Hello! Hello! And happy Friday to all!Ahhhh! I can't BELIEVE that it's almost Halloween!! How did THAT happen?? It seems like just yesterday that I began my wonderful career here with MENC (last February), and now winter is quickly approaching! (I love winter by the way, I'm very excited for it, as did the previous Director of Government Relations, ironically enough!). Anyways, it's safe to say that MENC is buzzing with pre-Halloween spookiness, and the Government Relations & Outreach Department is one of the departments charged with making this year's MENC Halloween social a roaring success. A small note: I am EXTREMELY intimidated by the Halloween social. I have been told by everyone and their cat that it is the BIGGEST social of the year, and that if I screw it up in even the SLIGHTEST way, my head will be boiled in a cauldron (or some other clever Halloween reference). In any event, we're all doing our best to get ready, and we're very excited!
In other news... last week I attended the very exciting High School Teaching for the 21st Century policy conference put on by the Alliance for Excellent Education, in downtown Washington, D.C. It was a REALLY cool experience with speaker panels featuring a variety of education and policy experts, Capitol Hill staffers (my former life revisited... tear!), and even a couple of members of Congress on hand during an evening reception!! You'll be able to read more about the conference and what was discussed there in this month's upcoming MENC Legislative Memo (shameless plug!).
SKJ and HLS have been hard at work on some exciting new changes to MENC's web site content (stay tuned for more on that!), and have been a huge help with a number of other important MENC legislative and advocacy initiatives. Also, make sure to check out SKJ's work in the latest edition of the MusicFriends newsletter (coming soon!) - there's some really great stuff in there this month!!
Well, I guess that's all for now... I hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend! Personally, I've started to have this STRANGE reoccurring nightmare involving Harley turning REALLY evil on Halloween night and sneaking into my bedroom to drink my blood (I know, I know, I've clearly got some unresolved issues...). I do love Harley though, so I'm inclined to think that these dreams are just my paranoia acting up... perhaps I need to lay off the caffeine before bed. Until next time... take care everyone!!
And now... here are the Friday...
"Government Relations & Outreach Department Album Picks of the Week!!!"
SKJ: Bach - Violin Concertos; Double Concerto; Concerto for Violin & Oboe
HLS: Hanson - Middle of Nowhere
CBLW: Radiohead - In Rainbows
