Episode 3 Behind the Mission

In this episode, Executive Director Jay Wardeska pulls back the curtain on OMEA's operations including the finances: where the money actually comes from, why rising costs haven't been passed on to members or students, how the organization's mission drives every  decision — and makes the case that OMEA is so much more than adjudicated events and a conference.

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Welcome to episode three of Omumie Backstage Pass. In this episode, we are going backstage on the mission. How Omamie is working to build a stronger association for the future. Recently, I was surprised when someone said to me, and this is the exact quote, well, everyone knows that the Allstate program is Omie's cash cow. Well, I was quite taken back by that uh that myth. Because the reality of the All-State program is that it actually runs annually in a deficit, somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000, depending on the city that we're in. While the studies the students do pay a fee, it doesn't cover the costs involved. The costs of rental and rehearsal space, the cost of purchasing literature or renting it, the cost obviously of bringing in world-renowned conductors to work with the students, and of course feeding them. So if all states the cash cow, it's really kind of a cow that costs more to feed. In this episode, I want to give you a little background on OMEA's financial structure, how it's framed by our mission statement, and where we're hoping to go in the future. Everything I'm about to walk you through only makes sense in light of one thing: why OMEA exists in the first place. OMEA believes that all students should have equal access to high-quality music instruction delivered by licensed music teachers through comprehensive school programs in general, instrumental, and choral music education. That's it. That's the whole reason any of the rest of this exists. The budget, the fees, the partnerships, all of its point points to this one sentence. And I think we all know that in today's very challenging environment, that it's hard to make progress on seeing that every student has equal access to high-quality music instruction when we're spending a lot of time trying to maintain the access that already exists. So that's made your job and our job even more difficult. But something that we see the importance of even more. So let me ask you something. What percentage of your membership dues do you think actually funds OMEA? Go ahead, take a guess. Okay, now here's the real number: 8 to 9%. That's a surprise to most people. Your dues are collected nationally through NAFME, and a portion of those dues are sent back to us here in Ohio. The majority of your dues support NAFME programming and services, and the smaller portion comes back here to Ohio to support our services here at the state level. So if that's not the engine running this organization, what is? Well, we basically have three buckets that keep OMEA running. The dues that I just talked about, which again are about 8 to 9%. The biggest share of our revenue comes from events. Those are all the events from state marching band finals to the professional development conference that happen on a state level. Those events provide not only services for our members and for our students, but they provide opportunity. They provide opportunities to bring in, for example, exhibitors at our trade show, opportunities for advertising, opportunities for sponsorship. And together, those streams of revenue, again, make up 70%, 75% of our total budget. And the final part is our sponsorships and partnerships, which bring in the rest, somewhere around 16 to 17%. It's smaller than we would like it to be, but that's why it's the bucket that we're actively trying to grow. It's revenue that doesn't come out of a member's pocket or a student's pocket or create any barriers, obviously. So yes, every time you participate in an event or you recruit a new member for OMEA, you're actually helping support the mission of music education in Ohio. Creating more opportunities without passing costs on to our members. That's become our basic philosophy. So here's something worth saying out loud, even though it's obvious. Inflation is up. If you go to the grocery store, if you fill your gas tank in your car, if you pay your bills every month, you know that the cost of living in the United States right now is going up. And that, of course, is true of the cost of doing business for a nonprofit like OMEA. The cost of facilities rentals, the cost of our comprehensive insurance, the cost of food, lodging, printing, technology, you name it, it's up. And so far we've managed not to pass those increases on to you or your students. And here's how we're approaching that. For every program we run or any program that we are currently developing, we start by creating a model of what it's actually going to take to produce it at a level that our students and teachers deserve. Then we work on making it the making sure we get to the best product through as many creative revenue streams as possible and making sure that we don't pass that cost on to our members or our students, and that we don't create barriers to students and their teachers to participate. That's the question we ask in every budget decision is what is it going to cost a member and what's it going to cost a student, and how can we find revenue sources to bring those costs down? It's genuinely how our conversations happen internally every day. Nobody gets into music education because they enjoy spreadsheets, but somebody's got to make sure that our spreadsheets don't end up costing your students money. And the clearest proof of that philosophy isn't on a balance sheet, it's in making sure that our current programming stays strong and that future programs are on the horizon. We've done that a number of ways, and we certainly owe a lot to our partners who have been supporting us and to many corporations who have stepped forward as well. Before I get into some examples of partnerships, I want to spend just a few seconds on one of the least glamorous parts of what's been going on, because it matters more than it sounds like it does. A lot of what keeps OMEA sound isn't visible from the outside at all. OMEA is a 501c6 nonprofit organization. With that comes a variety of expectations, especially from the fact that we want to make sure that we remain vibrant for our members. So we're continually revising our governing documents, updating policies to make sure that our organization keeps in step with the expectations that are put onto us in order to maintain our notprofit status. Furthermore, we spend a lot of time trying to make sure that we can see what's coming, like what's heading down the pike in terms of policy, in terms of potential government decisions, and new trends in education and music education. So we engage with partners like the National Federation of State High School Associations and the Arts Education Partnership, as well as the National Association for Music Education and many others. These organizations help us stay connected to what's happening in music education, what's happening in government, and keeping us really well informed beyond Ohio's borders. Now, none of that makes great podcast content, obviously, on its own, and it's hard to make that very interesting, but it is the scaffolding upon which we need to be strong so that everything else can stand on it. Which brings us to the cornerstone of OMEA, which connects it all, and that's advocacy. Advocacy is