Team in Training Update: Swimming in the Bay!

Saturday was a long brick (bike and run) workout in Moraga, a hamlet located on the other side of the East Oakland hills. I decided to bike home after the workout as Emilio needed the car to take the boys to my son's soccer game in the morning. It was a gorgeous ride through dappled oaks and redwoods (and past the tiny town of Canyon), probably about 36 miles including the trip home. Though I'm a night person, early morning is really the time to do these things, before all the crazy drivers come out. A caravan of model T's processed through the winding roads at one point. I felt so happy to be outside, as if I were in some movie scene of a perfect sunny day.

Sunday morning at 8:30 am we all regrouped, this time at Aquatic Park in San Francisco. I'd been dreading this swim workout, since all of my open water swims have been rather disappointing, athletically speaking. I have discovered that while I am as comfortable as a catfish in water, I swim slower than a flounder (perhaps flounders are fast. Slower than ... an abalone?). The air was a chilly 45 degrees as we struggled into our cold wetsuits. I put on two swim caps, one latex, one silicone. Some folks had booties, gloves and neoprene caps with chin straps, while others -- not with our group -- were diving in with just a swimsuit on!

We dove in and man was it cold. But after the initial shock, I realized that once again, that fabulous wetsuit was saving the day! We began a 30 minute swim around the buoys, and it was the most enjoyable open water swim yet for me. As I turned to breathe one way, I could see sailboats, the Marin Headlands and even the Golden Gate. As I turned to breathe the other, I could see the giant Ghirardelli sign. The salt water felt incredibly buoyant, and didn't taste too bad either. As I stroked, I enjoyed a fantasy in which my swimming form had become smooth and efficient -- until I realized that it was only the current that had cut my time in half going one direction. Sure enough, I was among the stragglers as we ended the swim in the other direction. But I took plenty of pleasure in realizing that I was not too cold (other than my feet, which felt like blocks of ice) or tired when we got out. Translation: I may be slow, but at least I'm not working super hard to be slow. Which bodes well for a triathlon.

We ended the Bay swim with a wetsuit relay -- we had to swim around a coach on a surfboard, then run onto the beach and take off our wetsuit as fast as possible before the next person could go. As if I were on an episode of Survivor, I dove in and swam as hard as I could, though when I went the other team was struggling to get out of the wetsuit so I didn't have an opponent in the water. I got out and made a quick exit from my wetsuit. "Was I fast? Did I look fast? I felt like I was swimming really fast just now," I said to another woman who was waiting for her turn to swim. She looked confused. "Uh, you mean did you swim fast? Uh, well, uh, yeah, good job." Hmmm. Fantasy had struck again.

Finally we got dressed for the run. Only a handful had come prepared, but I am so glad I did it. I went for the shorter route, but some ended up doing the whole Escape from Alcatraz running route, which goes past the Golden Gate to Baker Beach, a nine-mile course. I ran six miles, or just a half-mile short of the Golden Gate. As I ran, I just drank in the scenery. Can you believe I have never run along Crissy Field? We turned around at the warming hut, which is not, as far as I can tell, a warming hut, but rather a souvenir shop.

Here I am, born and raised in the Bay Area, but there are things in this beautiful spot in the world I've never done before. My brother has been living in Paris with his wife this past year, and I never managed to get the money together to go see them and do a gig. But this weekend I had my Paris, and I swam in it too.

More on the IAJE Bankruptcy

I just received this email from IAJE:

Dear IAJE Family,

It is with a great sense of loss that I inform you that despite drastic efforts to cut expenses and raise emergency funds, the IAJE Board has voted to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7 of the Federal Bankruptcy Law. I want to thank profusely those who responded with their generous donations and offers of assistance following my last communication. While over 250 individuals contributed just over $12,000, this, along with the many other efforts and contributions of IAJE staff, Board members, and association partners, was simply not enough to address the accumulated debt of the organization or its urgent need for cash relief.

In the next few days, a Kansas bankruptcy court will appoint a trustee to oversee all ongoing aspects of the association. This includes the ability to examine IAJE's financial records and mount an independent inquiry into the causes of it's financial downfall as well as disposing of the remaining assets of the association with proceeds distributed to creditors in accordance with Kansas and Federal law. The board will no longer be involved in operation of the organization and will at some point resign. IAJE as it presently stands will no longer exist.

