OMEA: Backstage Pass
OMEA: Backstage Pass takes you behind the curtain of the Ohio Music Education Association — the second-largest music education association in the country. Hosted by Executive Director Jay Wardeska, each episode features conversations with the people shaping music education across Ohio, from advocacy and policy to the day-to-day work of supporting music teachers and students statewide. New episodes every two weeks.
OMEA: Backstage Pass
Backstage of the TRIAD
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Episode 2 features an interview with OMEA Editor of TRIAD Stephanie Bonitz. Stephanie and Executive Director Jay Wardeska discuss, OMEA Leadership, TRIAD content and how to submit articles, and OMEA's new bi-weekly blog called "TRIADTonic."
Welcome to season two, episode two of OMIA Backstage Pass. Did you know that OMIA annually publishes one of the leading music education research journals called Contributions to Music Education, publishes a quarterly membership-driven digital magazine called The Triad, and now a bi-weekly blog called the Triad Tonic. I am OMEA Executive Director Jay Wardeska, and in this episode, I will be joined by the editor of Triad, who also serves as an OMEA trustee and is responsible for overseeing our digital magazine and our new blog. These are two outstanding services that we are very proud of, and services that we hope that you will take advantage of. Well, thanks for joining us, Stephanie. Stephanie Bonnetz is uh she serves OMEA as a member of the Board of Trustees and as the editor of our journal that we're very proud of, the Triad. A lot of people, what I've learned in my short time with OMEA, a lot of people don't really even understand who the leadership uh, you know, who the leaders are of OMEA and how decisions are made and and what different positions are uh are required for us to be a success. And um, and sometimes they don't know whether you teach or you don't teach. So I think it'd be great if you just tell us a little bit about yourself, Stephanie, um maybe a little bit about your career, what you do now, where you teach, and then kind of how you got involved in in being a leader of OMEA.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, thank you for having me, Jay. Uh I am so happy to be here. And I'm in my 19th year of teaching. So just started that out. Um, director of bands at Streesborough City Schools. And prior to my employment there, I worked as the director of bands and choirs at uh Mogader Local Schools. Um, and started my career out actually at Eden Northwest Local Schools in Northwest Ohio. And that was a wonderful experience, a wonderful community. And I really kind of, you know, you you work hard in those first couple years to just kind of get your footing. But I also developed a lot of really good relationships with my colleagues, uh, the other directors in the other school districts around me. Uh we supported each other a lot. And so when I moved back to Northeast Ohio, I really felt like that community, that connection, um, trying to provide mentorship and a voice for young teachers was really important. Uh, so when I had the opportunity to attend the Charles Benner Leadership Academy, I jumped on it immediately. And it was like the greatest thing uh I ever had ever experienced. Um, and from there I ended up uh getting the opportunity to serve District 6 as the president for a few years pre-COVID and then a little bit during COVID. Um, and then finally was kind of asked, hey, would you be interested in serving on the trustees as secretary? So I was elected to that position in 2023. And in 2025, I was asked, do you want to take on the triad? And I thought, you know what, this is a fantastic opportunity for me. And and I just jumped on it. So here I am today. Uh yeah, no, thank you. In addition to all of that, I serve OMIA uh as an adjudicator, which I think was the first the best, not the first, one of the best moves I made as a music educator every time I um have adjudicated. There's just this wonderful light bulb moment of seeing kids be successful. And and I feel that same way serving on our trustees as well.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I think that's probably one of the most important points is the fact that you know the passion for education is really what drives us all um in the work we do. Um so before we get into the triad, um the the work of the trustees. I I a lot of people really, as I mentioned, I don't think they understand the leadership structure and that there are um essentially that hopefully the way this works is that we're a government for our members, so to speak, um, and that we're all a team. And uh that you know, if people have ideas or concerns or questions, that that's why we're all here to try to address those. So maybe you can talk first about what it, especially since you've had two terms, what the trustees actually do, and and uh what you wish people knew maybe about the trustees and the state board and and those parts of our operations.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Um our trustee organization is our president, our president-elect, the treasurer, editor of the triad, and the secretary. Um, in addition to working with the executive director. And we are a group of volunteers. And part of our job is to work with the state board, which is all of the elected officials uh from each of the districts and regions, and to come up with different ideas and innovations as we uh progress through our school year. It is to work with our adjudicated events committee on the um all the events and the engagement with our membership. We are really the upper tier of individuals in the organization who try to help the educators across the state uh and serve really the state board and and the membership.
