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Passages is next Saturday, October 25th! The schedule will be up later this weekend, but in the meantime, check out some of the feedback Passages received from last year's conference!
It would be great if you could provide free parking...
Tell me about it. I had to go feed the meter every 2 hours, too. We did make an attempt to get parking vouchers for the Alewife T station garage, but we were unable to do so.
You can look at it like this:
Cost of parking in Lesley’s back parking lot all day: $30.
Cost of feeding the meter on the street every two hours from 9-5: $8.
Cost of a City of Cambridge parking ticket if you’re late feeding the meter: $20
Cost of parking at Alewife and taking the T two stops to Porter Square: $9
Cost of not having to run every two hours to the meter, not contributing to emissions on an already busy city street and not having to search for on-street parking: priceless.
How about providing lunch?
We provide A LOT of fairly substantial snacks. We don’t have the budget to provide a full lunch to everyone, but if you really can’t afford lunch, we don’t mind you eating lots of snacks instead. We stagger what we put out through the day so that everyone has a chance to get something, so if you’re patient, by the end of the day we’ve probably hit all of the food groups. ;-) We’ll also make an attempt this year to remember to provide plain cold water along with all the other beverages.
The main room is also open throughout the lunch hour. You’re welcome to bring your lunch and hang out there. We even leave instruments out so you can jam at that time!
The conference was too long/too short.
Well, if we get complaints on both sides, it must be just right!
We’re very limited in how many rooms we’re given throughout the day, so we can’t schedule more sessions at each time to make the day shorter. Also, we want each session to be well attended- nothing feels worse to a presenter than when only a couple of people come to their session (and I know from experience!). Our goal is to give everyone who submits a presentation the chance to present it (more on that later). So, we can’t really make the day shorter. You’re of course welcome to leave early, but you miss out on some great presentations that way. That’s also why you had to be present to win the iPod nano last year!
As for longer... well, there’s always the NER conference in the spring, as well as the national conference later in the fall.
The Africa presentation was AWESOME.
Yes, it sure was! Thanks to those who presented!
What’s a plenary session?
Each year for the last 4 years or so, a “plenary session” has been offered. “Plenary session” simply means that no other session is offered at that time, so the expectation is that all conference attendees will attend this. Each year, the topic is different, and our goal is that it be something that most people would find helpful or interesting. In the past, there have been workshops on topics such as supervision and resource sharing. We’re absolutely open to other suggestions for the plenary session topic; feel free to email us with one.
It would be nice to see more diversity from the schools attending.
The New England Region of the AMTA is unique from other AMTA regions in part because it is so geographically small. All three schools in the region, Anna Maria College, Berklee College of Music, and Lesley University, had students in attendance, students who helped with the planning, and students who either opened or closed the conference, or who were part of the plenary session. We’re open to inviting students from other schools who may be in related programs or who are just interested in music therapy. If you have a suggestion for a program you think should be invited, please send us an email and let us know.
How about a session that tells more about what music therapy is for non-music therapists?
That’s a good idea. It would probably be a nice presentation for a music therapy student to do, since it’s a topic you’ll present over and over again in your career as you expand your practice to clients and facilities that may not have heard of music therapy before. We’ll look into how we might best be able to provide this for next year.
How about more clinical guitar and piano workshops?
We’d love to offer ‘em, so if you’re looking for a topic to present next year, here’s your opportunity. We were thrilled to be able to offer the ones we had last year, and I hope other students and new professionals with mad skillz on piano and guitar will offer them. Stay tuned to see what will be offered this year!
Got another question/topic/suggestion you’d like addressed? Drop us an email!
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