Leave the campground cleaner than you found it. (Guenter)

Happy New Year! Another year has rolled around offering an opportunity for reflection and looking ahead. What  about NAEA and you as a NAEA member?

The mission of NAEA is to promote art education through professional development, service, advancement of knowledge, and leadership. These are important and very worthy intentions and they cannot be accomplished by only a few. It takes all of us to be this association and all of us to keep it a thriving, vital part of our educational experiences. NAEA is more than our annual convention, more than the NAEA newsletter, more than this newly updated web site. It is each and everyone one of us moving forward with the above purpose in mind, making connections with each other, and pitching in when help is needed. 
     
There are two sayings from my childhood that continually creep into my daily work. The first is, "Many hands make light work." With the current budget problems facing our schools and teachers, we need to work together. The tight budget impacts how many of our members are able to participate in our annual state conferences, our national convention and share ideas and concerns. The tight budget causes us to become innovative in ways we had not previously considered. The tight budget will influence decisions that are made by the NAEA leadership and state councils. We need to share what we are doing and what is working. We need to work together at all levels for the good of the association.  

The second saying is, "Leave the campground cleaner than you found it." (I often used this expression with my high school art students in Pennsylvania. They would often tease me as they cleaned up the art room, but I am here to say that my students were responsible for the upkeep of that art room and they did it well.) You do your work and you do it well.  Keep it up and keep looking for good connections and ways to make situations better than they are now. Realize that as your colleague, I do appreciate the work you are doing with your students each and every day. I appreciate how you deal with the range of conditions and support you have for your programs. I appreciate how you want the best for your students. And I appreciate your enthusiasm and desire to keep learning new things as we gather each year for our annual convention. NAEA would be nothing if were not for what each and every one of you do on a daily basis. So continue your good work with your students and consider how you might contribute what you are gaining from your experience with NAEA.