<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Tahoma; font-size: 13px; "><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Dear MASTA members,</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">I recently received notice from Kirk Moss, the President-Elect of the American String Teachers Association, that the Michigan chapter of ASTA will be awarded the 2010 Outstanding State Chapter Award! The award will be presented at next week's ASTA National Conference in Santa Clara, California. I will be attending the conference and am looking forward to accepting the honor on behalf of our state chapter.</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span></span></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span></span>This award is a great tribute to everyone involved with our Michigan chapter: the MASTA board whose members spend many hours keeping our chapter educationally and financially sound; the project directors who organize and lead our many activities and events; the many string teachers who serve as conductors, camp counselors, master class teachers, and competition adjudicators; and, the many teachers, students and families that attend these exceptional events. This award speaks to all of the hard work that we all do in the service of string teaching, specifically, and music education in general.<span> </span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span></span></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span></span>BRAVO to us all!</font></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font> </p><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Mark Kotchenruther</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; "><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">President, MASTA</font></div></span></div></body></html>