Twenty-five years ago, in the spring of 1984, IAMA officially was born with the election of its first officers. That summer they met at Andrews University, where they enthusiastically planned for IAMA's future and voted to produce its first magazines. Hans Jorgen Holman, an exacting and scholarly music history professor at AU, eagerly started to prepare a professional magazine, The IAMA Journal, while at the same time, another group began to prepare Newsletters, a magazine that would share news and ideas for specific areas of music endeavor.

The idea for IAMA had developed during efforts by Dan Shultz to establish an SDA band directors' association in 1981 while he was serving as music chair at Walla Walla College, now University, and directing its concert bands. His secretary, Julianne Fisher, aware of this project, remarked, "You really should be doing this for all aspects of Adventist music."

The need for such a group had been felt for years and had, in fact, led to the founding of the SDA Church Musicians Guild in 1970. Since most Adventist musicians are teachers in the church's schools and others are not affiliated with the church, the name was seen as being too narrow by definition and too focused on music of the church service. Most viewed themselves as educators or performers first, and second, in some instances, as church musicians.

Although IAMA was started as an association organized into eight divisions for specialized areas of music such as choir, band, orchestra, piano, and others, each with its own set of officers, that model never really flourished. Splitting the members into small subgroups dependent on officers who, because of heavy teaching responsibilities, did not have the time to make their divisions function effectively proved to be unworkable and led to their being phased out in 1996.

A magazine seemed the best possible vehicle to accomplish the goals of the organization and hence the interest in publishing those first issues as quickly as possible. As the editors quickly discovered, however, creating a magazine from scratch can be a daunting undertaking.

In the fall of 1991, Shultz presented a proposal for a more attractive, single publication that would combine the best features of the professional publication and the newsletters. He also asked that a new person be chosen as president of IAMA so that he would have more time to develop the new magazine. The board voted to endorse the changes.

Over the years special issues have been devoted to a number of topics. As readers might expect, the most discussed subject has been the changes happening in worship music. Beginning in 1995, a special issue that gave equal time to both conservative and liberal sides of the argument was printed, launching an ongoing discussion that has continued to the present. Over 20 articles have since appeared on the subject, including a special issue of Notes devoted to a lively discussion of the music used at the 2000 General Conference session in Toronto.

Other special issues have focused on SDA Music in Brazil, hymnody in the SDA church, careers in music, the challenges of being a professional musician and keeping the Sabbath, organs in the Adventist church, and music touring. In addition to the articles, the magazine has provided readers with information about SDA music and musicians around the world, news about significant happenings in Adventist music, and how-to articles for developing special programs.

In response to rapidly evolving technologies that developed in the 1990s, in 2000, the board voted to create a website, www.iamaonline.com, and endorsed the idea of maintaining a hotline for keeping IAMA members informed. Both have been successful ventures.

From the beginning, IAMA expenses required funds beyond the income provided by dues, even though its only costs have been the printing and mailing of its magazines. Editing and layout have been contributed, with the typical issue taking about 200 hours to prepare and special issues requiring additional time. Dues typically have covered about half of the expense and the remainder has been covered through contributions. In the past seventeen years, over $76,000 has been contributed to IAMA, sixty percent of that by one person.

Because of the escalation in printing and mailing expenses, this issue of Notes will be the last magazine to be published by the association in this format. While this will be the end of this defining aspect of IAMA activities, the association will continue as an online presence using its hotline as the conduit for news and its website as a repository for its ongoing Adventist music history research.

With the end of her term this autumn, President Elsie Buck will have given IAMA seventeen years of enthusiastic and effective leadership. In those years she has worked tirelessly on behalf of our association, informing church leaders about our work, promoting it at gatherings of musicians and non-musicians alike, and maintaining contact with the board. She and her husband, Edwin, have been very generous donors, providing funding for the operation of IAMA when normal sources of income were not adequate.