Citizens of NATS

Abstract

Citizens of NATS Carole Blankenship (bio) FROM THE PRESIDENT What does it mean to be a citizen of the National Association of Teachers of Singing? How can we shape what NATS members experience? What protocols help NATS leaders ensure that all are treated equitably? How does your NATS chapter create belonging? Does the job of the NATS adjudicator extend out beyond the audition? These are only a few of the challenging questions with which NATS leaders and members of the NATS Diversity and Inclusion Focus Group have been grappling. NATS has recently made huge strides in Diversity and Inclusion efforts. The leadership has been working together on the NATS Strategic Plan for more than three years. The NATS Diversity and Inclusion statement and initiatives are vital parts of that plan. These developments begin to prepare NATS for change! That includes open and honest conversations with members and leaders that diverge in perspectives and views. Within these discussions, all voices must be heard equally, leading to better results for NATS members and their students, including, of course, their experiences with NATS programs and services. In early 2021, the NATS D&I Task Force assisted the leadership in engaging professional consultants. The Task Force noted that the NATS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work will continue to change and shape this association for many years. We are so pleased to be working with Diversity and Inclusion professionals, Theresa Ruth Howard and Alejandra Valarino Boyer, both accomplished performers as well as experts in the work of Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism in Arts organizations. For Phase I of the NATS plan, Theresa and Alejandra traveled to Jacksonville to lead in-person training with the NATS Board members and with the NATS Office staff. At the summer 2021 NATS Board meeting, the leadership voted unanimously to move to Phase II with the work on modules to train NATS members and leaders. Region governors recommended region and chapter officers with experience or interest in Diversity and Inclusion work to the president, who then invited them to serve. This large group of 40 NATS members is the NATS Diversity and Inclusion Focus Group. Four meetings were held together with the NATS D&I consultants to discuss Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism (IDEA) within the Association. Theresa and Alejandra have taken information from those meetings to create training modules specifically for NATS. Module 1 includes videos and slideshows that explain the language of IDEA and define culture and race as a construct. This module also addresses institutional racism and clarifies antiracism. There are members of NATS testing the modules as they are created. Other qualified and trained [End Page 553] members are preparing to facilitate discussions among those who complete the modules. What is the goal of the training modules? As stated by several experts in antiracism, the goal is for NATS to become a fully inclusive antiracist multicultural organization in a transformed society. In the process, many of us will be personally transformed. That is the hard part. NATS is asking you to be open to change personally for the better solutions for all NATS members and those who aspire to be NATS members, including our students and young voice professionals. The original NATS D&I Toolkit assembled in 2020 to accompany the NATS Strategic Plan has been renamed the NATS IDEA Best Practices Guide. The opening statement of that document now reads, “NATS takes the equitable treatment for all within our organization very seriously. Equitable treatment involves learning about IDEA: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Antiracism. This NATS IDEA Best Practices Guide has been created to identify ways to promote IDEA within NATS. It provides guidelines for fostering and maintaining a welcoming and supportive community and culture of diversity and inclusion, strategies for communicating across cultures, strategies for demonstrating that we value and validate each other and educating ourselves, and identifying ways to build an inclusive NATS leadership team” (https://www.nats.org/_Library/docs/NATS_IDEA_Best_Practices_Guide_Final_1_17_22_rev.pdf). NATS must make great changes, but transformation begins with members. The goals of this work may seem challenging, but if we each take on the training, we will make the changes. The NATS training modules will open us to...