SPEAKER_00Great, exactly. Well, the reason we asked you here was to talk about uh the triad and our also your new initiative. And uh I know we all get a little frustrated with the fact that we have such a magnificent journal, and sometimes people don't seem to know that it exists or don't access it um quite as as much as we would wish that they do. Uh, and you know, I think we all know part of that is the ever-changing landscape of communication and technology and all of those things that that affect that. But maybe you could talk a little bit about you know the triad, um how people can access it, when it comes out, when there's a new issue, all the things that go into it, um, so that our listeners kind of understand uh why we have this journal that we should be proud of.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um The Triad is our kind of seasonal publication. It comes out in the fall, winter, and the spring. Our next issue is actually going to come out October 1st. So our deadline for submissions, if you're interested, is August 31st. And my job as the editor is to collect articles from not only higher education, our membership, inspiring stories, what's going on in the school districts, tips you might have for educators across the state of Ohio. I essentially compile all that information and organize it in a way that would work very well for the magazine. I also work with our business director, uh Bill Whitman, on ad placement and how that will work with the magazine. And then we send that on to our company Reads, it's in uh California, who puts the finishing touches on it. They do the layout of it after I have sent them essentially our digital, digital layout with articles, um, the links to different types of media that we use. Uh, a lot of the position is reaching out to our membership to try and get those articles and those ideas. And I typically do that two to three months before publication, um, constantly emailing, um, reaching out to different colleges and universities to get their higher education updates, and then also updates um that they might have as as resources for our educators. Um yeah, and and that really kind of comes down to it in terms of of what I do throughout the year. There's quite a bit of editing, editing and um fine-tuning some of the articles to get them um to the right position for our our publication. But it's a it's a wonderful and and really invigorating uh position on the trustees.
SPEAKER_00What kind of uh, you know, what kind of qualifications do people need to have in order to submit an article for the triad or topics or like what what are things that people might not know if they are uh the right people to submit something for publication?
SPEAKER_01That's a great question. So I feel like really anybody, anybody can submit. We've had scholarly articles where people are using maybe graduate research research or their doctoral research and putting that into an article, kind of making a synopsis of it. We've had folks who have given uh bits of opinion pieces, or hey, this was something really special that happened last holiday season in my classroom. And so it's it's a combination of a lot of different um articles. And our sound strategies section of the triad, we typically try to keep that it as teaching and practice or kind of special stories, our feature articles. We try to keep those to be some scholarly articles, but it really is whatever we get submitted, we try to arrange that in a really nice way. Uh, we also have a teaching and action section of the triad, and that can be submissions from let's say your honors festival and a little brief um statement about how that went. And so we really take anything. Um, and and there's only been a few instances where I've had to say, ah, let's go back and revisit this. Uh, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Great. And and I know there's a I know I, for example, I know I submit a column to you every every every issue. Are there other kinds of information that are sort of a staple of every issue where people might find it interesting that they can keep up on things?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yes. So one of the things I didn't mention with that is we have article submissions from not only our executive as well as some of the staff on OMEA. Um, we also have our affairs chairs who submit articles. Um, and our allied organizations have been really great about giving us updates about what they're doing each season. So you can kind of see um articles and information from OCDA, um, OSTA, all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00Great. So a perfect place for people to go and perhaps get answers to questions or new tips and all those good things. Um, I know since you've been on the trustees and since I've been executive director, one of the one of the things that we've been chasing is how best to communicate and get information to people and provide them with as much support as we can. And out of that came a new idea that you uh that you dreamed of that now has come to life, which is called the uh triad tonic. And um I'm curious if maybe you could tell everybody sort of what was your vision behind the launching of the triad tonic and how you hope that it will serve the membership and music teachers in general.
SPEAKER_01So I think it goes hand in hand with the idea of engagement and collaboration and community. And it goes back to when I first started teaching and wanting, craving more information. And you know, 20 years ago, it's way different than what we see today. And we have so much at our fingertips. But for OMEA to be able to provide something that gives regular communication to our educators across Ohio and is open to any educator, anyone, um, even our administrators, other you know, teachers, just lay people in in the um around the state can check it out and see um what's going on across all the school districts in Ohio. Uh, what are some you know exciting and inventive teaching tips and tools that we can use as educators? And so I really wanted this to be something that everyone could share, everyone could enjoy, and we would have a really good um uh piece of engagement with our community.
SPEAKER_00So it's obviously somewhat of a companion to the triad. Um can you can you talk about how how it's different? Uh how maybe how often there might be new content that comes out from from it, how people can access it and find it and subscribe.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So uh our articles come out every two weeks. And so bi-weekly uh is what our goal is. We may do a little bit more, but the bi-weekly submissions I think will be great for throughout the school year. We put them out on Sundays. So uh as I've told some people, it's a way to kind of get yourself out of the Sunday scaries and maybe into how can I apply some of these tools in my teaching week. So maybe just reinvigorating us enough that we we have a really start, great start to our week. You can actually find this on our OMEA page if you just log on. Now there's a button right there, so you can jump onto our latest article and see what's happening with the page.
