January 2023 NASA Update

January 2023 NASA Newsletter

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear NASA members,

I am thrilled to begin my term as President of NASA and to work with the dedicated members of the Executive Committee (EC) in service of our mission to inspire, educate, and support saxophonists throughout North America. With these three pillars in mind, my time in office will be dedicated to engagement, communication, and impact.

NASA’s members, and indeed those of us on the EC, have begun to demand more from the organization beyond conference hosting (no small feat in and of itself), and we are eager to respond to this call with increased opportunities for engagement. Engagement has come previously in the form of The Saxophone Symposium, and the Committee for Gender Equity (CGE) (formerly the Committee on the Status of Women) and the new Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Accessibility (CDEIBA), and the services initiated by these standing committees of NASA. The NASA Archive announced in this newsletter will prove another invaluable service and touchpoint for those looking to expand research on the saxophone, and we thank Matthew Younglove (Membership Director) and Stephen Page for their work to compile and digitize many years’ worth of material. The EC will continue exploring how best to serve NASA members through other engagement and professional development opportunities in the coming months, and how to continue to build on the robust history of biennial and regional conferences hosted by devoted members of our organization, beginning with the 2023 Biennial Conference in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, hosted by Dannel Espinoza at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Beginning with this newsletter, we will continue to work to improve communication throughout the NASA community. Keeping communication flowing is an ongoing challenge that each President and EC has faced, especially as technologies shift and change as they have so often in recent history. Thanks to the work of past NASA leadership, we are well positioned to evaluate effectiveness and efficiencies in our web, social, and email communications, and we have the outstanding support of Austin McFarland (Marketing Admin) and Alexia McLean (Social Media Outreach) to capitalize on our findings.

As noted in the Message from the Past President, NASA is fortunate enough to have been able to begin a modest endowment during the last EC cycle. Along with Nathan Mertens (Director of Marketing and Development), NASA leadership will continue to build relationships with industry contacts, saxophonists, and saxophone enthusiasts to increase our impact on the saxophone community. The annual hosting of the Archive is one example of impact, as are the recent commissions of works for saxophone by Roshanne Etezady, Jennifer Higdon, and Christian McBride. For those wishing to make an impact today, consider selecting the North American Saxophone Alliance as your charity when you shop AmazonSmile, a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as Amazon.com, and the added bonus that Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to NASA. Using AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way to support NASA’s mission to inspire, educate, and support saxophonists throughout North America every time you shop.*

Finally, acknowledgement and many thanks are owed to those who have taken on new roles or recently cycled off the EC: Andrew Allen will serve as President-Elect and Bobbi Thompson will serve as Secretary; Jess Voigt Page moved from President to Past President; Christopher Creviston cycled off after serving as President-Elect, President, and Past President; and Stephen Page cycled off after serving as Secretary. Thanks also go to those who continue EC service: Noa Even as Treasurer, Julia Nolan as Director of Scholarly Publications, and Gene Smith as Jazz Coordinator. Service to NASA is a labor of love—love for our instrument, our collegial collaborations, and our shared vision—and we thank you for all the time and love you’ve given over these past years.

All best wishes for an amazing 2023, and looking forward to seeing you all in Hattiesburg,

Kim Loeffert

President

North American Saxophone Alliance

*Currently, AmazonSmile is only available to those who shop from the United States.

COMING SOON…

Stephen Page and Matthew Younglove have been working hard at creating our new NASA Archive, which will be available to all members soon. The goal of the archive is to give digital access of past conference programs and publications to those with active membership. This project is an enormous undertaking, and we will roll it out in phases, but it is an exciting development for the future of our organization and saxophone scholarship.

MESSAGE FROM THE MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR

Dear NASA Membership:

Happy New Year! I hope you are all looking forward to the upcoming season of conferences (more of which can be learned about here). As many of you are aware, with the unfortunate but necessary cancellation of last year’s biennial conference, the NASA Executive Committee chose to grant a one-year no cost extension to all active NASA memberships (all who were active at that time). We are reaching the end of that one-year period, and I wanted to make sure all members are aware that renewals are returning, so be sure to renew your memberships prior to the upcoming conferences that you are planning to attend. While you can renew at the conferences, it greatly speeds up your check-in time if you renew in advance, so I recommend that option. You can always check the status of your NASA membership as well as your upcoming renewal date by logging into your account at saxophonealliance.org.

