Meet TI:ME's New President - Dr Jay Dorfman

Dear Fellow TI:ME Members,

I am honored to have been elected to serve as President of TI:ME. I have been a member of the organization for quite a while; I am constantly impressed by the enthusiasm of all of our members, the dedication of TI:ME’s leaders, and the collective push we provide toward advancing technology for music teaching and learning.

When I ran for this position, I wrote that I had a clear set of goals that I would like the organization to address. Here are some of them:

• Increase membership, in part, by re-conceptualizing the membership committee, and holding a membership drive to bring in new members. With the leadership of our Executive Director, this push for new members also includes corporate sponsors and institutional members.
• Take a critical look at the TI:ME competency areas, which are a de facto set of “standards” in our field. These competency areas were written a long time ago, and need to be revisited and updated. I would like to consider the possibility of publishing a document around refreshed competency areas.
• Re-examine our coursework offerings (certification classes) and consider new topics, new methods of delivery, and flexibility in what it means to offer or take a TI:ME class.
• Re-examine TI:ME’s strategic plan, operational plan, and policies to move us into the future along a professional, successful path.

None of these tasks, nor the many others on my list, are achievable unless we come together as an organization and work toward them. The best thing about TI:ME is our members—our talented, smart, thoughtful members—and I am calling on each of you to become part of the process of moving TI:ME to a new level of sophistication and relevance. There are always seats open at the table for those who would like to help with a committee. We need people who are interested in helping with membership, publications, coursework revisions, content for our awesome new website, and many other areas. In particular, I am committed to diversifying the leadership of TI:ME in terms of gender, ethnicity, and professional specialty. If you are interested, please contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

I would like to express my great thanks to my friend Amy Burns for her amazing work as President. Amy became President during a time of tremendous transition, and kept the organization afloat. She left it better than she found it, and for that, I am grateful.

I look forward to hearing from TI:ME’s members, and I am excited to lead the organization’s work toward greatness.

Dr. Jay Dorfman