SPEAKER_00Great. And what uh what can people expect in terms of content? I know you kind of brought you talked about that a little bit, but is there, you know, are there announcements, news articles, what what kinds of things? I know you've had some interesting uh retrospective type of articles already that were interesting to read.
SPEAKER_01Correct, correct. So not only have we pulled from the archives of the triad, uh, we will have some things that come out in the blog that are pieces that were in the triad, but in addition, we're trying to fill it with um you know more articles from from everyone. And so I'm really excited. I just pitched to our editorial committee, hey, I want to do a top 10, kind of like David Letterman, the top 10. So maybe a top 10 tips for your winter concert program, top 10 tips for starting the school year off fresh, you know. So that's kind of a new idea that I'm working on. Uh, in the coming months, we're gonna have a lot of different articles from across the United States. So, one of the things I've worked on is getting some different scholarly articles from college professors, you know, ranging from Colorado to Oklahoma. And so we're getting uh quite a bit of content in that way, uh, in addition to what our membership is providing as well. So I'm really excited to put those pieces out here in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_00That sounds great. I love the idea of ideas from across the country. Um, one of the things that I think is we we sometimes panic about something that it turns out somebody else already has a solution for. Um so I I love that fact that you're engaging with with people from across the country. What do you see uh you know, engaging with the triad? What do you hope members can get out of it besides, you know, obviously tips? Um what are you hoping to accomplish really with it uh in addition as a as a as a companion to the triad?
SPEAKER_01I think the the most important part of this is engagement and connection. And so maybe we read an article that really sparks something in us, and we can say, hey, you know, I want to comment on that, I want to share it. I want to reach out to the author. You know, some of the authors are excited to have that type of dialogue and collaboration with educators, and so just deepening our connection throughout the state. In addition, I'd like to add in some more engagement pieces, so some different um, you know, forms and questions about like what would you like to see, or what how do you feel about X, Y, and Z as some sound-off questions and and ways to connect more with our educators as well. And so I think it's it's evolving. And as we continue working on um working on this blog and putting it out to the masses, I think I'm really excited about some of the new changes that we'll have coming in the future.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think it's great. One of the things that I really enjoy about it is the ability to subscribe to it so that because I don't always think to go read something on a website, but if I get a notification saying, hey, there's a new article, then I I can look at what it is and go read it. I I think that's a great feature that I hope people will take advantage of.
SPEAKER_01Right. And it's not something where we are like spamming your box every time. It it's a bi-weekly, hey, here's an email with our feature article. You can click on it and go in. So try not to be um overbearing because we have enough emails and everything else that comes through our systems all the time. Uh so this is something that's just delicately placed in your inbox.
SPEAKER_00Well, I know you touched on this a little bit, but maybe you can give people some specific information about how they can go about submitting articles for either of these publications.
SPEAKER_01Yes. So submissions for articles is really going to be on the website. So you can access our publications in the triad, and our submission uh form is there. If you click on the triad, you'll scroll down and you'll see submit an article. There are some submission guidelines that are recommendations for our submissions, and I try to kind of, as the editor, adjust articles to fit those guidelines. Uh, so I help out people who are submitting in the process so that we can make sure that it fits the model. Um, but they can submit an article. Anything that they submit uh is considered for the triad and is also considered for the blog as well. So uh we take everything and all.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I have such pride for how fabulous the triad looks and and the new triad tonic, I think, is great. Um, or tonic triad, sorry, I always say it backwards. Um, the work that you've been doing uh and and the work that Hillary laid the groundwork for as we transitioned to to reads, you know, people don't don't under don't have any idea how much work really went into that process and how the two of you have built a system together that will live hopefully in perpetuity. And um we we hope that people continue to take advantage of it. I I get a lot of the journals from across the country, and so it makes me even more proud of the product that that you're all putting out every every quarter. Um the uh, you know, as I mentioned, as we all know, communication is the hardest part. I think we get just inundated with so many emails, particularly in text messages, that sometimes people just get frustrated with that. But um, you know, I I think what you've provided is options for people so they can pick perhaps the the system that works best for them so that they're not overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I agree. Well, I can't thank you enough for all you do and for the great work that you've done uh with this triad and with the I the I think the triad or the tonic triad is amazing. Uh triad tonic. I did it again. Uh so once once I learn the title of the of the uh blog, we'll be in great shape. But I I really think uh hopefully people will get a benefit from it um once they start to engage. So thanks for your time today. I know that you're taking uh taking your time out of a busy marching band season getting started and getting ready to start school. Um, so we appreciate the the compromises that you have to make and the sacrifices that you do to be a selfless servant for OMEA.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. And thank you for the kind words, Jay.