a genuine focus for all of us. We know that, whether it's you know in your classroom, in your community, or um across the state. OMEA is engaging with partners and supporters at the local, state, and national level. Uh, we're engaging with politicians, with decision makers, um, and and having all the difficult conversation to help take us to hopefully a resolution and a way forward in terms of the funding crisis that is facing music education in Ohio. These challenges don't stay in one lane. If we want music education to stay strong in Ohio, we have to be at the table where those decisions are being shaped. We have to have difficult conversations with people on both sides of the aisle, and we have to we have to definitely talk to people who don't agree with us, because if we can't have the debates that are necessary, we're not going to bring people around to seeing the significance and importance of making sure that every Ohio student, and frankly, every American student has access to a high-quality music education. So, no, Allstate doesn't pay for itself, and that's a deliberate decision. It exists at a loss because access to that experience matters more than making sure that we break even on it. It only works because we're relying not on fees and dues alone to make it happen. We're building creative revenue streams, alternative funding models, specifically so programs like Allstate aren't priced out of reach for our students. In fact, what we're working towards is trying to make them even more accessible. We're well aware that sometimes for students, um, not only is the audition fee too much or the actual uh fee of participating too much, but in many cases they don't have uh perhaps access to the kind of support that students in other parts of Ohio have. So these are all areas that of concern that are on our strategic plan that we're working towards trying to address while at the same time expanding programs like Allstate in ways that create provide more creative access, a broader set of experiences for students and their teachers, so that we can grow with what is an expectation of a 21st century education. As I've mentioned throughout uh this podcast, partners have been an important part of our growth and our sustainability. And a great example of a partnership is what came through just this year with the Music Matters Ohio project. This came about through conversations with other leaders of arts organizations in Ohio and with working knowledge of a need that many students have, that they don't have access to the basics of even having an instrument in which to pursue a music education. So we were able to work together with the Ohio Arts Council, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, and our sister organization, the Ohio Foundation for Music Education, to create Music Matters Ohio. The funding piece was really interesting because it's, I think, genuinely instructive. The Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Foundation for Music Education both funded the initiative itself through matching grants, while the Ohio Arts Alliance for Arts Education provided a lot of the infrastructure, and OMEA provided a lot of the services. So we were able to work together bringing to the table strengths of each of the associations and organizations to create a partnership. And the result? Over 700 instruments were collected and have been repaired and refurbished and are being distributed to students throughout Ohio who need them. We didn't do that by charging the students or by creating fees. We did that by finding partners like us who believe in the same mission that we do and combining our forces and resources so that we could achieve a meaningful goal. A second example of a great partnership is our partnership with Music Will and the Modern Band Initiative. For anyone unfamiliar, Modern Band is a non-traditional ensemble pathway for students, usually including guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, music production. One of the hallmarks of Modern Band is that it reaches students who never quite saw themselves in a traditional band, orchestra, or choir room, and in many cases are without an arts education in our schools. One of the things that have I've learned in having discussions with other teachers is that a lot of people are afraid that if they add modern band to their curriculum, that it might take students away from other ones from the ensembles that currently exist in their programs. And research is actually showing the opposite: that once we bring those students into our music programs, they want more. They want to expand their offers, the offerings and their opportunities. So I really encourage you to give Modern Band a really hard look. Last year we were able to have the entry-level professional development opportunity for this in the fall. This year we're going to bring that back. Modern Band 101 will be taking place in November, and a Modern Band 102 for people who have been through the 101 professional development, and that'll be taking place in the spring. Both of these opportunities are open to any of our members, and they're open free of charge. As a matter of fact, if you participate, there's a likelihood that you'll actually even get some equipment to help support your program and your local schools. There's even something more exciting coming out of this partnership, but you'll just have to stay tuned. I'm not ready to unveil that just yet, but keep your eye out and stay on the edge of your seat. We'll be discussing this, all of this and more in some upcoming episodes. So, in closing, here's what I want you to walk away with. Something that's not theoretical. That's that through a partnership, 700 instruments are in students' hands this year that wouldn't have been without the work that we're doing. Two new partnerships on the calendar for professional development to expand the skills and the opportunities for our students. And it all happens because we weren't looking for partners. We were looking for people who have the same view and vision that we do. OMEA is more than adjudicated events and the professional development conference. Through our members, we're working to strengthen support for music education across Ohio and to put as much tangible support as we possibly can directly into local programs and into students' hands. One more thing before I let you go. In a future episode, we're going to spend some real time on the Ohio Foundation for Music Education, or OFME. It's our sister organization. It has played a vital role in supporting our mission. And recently it's gone through a lot of change and rebirth that I think you're going to want to know about. It's currently supporting scholarships for all-state students, it's supporting the All-State program, and it's supporting scholarships for up-and-coming teachers. But there's a lot more on the horizon, and that's a conversation all on its own. So I'll save that for yet another episode coming up and give you a reason to come back. So that's the backstage pass for this one. This is what we're about: making sure and striving towards a future where every student in Ohio has access equally to a high-quality music education taught by a licensed expert. Everything we do is built on supporting you and your students while striving to that end goal and making sure Ohio has access to a world-class music education. Thank you for all you do every day for the students in Ohio, for the students in your classroom. They may not say it now, but you mean everything to them. Catch you in the next episode.