ASTA 75th Anniversary
Virtual Chapter Chats

ASTA is excited to celebrate 75 years of professional training and support for string educators throughout the country. One of the activities created by the ASTA 75th Anniversary Task Force is a new program of monthly virtual chats facilitated by ASTA state chapters for the 2021–2022 school year.

The goal is to provide free resources for ASTA members in honor of our 75th anniversary. These Zoom chats will feature short presentations by experts in various areas of string education, followed by a discussion and Q&A.

Below is a list of speakers by content area. The ASTA 75th Anniversary Task Force has selected speakers with a wide range of viewpoints and name recognition to draw a large audience. Speakers must be current ASTA members and have agreed to waive any fee only for this program, only for this school year. Although not definitive, the list is meant to provide a starting point for chapters to select presenters.

Each chat should be treated as a “town hall” meeting, allowing speakers 15 to 20 minutes to address the topic and another 40 to 45 minutes for discussion and questions. Chapters should provide a moderator to guide the discussion and make sure the chat flows smoothly.

Recommendations for Chapters

Use the ASTA Zoom software.
Choose a moderator who can fulfill the responsibilities listed above.
Set a recurring day and time each month to hold the chats—for example, the first Sunday of each month at 4:00 PM.
Have participants register using a Google form with the option to submit questions ahead of time. Participants may also ask questions live using the Zoom chat function.
Registration must be completed a week before the event so questions submitted ahead of time can be sorted and a sample sent to the presenter (or a process determined by your chapter).
Chats must be recorded so they can be archived by the ASTA national office.
Use the ASTA logo as the background for the moderator.
Have questions submitted through the chat function once the meeting starts.
This program is only in place for the 2021–2022 school year. We hope that each chapter will be able to hold at least six chats before the ASTA National Conference in March 2022.

Please let us know when you are holding your chats so we can add them to the State Events Calendar!

Information for Moderators

Zoom expertise is recommended.
Introduce the speaker/panel (suggested script below). Make sure you have speaker bios before the event.
Keep track of time.
Monitor questions from the audience chat.
Make sure everyone has a chance to speak.
Monitor and guide participants to limit themselves to 2 to 3 minutes per participant.
Keep conversation/dialogue flowing even if there are no questions from the audience.
Promote the next chat topic and date and thank everyone for attending.

Moderator Script

“Thank you for joining us today for the virtual chat. This event is part of a series of chats with respected string educators from around the country in celebration of ASTA’s 75th Anniversary. We are going to start with some prepared questions that were submitted ahead of time.” (OR: “Today’s topic is __________ and we have a great panel of speakers.”)

[Introduce speakers with short bio.]

[After presentation] “In ___ minutes, we will open up the chat and invite any new questions or follow-up questions from everyone here. Use the chat feature to type your question.”

Speaker List by Content Area

(member login required)

Questions?