I was excited just to have figured out my project so early. I know it will take A LOT of work but I’m so excited for it. The next time after I saw K I told her that I had decided on a project and explained it to her. Well, she was and intern then an employee when her supervisor was going through the process when they started the positions.
She told me to go to staff development and human resources and they should be able to direct me to the original paper work and proposals that was submitted. That was yesterday, I went there today and was directed to human resources and that she’ll let me know if she remembers where they might be. It was time for me to be somewhere so I will do it tomorrow.
K was excited at the prospect of me being employed there since the internship site is the only state run facility with music therapist in the state. She talked about how the head of the facility was serious about having not only music therapist but 3 full time music therapist at the facility. Whenever budget cuts took place he ensured that the music therapy department never any lost any positions. Music therapist along the years were afraid that when the position changed hands it would not be that way but staff across the campus have seen the benefits and the needs for it for the residents.
O’s office mate talked about the importance of music therapy at the facility and importance things to include. He said to include descriptions of the OT/PT type things and how cost effective it is. He said at ‘internship site’ they can never get OT’s or PT’s because they are out in the middle of nowhere and they don’t have the money to pay them.
K had more advice for me. She made sure that they were going to hire me as a music therapist and that Music Therapist would be my job title. K talked about they had a long battle when the facility wanted to change their job title to activity coordinator.. Which lead to her opinion about something.
I talked about AMTA regional conference coming up in March and she gave me her brief opinion on the whole thing. She talked about how she was a music therapist before the two MT organizations joined to form AMTA. She had worked at the ‘internship stie’ ever since then but was grandfathered in. She started the next part by saying that she is totally for the continuing education credits that are required of music therapist. But, she does not support AMTA so much because she does not feel that they support music therapist down in the trenches trying to make positive things happen for the project. So since K has never received any support or backing from them she wants to know what they really do for music therapist. She said she was tired of paying all they money and was wondering what they were doing with it. She tells me she knows she’s a bad example and not to listen to her sometimes but I love hearing other peoples opinions and I want to know those questions to. If I’m paying dues every year and more when I need help, when I need support, I need to now that my professional organization will be there for me and the only perk won’t just be a discount on books.
The last thing she told me is to make sure with my job I will really be in there, not sitting be hind a desk, and just writing plans for others to do. She said we’re music therapist we’re meant to be in there getting our hands dirty and that the ones that are meant for administrative roles quickly show it.
I am getting lots of information and I think I’ll need all of it. I’m excited and a little bit more aware of things I may have to deal with or confront but, definitely all in the name of music therapy.
As a side note K told me that she is not MT-BC, like I said before she had gotten tired of paying after having no support. She said that ‘internship site’ does not require it of her, and she plans on working there until she retires (soon) so she doesn’t even think about it.
