FROM SUPERVISORS TO COMPREHENSIVE SUPPORT For over a century, the New Jersey Music Educators Association has been an indispensable professional organization for music educators across the Garden State. As a proud state affiliate of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), NJMEA plays a critical role in local advocacy for music programs and teachers, complementing NAfME’s federal advocacy efforts. “We started as the New Jersey Music Supervisors Association in conjunction with the State Teachers Union, NJEA, and over the years we developed into a separate organization,” explains Executive Director Bill McDevitt. Evolving beyond its origins, NJMEA exists now as an autonomous, multifaceted organization dedicated to providing essential resources, professional development, and performance opportunities for students. The association’s centennial anniversary, marked in 2023, was celebrated through a special feature in their quarterly magazine, which offers articles on pedagogy, research, and other topics relevant to music educators. However, longevity like this can only be achieved through continuous inspection and improvement, which NJMEA excels at. “We started to look at our organization about 15 years ago, and we saw that its membership didn’t reflect the makeup of the teachers and students in the state,” McDevitt states, emphasizing that the association’s introspection was driven by a desire to better serve the diverse makeup of teachers and students across the state. “We didn’t want to be an elite organization,” McDevitt says. This humble desire led to the development of a notfor-profit foundation aimed at supporting students from school districts where financial difficulties 4 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 06, ISSUE 06
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