Scheduling/Coordinating a MCSMA Solo Festival


Responsibilities of the Solo Festival Coordinator Attend all Executive Council and General Membership meetings. Serve as a member of the selection committee for band, orchestra and choir. Selection is done in January, on Saturday evening following the solo festivals. In addition you may need to assist the county treasurer in printing "invoice labels" following selection committee. Prepare all necessary forms for solo festival. Coordinate solo festival registration information with President for inclusion in the October newsletter. Coordinate adjudicator needs with Assignor of Adjudicators. Send final letter to adjudicators with starting times, room assignments, hotel information, and any necessary maps. Maintain email communication with all teachers attending solo festival. Advise host schools as to needs for parent help, room needs, percussion equipment, stands, pianos, refreshments, and meals for adjudicators Attend solo festival. Enter data into the database for the selection meetings. Notify the Treasurer how the stipend for coordinator and assistants is to be split.
MONROE COUNTY Solo Festival TIMELINE September 1. Do An inventory of scoresheets that are left from the year before. 2. Write (& revise) Information letter which goes out with the mcsma newsletter to the county. 3. Check solo registration fees... Correct dates for the festivals if necessary. 4. Double check on SITES for each of the solo festivals. 5. Contact the MCSMA “ASSIGNOR OF ADJUDICATORS” to make certain that initial invitations are sent out to judges. Invite the same amount of judges which were used the year before. October 1. Attend county meeting. Have executive board double-check registration forms and the information letter. 2. Check to make sure that solochair.com (or other registration site) is up and running. Check also to make sure that correct instruments are "checked" for your festival. Double check registration deadline. Make certain that everyone's mcsma deadlines are consistent on solochair. 3. If you will be doing the schedule on paper... as Bill Baldwin does, copy blank scheduling forms. If you will be using solochair to schedule your festival, skip this last step. 4. Send original MCSMA Solo & Ensemble SCORESHEETS to BOCES for printing. Have them printed on NCR forms (2 copies). Each form MUST have All-County Auditon Y___ N____ on the form!! Usually Bill Baldwin does this for all three (elem, jr.high, and sr.high festivals). “Guesstimate” the number of forms needed by checking: a) the total number scoresheets needed the previous year, b) find out what’s leftover from the previous year, & c) guess a bit high. November Registration has been done online now for several years. Assuming that this continues, regularly check solochair.com and export the data to your computer for safety sake. Checks will begin to arrive in early November. BE PREPARED for this !! Use an excel form from the treasurer to record the checks, the check number, the amount, the teacher, and school. All totaled, registration fees come will add up to several thousand dollars. This is an important job, and accuracy is a must. Keep the checks in a secure location, until you have enough to make a first deposit with the MCSMA treasurer. Consider giving him what you have as soon as possible... late November?! If you are using solochair.com, you will also need to mark each teacher "paid" as their checks come in. If you are using your own database program to handle all of the information that teachers enter on solochair.com, make certain that you are practiced in the art of "importing" the text file that solochair will give you. November: The Monday before Thanksgiving is usually the deadline for registration online. Please note that in a “normal” year, as many as a third of the participants will be registered by their teachers in the final week! In other words, don’t think you’re close to being done when you get close to the deadline. During this time, you will no doubt be receiving emails from music teachers requesting a DIFFERENT PREFERRED time for their students. Decide early on how you are going to handle these requests. The simplest way for me was to simply log onto solochair, and edit this info IMMEDIATELY when you receive the request. Another way would be to create a list, and do all of the editing online prior to scheduling. It is always appreciated when you respond to the teachers email... a simple "Got your request, and I've made the change on solochair" is much appreciated by them! Our goal at this point is to make a schedule, and send out the schedules to directors prior to the holiday vacation. 1. In order for the actual scheduling to begin, we must first know the following things (for each level seperately; elem, jr, sr.): a) How many NYSSMA level 1-4 auditions on each instrument? b) How many NYSSMA level 5&6 auditions on each instrument? c) How many students not auditioning for all-county on each instrument? d) How many accompanied solos on each instrument? e) How many unaccompanied solos on each instrument? All of the above information is very easily obtained from the database. The way that I count each category is to use the database to print out a list, pg21 1) alphabetized by instrument 2) in order of NYSSMA grade level 1.... 6 3) alphabetized by audition (Y or N) and finally, 4) alphabetized by accomanist (name). This makes counting each sub-category very easy. I simply did the counting, and then entered the numbers on the form that is included in the booklet. 2. Once we know the numbers above, we can now figure out how many rooms will be necessary for the festival. Within each category (Brass, WW, Perc, Strings, etc), Multiply the total number of 1-4 solos X 10 for the total number of minutes required of adjudication. Multiply the total number of 5&6 solos X 15 for the total number of minutes required of adjudication. Percussion solos level 1&2 get 10 minutes each, with levels 3-6 getting 15 minutes each. Do the necessary math here also. ' MONROE COUNTY Solo Festival TIMELINE cont’d November: 2. Once we know the numbers above, we can then set up a “skeleton” room” form, where we begin to decide which instrument(s) and level(s) will make up a room.




	Using the small “return address size” labels makes constructing the schedule quite easy. The labels used here were: AVERY 6467 White Removablle “Multi-Purpose Labels”Removable is a must! There are essentially three ways to go at this stage: 1. Easiest to build the schedule (but toughest to enter into the computer) a. “Slap ‘em down” as fast as you can, making sure to honor REQUESTED TIME whenever possible, and be careful to get the right instruments in the right room. b. Enter times into the computer directly from the schedule. This tends to be slow, as you have to do a “search” for each individual file, and you have to read off of a bulky schedule. 2. Next best way: a. You “slap ‘em on”, while a partner (or you) writes down the scheduled time on the original registration form. b. Then, after the schedule is built, you simply enter them into your database directly from the registration forms. This goes faster than above, because you can enter them in registration order. 3. Perhaps the best way; a. You “slap ‘em on”, while a computer saavy colleague enters them DIRECTLY into the computer data base ! This saves ALL hand writing, and when the schedule is built, so is your database schedule !

		You know you’re getting close to the festival when you’re stuffing manila file folders for the judges ! Don’t wait until the festival draws near to do this! As SOON as you have your schedule done, have students count the number of solos/ levels in each room, and have them stuff the folders! This could actually be done WEEKS in advance of the festival. Keep an eye out for any changes you make... you may need to add some extra forms to a folder to accommodate added ensembles, etc. In each judges manila file folder, you should place: 1. At least 2 copies of the room schedule. (3 or 4 doesn’t hurt) 2. All necessary score sheets. 3. Adjudicator’s Expense Form. 4. Tie Breaker Sheets. 5. Room Monitor Instructions. 6. Pre-Printed Labels for each student performing in the room, preferably in chronological order. 7. Any last minute changes/cancellations that were made AFTER the room schedules were printed.