Leaders.
Honorees.
Story.
Fine Arts are for Everyone
TFAA provides a powerful platform for Fine Arts leaders.
We provide advocacy, training, and resources to transform schools into vibrant communities of learners and artists.
TFAA History
Past President's Message
To the TFAA Membership:
I want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors for the last four years. It has been a time of monumental change for our organization. TFAA has quickly evolved into a more inclusive, representative group of fine arts leaders who now advocate for all Texas children in every fine arts discipline.
As the 2023-24 President, I led the Board to institute many of the logistical supports required by the organization’s name change from TMAC to TFAA at the 2022 Fall Retreat. Some of those actions included filing for a new corporate name with the Texas Secretary of State and the IRS, opening a new bank account, changing the name and format of our Fall Conference, expanding programming at the summer music conventions, recruiting a record number of corporate sponsors, and designing an entirely new website. The Board also hired a new Executive Secretary, Peter Warshaw, in July 2023.
I believe I am leaving the organization in even better shape than when I joined the Board in 2021. Moreover, the positive changes that the current Board, under President Gamez’s tenure, are implementing will take TFAA to the next level of statewide and national leadership in fine arts education and administration. I am proud of the work we’ve accomplished together. The future of fine arts education looks bright!
Regards,
Jim Drew
TFAA PAST PRESIDENTS
TFAA PAST OUTSTANDING ADMINISTRATORS
TFAA Beginnings
In the early 1970s a small group of music supervisors from the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex met together periodically to share ideas and help each other with mutual related music concerns. This group began to expand and so we moved our meetings to Crystal’s Pizza restaurant in Irving and found our meetings becoming more beneficial to each other. The meetings remained informal with no set agenda and no officers; the only constant was that I arranged the site and sent a reminder letter each month to the group. We all looked forward to our monthly meeting and always left the meetings with new ideas and a refreshed sense of purpose in our work.
As the group enlarged in our area and across the state, we felt it would be beneficial to have music administration opportunities specifically targeting our work-related concerns at the TMEA conventions and summer meetings. The first TMAC officers were elected in February, 1983 at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention in San Antonio. The following people were elected as the charter officers of the TMAC organization: President R.J. (Dick) Winters, Music Coordinator for the Plano Independent School District; Vice President Woody Schober, Director of Music, Irving ISD; and Secretary-Treasurer Ken Howard, Music Supervisor, Waco ISD. Following the election of officers, meetings and workshops were scheduled at TMEA and at the summer conventions. These meetings addressed various topics including budget, curriculum, personnel, public relations, planning and organization, etc.
As a music educator who spent 30 years in music administration, I was grateful for the help and assistance I received as a member of TMAC and applaud those now who are continuing to provide this worthwhile organization for the continued advancement of music education in our state.
~ Woody Schober