Kind regards,

Matthew Younglove

Membership Director

North American Saxophone Alliance

MESSAGE FROM THE BIENNIAL* CONFERENCE HOST

We have been working hard to get everything ready for the upcoming NASA Biennial* Conference at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, MS. Whether you are a returning friend of the school or you are visiting for the first time, we are excited to show you everything USM has to offer! The conference website (https://www.saxophonealliance.org/conference.asp ) is now live. For up-to-date conference information, including forums to connect with other attendees, please download the conference app, Whova ( https://whova.com/portal/natio1_202203 ) after registering. Register by February 15, 2023, to receive an early bird rate and the option to reserve a parking space at the conference center! As a big fan of these conferences, it is a huge honor to be hosting this year and we believe we have a phenomenal event in store for everyone. This would all be impossible without the hard work and dedication of the NASA conference programming committee chair, Shawna Pennock, and the rest of the committee. We have a saying here at Southern Miss, “To The Top!” By climbing to the top, we show determination and perseverance. We look forward to seeing you in Hattiesburg, MS for an unforgettable conference. #SMTTT!

Dannel Espinoza

Host

The University of Southern Mississippi

MESSAGE FROM THE PAST PRESIDENT

Dear NASA community,

I want to start my message with a sincere thank you to you all for your support during my term as President of our Organization. As I write this letter in reflection of my two years as President (and 2 as President-Elect), it’s hard to really sum everything up all at once. One thing that is certain, is that you all have made the last 4 years truly special – through your engagement, and passion, and love for our instrument.

The last 4 years have been, in short, a wild ride. It’s hard to believe that since our last in-person conference at Arizona State University in 2020, we’ve weathered a global pandemic, altered the ways we communicate, looked deeply at our DEI practices, strengthened ahead of upcoming challenges, and are preparing to return in person in March at the University of Southern Mississippi to celebrate finally being together again.

Being elected to serve you all as President has been an incredible honor, and I’m so amazed by everything we’ve accomplished together. I also couldn’t have imagined a more difficult time to be serving as President of an organization – through the COVID-19 pandemic, international turmoil, economic challenges and so much more, but we made it, and much of that comes from your faith and trust in those of us you elected to serve in office. And I am incredibly grateful to you all for that.

I’m also very proud of the work undertaken by our organization over these last four years, and I wanted to share some highlights, so we have a chance to really reflect and celebrate what has been accomplished! (in no particular order)

Formation of the NASA’s Endowment
Formation of the Committee on Gender Equity (CGE)
Formation of the Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (CDEIBA)
Transition to digitized version of The Saxophone Symposium
Multiple successful virtual conferences
New transparency in officer appointments though initiating application processes
Creation of new officer positions: Marketing Admin, Social Media Outreach, Director of Marketing and Development, Young Engagement Officer
Comprehensive review and update to our membership fees and structure
Commissioning Roshanne Etezady, Jennifer Higdon, and Christian McBride
Initiation of NASA Digital archive of past publications for all NASA members to access

Through these and many other initiatives (both behind the scenes and publicly), we have accomplished something quite remarkable – we are entering a post-pandemic world in a stronger position than we entered. We are more transparent than ever before, more connected, more financially secure, and we also have the ability to continue to build from a place of strength and opportunity.

I want to offer a thank you to everyone who has worked so diligently and passionately to serve our organization over the last 4 years. Some members and groups I wish to mention specifically include: Past Executive Committee – Christopher Creviston, Griffin Campbell, Nathan Bogert, Stephen Page, Steven Banks, Brad Leali, Current Executive Committee - Kim Goddard Loeffert, Noa Even, Andrew Allen, Bobbi Thompson, Julia Nolan, Gene Smith, Programming Committee Chair - Shawna Pennock, Marketing and Development Director - Nathan Mertens, Membership Director - Matthew Younglove, Social Media Outreach - Alexia McLean, Marketing Admin - Austin McFarland, Saxophone Symposium team, NASA Region Directors, Conference Committee members, Programming Committee members, Conference Hosts, CGE and CDEIBA Committee members, Competition Committee members, and the entire NASA membership.

I’m incredibly excited to continue to support Kim Goddard Loeffert as she leads NASA as President for the next two years, alongside the incoming and existing Executive Committee, and I’m confident that where NASA is today will serve as a Launchpad for many incredible things to come.

Thank you,

Jess Voigt Page

About NASA

The North American Saxophone Alliance is an organization made up of individuals who share a common interest in the saxophone. Members include professional performers, university professors, public school teachers, students of all levels, and others who have an interest in the saxophone. In addition to the Alliance's emphasis on disseminating information concerning the saxophone, the organization also works to provide opportunities for its members to make music, fostering fellowship among saxophone enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds.

North American Saxophone Alliance