Pedagogy Study Group Meeting at the
Annual Meeting of the
American Musicological Society
Los Angeles, CA
4 November 2006

In Attendance: Matt Baumer, Cynthia Beard, James Briscoe, J. Peter Burkholder, Deanna Bush, Tony Bushard, Mark Clague, Alice Clark, Jim Davis, Sarah Day-O'Connell, Daniel DiCenso, Patrick Fairfield , Jessie Fillerup, chair; Charles Freeman, Jean Hellner, Jeff Meyer, Katrina Mitchell, Mary Natvig, John Snyder, Todd Sullivan, and Patrick Warfield, secretary-treasurer

Minutes:

Jessie opened the meeting at 12:04 with a welcome and the announcement that the Pedagogy Study Group had received official recognition from the AMS. A call was made to approve the minutes from the 2005 meeting in Washington DC. The motion for approval came from Peter Burkholder and the minutes were approved by a unanimous vote. Jessie requested someone other than herself preside of the election of officers, as she was in the running. John Snyder volunteered and oversaw the election for the offices of president and secretary-treasurer. Those in attendance held ballots containing the candidates of Linda Austern and Jessie Fillerup for president and Katrina Mitchell and Patrick Warfield for Secretary-Treasurer. After a reading of the ballot, a call was issued for nominations from the floor. James Briscoe moved to close nominations for president and Jim Davis seconded the motion. It was moved by Peter Burkholder to close nominations for secretary-treasurer and seconded by Charles Freeman. Alice Clark asked if the candidates could introduce themselves and say a few words. Peter Burkholder spoke for Linda Austern. Jessie, Katrina, and Patrick each spoke in turn. After the vote, the ballots were collected and tallied by John Snyder.

The By-Laws of the Pedagogy Study Group were reviewed by those in attendance and unanimously approved. Jessie thanked Alice Clark, Peter Burkholder, and James Briscoe for their service on the Letter of Recognition/Mission Statement/By-Laws committee and dissolved the committee.

Matt Baumer then spoke about the Poster Session the PSG was hosting at this year's annual meeting. He referred to his fellow committee members for the session, Patrick Warfield and Vicki Stroeher, and spoke a little about each entry in this year's session. All were pleased at such commendable presenters and the response the first poster session received. He mentioned that the group had tried to join with SMT for the session, but was not accepted. Jessie thanked the committee for their service. Jessie then asked for volunteers to serve on the program committee for the poster session at next year's meeting. Those serving are Patrick Fairfield, Deanna Bush, and Jeff Meyer.

Next the mission statement was considered by the group. Matt Baumer moved to accept it as written. Mary Natvig seconded. The motion carried.

Mary Natvig then spoke about Teaching Music History Day. She explained what the event is and made note that it was not held this fall. She mentioned that there was a call for the session to be held at the Midwest Chapter meeting of AMS. She also stressed the need to get the College Music Society involved. She stated that Michael Strasser is interested in hosting the event.

Patrick Fairfield gave a very instructive demonstration of the PSG website and encouraged everyone to register in order to read and post messages. He explained the design and convenience of the site and how to add information. He mentioned that with the current set up, suggestions of resources will go through to the resource page automatically. Links can also be deleted easily. He described how the information is set up with one table for links and one table for resource areas.

Patrick went on to say that the forum is database-driven and could be run through a Google or Yahoo! group; people seem to be familiar with those. He raised pertinent questions for the site such as what exactly should be on it and how should it be organized?; what is the best way to organize the content?; do we want to duplicate information on the AMS website?; and how should the resources be listed?

Matt asked how Patrick was running the site, which brought up the issue of not wanting to strain the resources on the AMS website, but also that Patrick's company probably couldn't keep running it. Patrick did comment that he, of course, has much more control over the site running it through his company. Jessie commented that Robert Judd did not approve to put the link to the PSG website directly on the AMS homepage.

Alice noted the problem of citing a webpage when the location "url" is not where the web page is. Patrick confirmed that problems can occur when one is directed to two or three sites to get to the desired information. He further noted that, for back up purposes, the site should be "zipped up" on a disk and sent to the president.

The group thanked Patrick for his outstanding work in getting the website up and running and for the thoughtful consideration paid to its format.

Attention then turned to the 2007 annual meeting to be held in Quebec City on 1-4 November, 2007. Discussion took place as to the best time for PSG to hold its meeting. Jessie mentioned that the noon hour on Friday or Saturday might be best. Peter commented that the AMS council will probably meet at noon on Saturday. Jim Davis noted that the Master Teacher Session, sponsored by the Committee on Career Related Issues, could use the "other hour" (from 12:00-2:00) on Friday, whichever the PSG does not use. It was also suggested that the meeting time might move from year to year.

Matt asked why the poster session was only one hour at this year's meeting. Jessie replied that AMS gave us the time and room availability, but perhaps we could explore other options. Alice suggested targeting the exhibit traffic by holding the next poster session later in the day, such as from 5:00-6:00.

Jessie opened the discussion for things the group might like to do at the 2007 meeting. She suggested a possible roundtable, a mini-conference (possibly on using technology in the classroom), and continuing the poster session. Mary put forward the idea of how to teach large lectures and looking at different learning styles. Daniel DiCenso recommend having a speaker "staff" after the poster session and Patrick Fairfield suggested looking at CVs, syllabi, and lesson plans, perhaps having graduate students bring in what they are working with and have it critiqued. He stated that items could be submitted anonymously and then critiqued or the discussion could take place one-on-one. Alice mentioned that "break out" sessions could also take place after presentations. Jessie remanded the ideas to the program committee.

Jim Davis confirmed information that there would be no conflict with the Master Teacher Session held on Friday at next year's conference.

John Snyder announced the results of the officer election. Jessie Fillerup was elected president and Patrick Warfield was elected secretary-treasurer. After congratulating the new officers, the meeting adjourned at 12:35.