SMEI Chairperson’s Report for AGM 4th November 2023
Dr Gwen Moore, Chair,
SMEI Colleagues, friends and distinguished guests, I am delighted to welcome you to our 11th Annual Conference hosted by the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the School of Education at Trinity College Dublin. First I want to thank the all at the RIAM and TCD for graciously hosting the conference. Thank you in particular to Susan McCormick, Marita Kerin, Deborah Kelleher, Prof Carmel O’Sullivan and to all at the Academy and Trinity who have assisted us in organising such a comprehensive programme and made us feel so welcome. We are delighted to welcome Prof Ian Robertson and Prof Andrea Creech this year and on your behalf, I want to thank them for such provocative keynote presentations.
This year we began the process of developing a brand new Strategic Plan for SMEI. Guided by our mission and vision, we collectively drew up 5 core values that we want to underpin our work. They are: 1. Community 2. Belonging 3. Partnership 4. Inclusion 5. Advocacy We believe that the values of SMEI will be enabled with particular key goals and so we will aim to: ● Build a community of music educators through practice and/or research ● Foster a sense of belonging among members ● Seek partnerships and relationships with other music advocacy bodies ● Foster inclusion in music education ● Advocate for music education at national and international levels We plan to finalise key objectives for each of these in the coming months and plan to share these with our members for feedback before launching our Strategic Plan in 2024.
We have also had an active role within the International Society for Music Education (ISME). As you may already know, I am a member of the board and I chair the publications committee. I would encourage you to consider submitting a book review or a proposal for a book or article to IJME. SMEI is a member of ISME’s Council of Professional Associations (COPA) and June Robbins represented us at an ISME online caf on 26-Sep-2023 and the session was facilitated by ISME President-Elect Prof. Patricia González-Moreno who also serves as CoPA Chair with many members from around the globe.
Finally, I am pleased to report that we have become members of The Wheel and this will enable us to plan our activities as a society with charitable status. Of particular significance has been our decision to award another honorary membership to an individual who has demonstrated a life-long commitment to music education. It was wonderful to present this award to Gearóid Grant and thank you to Gearóid for graciously accepting the award.
The next year for SMEI will be another busy year as we look forward to more collaboration, innovation and advocacy in music education. Please let us know if you wish to collaborate with us for an event or indeed feed into the work we do to serve our members. I look forward to meeting you again soon and hope that we continue to have many fruitful discussions.
Dr Gwen Moore, Chair, SMEI 4th November 2023
