Council Coordinator for Education and Clinical Training, and we gathered to hear about what is going on with AMTA and were supposed to be able to ask questions about both education and clinical training. That part of the meeting took about four minutes. We were reassured that these systems are going to continue as they are at this time at this moment.

Okay. That was not extremely reassuring, but at least we got some information about who to contact if there were any issues in this time of transition.

After that, the same old stuff started to come up.

Now, I have consciously stepped away from the national organization since 2015 for various and sundry reasons that are completely my own - as are ALL THE OPINIONS OFFERED IN THIS BLOG POST TODAY. I am a member for a couple of reasons. First, I feel that it is a professional obligation to be a member in my professional organization. Second, I enjoy being a music therapy internship director, so I have to be a member of AMTA. I used to be very involved in some of the inner workings of AMTA, so I have an idea of what some of the things that go on behind the scenes entail.

One of the things that I have realized about my fellow AMTA members is that we are an opinionated bunch of humans. We tend to be very egocentric when it comes to our organization. All of these things that are happening with AMTA right now are only our problems, and we demand that AMTA drop everything to deal with whatever concerns we each have at any given moment. (Please note that I am using the royal we at this moment.) 

Some of the questions that were asked were to be expected. How did our organization get to this state? How are we paying for consultants? Were other stakeholders informed about the changes that we are undergoing? Why is this happening now? Other questions were not relevant to education or clinical training. There was lots of talk about money and requests for transparency of financial structures. We heard that AMTA had cash flow issues for many years prior to this situation and that we have finally reached critical mass.

I asked if we were the only organization in the throes of this type of situation. The answer appeared to be "no." This leads me to think that there are some outside influences at work here - something like a global pandemic, lack of money due to the economy and less job stability, societal expectations that the world was not prepared for a couple of years ago, and other things that have occurred to the world at large - not just to music therapists.

I have been saying this for a long time - we are overdue for this type of organizational overhaul. I feel that the same old demands are being made - things that are demanded but not defined. "We want change." When you start to ask, what changes? When will you know we have transformed into something new?" "What do you want from AMTA that you are not getting at the moment?" When you start to delve into these questions, it seems that there are no clear answers. People are unhappy with what is happening in AMTA, but they do not seem to have any clear action steps 

The thing that emerged from this meeting was that our AMTA leadership is not sure what is going to happen in the next six months. They are trying hard to be transparent about what is going on, but they don't know. There are lots of things that they cannot offer any sort of guidance because they are not sure. There were lots of moments when there were no answers to the questions being asked for a variety of reasons, but most of the things that left unanswered were things that no one can really answer.

How can anyone see into the future? There were no concrete action steps offered by the audience. The Board members who were present apologized for the actions of other Board members who made decisions years and years ago. The present Board members were not part of those decisions other than the role we all play as members. This Board, though, is actively addressing the systemic issues that have been part of our organization for a very long time. I appreciate their efforts and dedication to solving issues that they inherited rather than created.

Some things could have been answered. People on the call asked things like, "Where does the money from donations and university fees and membership dues go?" There was lots of talk about staff salaries that are not going to be answered because that sort of stuff is not within the purview of the Board of Directors. There are some things that are part of our organization structure that are not part of the Board's job. They are not under the control of members. This is part of the organizational structure that we selected here in the US - that of 501c(3) status. There seems to be a real disconnect between what members demand and what our organization is legally able to do for us as members.

One of my biggest frustrations with membership in the past several years has been a focus on societal identifiers that are not part of AMTA's mission or focus and the demands that are made by small groups of very loud and vocal subsets of music therapists that seem to expect special treatment by AMTA. I think that many of these subsets do not realize that special treatment for one group means that all groups may request the same special treatment if we are to keep our not-for-profit status in the States. This may be confusing, but I bet that there would be many people very upset if a group, "Music Therapists Who Believe That Trump is Everything" (totally hypothetical, of course), demanded a closed meeting paid for by membership dues and conference fees. If you allow one group to be special, then you have to allow all groups to be special whether you think the focus of groups is right or wrong. 

Again, in my opinion, many of the few action steps that are offered by some of the vocal subgroups of music therapists are not things that AMTA can change. AMTA cannot regulate university tuition fees. That is something that is decided by each university. AMTA cannot demand internship stipends from facilities. AMTA cannot require that university programs accept students with diverse backgrounds. AMTA cannot dictate what facilities will pay music therapists. 

THAT IS NOT THE ROLE OF AMTA! 

It can't be the role of AMTA. How could AMTA even start to do those things? How? That is the question that keeps coming up for me? How would AMTA even start to require these types of changes from institutions that are independent of our organization and profession?

This doesn't mean that we don't try to get to these issues, but AMTA is not the vehicle for changes in our larger societies.

I want to thank the Board of Directors for communicating. I want to thank them for making more of an effort to tell us and meet with groups of interested people than they have done in the past. I want to thank them for taking on this difficult situation and for listening. I want to thank the Board for their continuing promise to keep us informed of what they can talk to us about. I am hoping that they will follow through on those promises.

To get myself in a more appropriate work frame of mind - where no one has any idea what is happening and NO ONE CARES - I want to focus a bit on what I want AMTA to be in the near future.

• I want an AMTA where we clearly delineate where specific issues fall under our mission statement. 
• I want an AMTA that focuses on the mission that we decide on and is able to explain what does not fall under our mission or organizational structure.
• I want an AMTA that clearly demonstrates benefits to membership to young professionals, old professionals (like me), and all professionals in between.
• I want an AMTA website where you can find things quickly.
• I want an AMTA that communicates with members more clearly and more often.
• I want an AMTA that continues to help me with clinical training issues when I have them.
• I want an AMTA that continues to put the needs and concerns of music therapists first, advocating for us on a national and state level.
• I want an AMTA that will allow me to share my contrary opinions without fear of retribution or name calling or petty responses.
• I want an AMTA where we agree to listen to each other with as much rational thought as possible.
• I want an AMTA where we recognize what is and what is not part of the organization's responsibility to us and to others.
• I want an AMTA where we have clear action steps that are tied to our mission. I want to know what we as a collective think will signify that we have evolved into an organization that is an exemplar of professional associations. 

Thank you for reading this.