Oh My, AMTA...

I will not be attending the inaugural AMTA symposium. I want you to know this from the get go. I have looked at the program and just can't justify spending the money to sit through any of those topics. I did hope that there would be something that would be valuable to me, in my role as clinician and clinical trainer, but it just doesn't seem to be so. I will be pursuing my remaining CMTEs for this cycle through other formats.

So, here's my opinion about this symposium...

First, it seems that we are trying really hard to give people some information but not enough to really let us know what all these "conversations" are going to be about. There are going to be many different conversations over the course of the four days. 

Second, my schedule does not easily accommodate a Sunday-Wednesday conference.

Lastly, this is a way to appease some of the voices out there, but it does not go far enough for me. How were presenters chosen? Who developed the topics? What do these topics have to do with music therapy? Why are most of the faces on the website still older, white women? Why wasn't the membership invited to provide topics and suggestions? AMTA had asked for presentation ideas for the conference that was canceled - why didn't they look at those proposals to include in this experiment?

Now, having said all that, here are the good things that I see about this inaugural AMTA symposium.

The sliding scale is interesting. My interns and I got into a discussion about this scale and how guilt plays a part in how you register. I wonder if the membership will ever hear how many people registered in each category. Probably not, but you never know. I would have a problem with automatically paying the lowest category - I may have some financial struggles, but they are milder than those of others in this profession. I would also have a problem paying the highest category - everyone is having some financial changes at the moment. I just wonder why we didn't just do the $50 registration with an option to "sponsor" others. I would have been more likely to pay $100 if I knew that my registration would assist another music therapist to attend without having to pay anything. The opportunity to select your own payment is a bit of progress, but I hope that we will get to see the thinking behind all of this. 

We are at least trying something new. That is HUGE for AMTA! It is so interesting to see that this is how we have decided to move forward. (Please note that I am using the royal "we" here. I have not been any part of any sort of discussion or planning for this association. I am writing this to acknowledge that I am a music therapist who is a member of AMTA by my use of the word "we" more than anything else. If I don't take ownership, then I am not demonstrating my dedication to the organization that I have to be part of in order to do part of my job.) So, we are trying something that we have never considered before.

Here are the things that I am wondering...

Are we going to be offering symposia more often than just once per year? Will there be specific topics? I would be happy to attend a symposium that focused on clinical training or on working with specific clients. Who is selecting presenters? Is it the Continuing Education committee? Is there a reason the selection process hasn't been shared with membership? Why isn't the internship director/supervisor training being offered as part of this symposium?

So many questions.