To the Members of MAS,

In order for us to follow the guidelines of social interaction that our federal and state governments have enacted, we will be changing the way we conduct some of our meetings and events to help assist in reducing the spread of the coronavirus.  We do not know how long we will be required to follow these guidelines for social distancing, but want to give our members the opportunity to remain engaged with our benefits and services as well as stay in contact with each other.  Therefore, the following list will note changes in our ongoing meetings and special events.  

This list will include the basic information of the what, when and how of each meeting or event.  We will be providing more complete information about these changes on our website and also in separate messages as new developments take place.

Song Review Meeting

We will continue to conduct the song review meeting as an online event using the Zoom Video Conferencing service that we have recently implemented.  The meeting will remain scheduled on the last Wednesday of every month and we will send out the information including the link or phone number to enter the conference room a few days before the meeting. You will still be able to perform your songs for review either live or by submitting an mp3 file of a song.

Please Note:  With this meeting and all other online meetings, an account with Zoom is not required to participate. A person can connect to a Zoom meeting via desktop computer, tablet, smartphone, or telephone (audio only).  We will provide you with the links and telephone numbers that will allow you to enter the online meeting directly from your personal device.

Songwriting Craft Workshop

Our Monthly Songwriting Craft Workshop will now be online as well.  It will continue to be lead by Chad Shank and will include lectures and real time writing practice of proven techniques and processes to help you build your craft skills. This online workshop will continue to be held every second Thursday of the month using the Zoom Video Conferencing system.  Information will be sent out including the link and phone number to enter the conference room a few days before the meeting.

Song Circle Jam

The Song Circle Jam will be cancelled until further notice.  Tom Engelhardt has made a decision to step down as host of the jam.  We wish to thank him for hosting this event for the past several years which has provided members the chance to gather in an informal way to simply play and jam just for the pure fun of it.  We will keep you posted on where we go with this type of get together in the future.

MAS Songwriter Showcase

We will need to suspend our songwriter showcase in live venues due to the restrictions on dine-in restaurants that have been announced by the government.  This might be our opportunity to explore video performances that we can stream live and we will be looking into this as an option along with our other SongCasters performance options.

MAS Mixer

This is a monthly MAS online meeting that is been specially geared for members outside of the Twin Cities area but will now include everyone to join in to a Zoom Video Conference and share songs and talk about selected topics regarding songwriting.  This meeting is scheduled the first Wednesday of every month and has a moderated topic for each meeting.  Again, meeting topics and join in information will be sent out a few days before each meeting.

Special Online Events

As we continue to develop our online resources, we are pursuing opportunities such as an online co-writing event, presentations by guest speakers and MAS member spotlight interviews for all of us to get a chance to know each other a little better.  We will be informing you of the development of all these projects as they take place.

As challenging as these times are for all of us, our hope is to find new, creative and innovative ways to be able to continue to provide our members with opportunities to share, network, collaborate and socialize with fellow members our mutual love and passion for songwriting.  We will keep you up to date and informed of any and all changes as they occur.  And we will be dedicating a web page on the MAS website that will provide all the details and specific information regarding all of these events and new features.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and participation in MAS.  We appreciate your understanding and hope you will continue to share your time and talents with us as we all experience this new and unique moment in our organization's history.

Sincerely,

MAS Board of Directors