Membership Matters
Monthly reports from the NSAGO registrar.
Membership Matters | February 2022
Membership Matters February 2022
All is quiet on the membership front again this month. As I was looking for something meaningful to share for this month, I stumbled on the classified ads. Here you can peruse organs that are for sale as well as music and other services. These are all separate from the job postings. Check them out!
Peace and Blessings,
Rich Spantikow
Registrar
Membership Matters | January 2022
I hope everyone is enjoying a little break from the hustle and bustle that the Advent season brings. I feel like the Christmas and Epiphany seasons allow me a chance to regroup and focus for the upcoming Lent and Easter seasons, albeit they fall very late this year.
There isn’t a lot on chapter membership news this month, but I wanted to take a moment to point out a few things going on at the national level:
The AGO Organ School Program
If you know of any young organists looking for an opportunity to be an organ scholar. You may want to make them aware of this. Applications will be accepted from January 15th through February 15th. This is an excellent opportunity for emerging organists to experience a 10-month internship with a significant music ministry program in the United States. The first year of the training program will coincide with the 2022-2023 academic year and will be hosted by at Duke University Chapel. Full details can be found at this link: https://www.agohq.org/scholarships/
Scholarships
There are also opportunities for College scholarships available for full-time organ students. Information can be found here: https://www.agohq.org/college-scholarships/
Certification
Don’t forget the AGO also offers certification programs to help you further your training. Information on each of the certification programs can be found here:
As always, if you need any assistance with your membership, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I will help you out the best I can. Wishing you the best for a prosperous New Year.
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | December 2021
This month I’d like to extend a warm welcome to two new members, both of whom joined us via the young organist initiative sponsored by national headquarters. Welcome to Madeleine Woodworth and Darrin Rose! We’re glad to have you with us!
I hope everyone has a great Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year. It’s so easy to get caught up in the busyness (or business) of it all that we forget to make time for ourselves. Be sure to take some time for yourself, enjoy your loved ones, and most of all, be thankful for all the blessings in your life.
Peace and Blessings,
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | November 2021
It’s been another quiet month on the membership front. So rather than a welcome, I thought I’d point that our events calendar. Did you know that you can publish NON-NSAGO organ and choral events happening at your church on our event calendar. Yes…we do have an event calendar that is not just for NSAGO events!!! If you’d like your upcoming concert, recital, program to appear on the calendar. Just send me an email with all the pertinent details and I’ll get it published for you.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | September 2021
During the month of August, we welcomed three new members via the Young Organist Initiative! Join me in welcoming, Peter Morey, Annika Sundberg and Andrew Mertzenich. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!!
Just a reminder that there are a number of memberships that were up for renewal over the last few months. That shows they have not been renewed yet. I know sometimes the ONCARD System is slow in updating so I’ll keep an eye open and reach out to those who are in danger of being cancelled. If you are not sure when your renewal is due, please don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll help you out.
Stay safe out there.
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | October 2021
This month we extend a warm North Shore Chapter welcome to our new members Beau Surratt and Jack Reeder. We hope you’re able to join us at our next event!
Other than two new members, there’s not much on the news front regarding membership this month. As always if you need any assistance or have any questions about your membership, please let me know. I’ll be more than happy to help you out.
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | July 2021
Report from the Registrar
This is “The Year of the Young Organist”. The American Guild of Organists is celebrating our younger colleagues. For this year, young organists (under 30) both new and renewing, will not have to pay membership dues!
This is a great opportunity to reach out to your students or otherwise young organists you know, and share the gift of membership with them. Simply share this link with them and have them fill out the form. https://www.agohq.org/free-membership/
If you are a young organist and existing member, you will receive an email invite from National Headquarters, steering you toward the above link. This is where you will renew your membership for the coming year.
It is important to know that these memberships AND renewals will not go through ONCARD. They have to use the form at the above link.
Let’s all spread the word and reach out to the younger crowd and get them involved!
Be well and safe!
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | June 2021
A very warm welcome Isaac Rhea to the North Shore Chapter. Isaac comes to us as a dual member from the Rockford Chapter. He joined us as part of the “Year of the Young Organist” program sponsored by national headquarters.
After a couple members reached out to me, I’ve discovered there is an issue with our substitute list on the North Shore site. What you have all being entered into ONCARD is not being transmitted to us, so the sub list is on the North Shore site is outdated. In an effort to fix this, I have a note out to national asking if there is a way to automize this, or for an easy way to pull this data. This past week, I manually looked at each member record in ONCARD to see who checked the boxes for substitute availability. I will update the substitute list with the data I pulled. Once that’s done I will send an email blast to everyone on the substitute list and ask them to verify the correctness of their availability. I will have a note in the next Overtones with an update on this issue. Stay tuned!!
Be well and safe!
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | May 2021
We would like to extend a warm North Shore Chapter welcome to Ethan Mellema who joined us this past month. Welcome Ethan! We hope to see you at our upcoming virtual event!
A gentle reminder that roughly half of our chapter is up for membership renewal between May 1st and July 1st. You will receive an email from national headquarters reminding you it’s time to renew, if you opted to get a paper invoice one, will be mailed to you. When you renew, that is a great time to consider a chapter gift which helps to ensure that we can provide you the quality programing and outreach in the years to come. For our chapter, you can make a general contribution or one specifically for scholarships. There are also opportunities to donate to National funds, should you choose to donate nationally.
If you are unsure when you are due for renewal, or aren’t sure where to navigate on the website, please contact me and I will help you out.
This video will walk you through the renewal process via ONCARD:
Be well,
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator
Membership Matters | April 2021
This month, North Shore Chapter extends a warm welcome to Ethan Mellema who joined our chapter. Welcome Ethan, we hope to see you at our next event!
As always, if you need help with your membership, or need help navigating our website, or even the national site, don’t hesitate to reach out and I’ll help you the best I can.
Did you know that your AGO membership gives you the benefit of joining the Church Music Institute for only $35?
By action of the AGO National Council on June 11, 2019, the American Guild of Organists entered into a partnership with the Church Music Institute to provide discounted CMI membership rates for AGO members. AGO members can have access to all Church Music Institute member benefits with a discount of $40 off the $75 individual membership, less than half the cost of regular CMI membership, which include access to its online Sacred Music Library with over 18,000 choral selections and over 13,000 organ compositions. Please log in to ONCARD and click on “Update Personal Information” to get the members-only link to join CMI.
Happy Spring!
Rich Spantikow
Registrar/Membership Coordinator