After no requests for bills last week, the House Appropriations Committee (HAC) met on Oct. 28 to discuss Bills 19-11 and 19-12.
Bill 19-11 was in support of Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) collegiate chapter of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME). CMU’s NAfME chapter is made of 44 future music educators. Bill 19-11 was presented by two of the chapter’s representatives, Colton Stump and Kylie Bronk.
The Bill asked for $2,365.60 from the Student Controlled Resource Fund (SCRF) to pay for 40 NAfME registration fees, as well as hotels, gas and parking costs for participants to attend the Colorado Music Educator Association (CMEA) Clinic/Conference in Jan. 2020.
“This is a multiple day conference that has hundreds of music directors, college professors, students from other colleges, and they all come together to create different clinics and classes about what goes on in our field. There’s a bunch of classes for first time teachers, which is really helpful for us coming out of college,” Bronk said.
Bronk discussed the benefits of networking at this event and the possibility of CMU’s NAfME chapter going to a bigger Midwest conference in Chicago next year.
After the presentation of Bill 19-11 concluded, HAC Representatives played with the Bill’s numbers, not wanting to give the NAfME chapter more than $2,000. Representative Daniel Haas asked the presenters for a quick pitch as to why the CMEA conference benefits CMU as a whole.
“It’s a good way to get more people interested in the music aspect of CMU,” Stumpf said. “It helps to get a better representation of music educators from Colorado Mesa University out into the real world and helps get the university’s name out there more.”
“I am in really big support of this. This was a really big conference last year and having 40 students last year and continuing with 40 students is a huge thing for us,” House Representative Karson Fye said.
After opening Cross Talk and doing a straw poll to see which representatives would be in favor of revised versions of Bill 19-11, HAC agreed to cover half of the hotel costs and gas required for the CMEA conference trip. Bill 19-11 was readjusted for $1,956.60 to come out of SCRF, leaving each CMEA participant to cover $13.
“Thirteen bucks to make the world a little bit better,” House Representative BriAnne Marr said.
In other news, Bill 19-12 was presented by Representative Salina Edwards. The Bill asked that $132.10 be given to the Women’s Rugby team for the food provided at the Battle at the Pitch event. Tickets to this event cost $10 and include access to a buffet and beer garden during the CMU Women’s Rugby Club game against Colorado School of Mines on Nov. 2. All proceeds go to the American Transplant Foundation.
“Any club that puts in this much work to give back to the community is absolutely fantastic. I think $132.10 isn’t a whole lot out of our budget, so that’s great.” Marr said.
Bill 19-12 passed and the meeting was adjourned.