Approximately a week after filing, all potential creditors of the association will receive notice of the association's filing from the court. Members who desire additional information regarding the petition, including a complete listing of association assets and liabilities, may retrieve this, as it is a public document, through normal court procedures. Undoubtedly, however, you will have more immediate questions deserving of responses I hope to address in this report.

Since the first communication to the membership outlining this crisis, there has been considerable public speculation as to its causes. As noted in that communication, years of dependence upon the conference as a primary (but unreliable) revenue stream and the launch of a well-intentioned capital campaign (the Campaign for Jazz), which generated a meager response but required considerable expenditures in advance of contributions, drove the association into insolvency. Sadly, the attendance at the conference in Toronto (the lowest in 10 years) exacerbated an already critical situation, depriving the association of the cash-flow needed to continue daily operations as well as the time needed to seek alternative resources.

While ultimately not able to skirt the financial land mines placed in its path, I want to assure you the IAJE Board has acted responsibly, ethically, and with a sense of urgency ever since it was blindsided last fall with the discovery of the extent of the accumulated association debt. Since that time, the board slashed spending, set specific performance targets for the Executive Director, sought outside consultations, and enlisted the services of several past-presidents and strategic association partners in attempts to raise funds - sadly, with minimal success.

It goes without saying, the board you elected is comprised of very accomplished, intelligent, and dedicated educators and professionals who have given generously of their time in service to this association and care about it passionately. Likewise, our entire professional staff, led by Associate Executive Director, Vivian Orndorff, and Executive Producer, Steve Baker, has worked heroically in the face of declining resources to meet the needs of the association and its members. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank both the board and staff for their service. I have been privileged and honored to serve with them. While there may be those who question specific decisions or strategies in efforts to meet this crisis, the dedication and integrity of these individuals should never be in doubt.

As we move forward, one of the most pressing questions is how the operations of individual chapters and affiliated associations will be affected by this filing. Since our chapters are either separate corporate entitles or voluntary associations with their own boards, constitutions and bylaws; IAJE views them as completely independent entities. Ultimately, however, the trustee and the court will make this determination and it is anticipated that the trustee may request certain information from the chapters in this regard.

Sadly, the 2009 IAJE International Conference in Seattle has been cancelled. However, there has been some discussion of mounting a regional conference in its place. At the moment, Lou Fischer, U.S. Board Representative is fielding inquiries: ljazzmanf@yahoo.com.

For the time being, the IAJE website will remain up. However, the international offices of IAJE will close their doors at the end of the day on Friday, April 18th. Should there be additional questions you may submit them to info@iaje.org and every attempt will be made to respond to these as staffing allows.

Today, we, the members of IAJE and the global jazz community, face an extremely important task. For, as we all recognize, the opportunities, impact, and work of this association are too vital to simply disappear. Whether you were first drawn to IAJE for its conference, its magazine or research publications, its student scholarship programs such as Sisters in Jazz or the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz All-Stars, its Teacher Training Institutes, the resources provided through its website or Resource Team, or any one of a number of other offerings; it is clear the mission of IAJE still resonates and its advocacy is needed today more than ever. We must, therefore, look at this as an opportunity to refocus the mission, scope, programs, and vision of IAJE (or whatever succeeds it) to better meet the needs of our members and the jazz community not only today but looking toward the future.

I am, in no way, suggesting the membership turn a blind eye towards the need for an independent inquiry into causes and ultimately assigning responsibility for this situation. I ask you recognize the court appointed trustee, who will have access to all necessary documents and facts, is charged with that task. Our efforts and our passion, should be to collectively rally the community to recognize the importance IAJE has had and continues to have in the life and development of jazz and jazz education - seeking new strategic partnerships, new government structures, and a revitalized mission that embraces current needs.

Already there are efforts to do just that. I know that Mary Jo Papich, who would have begun serving her term as President of IAJE beginning this July, is dedicated to recreating such an association. As many know, Mary Jo has been a tireless advocate for IAJE, serving it long and well. You will, undoubtedly, be hearing from her in the near future. When she does contact you, I urge you to join me in offering her every support and assistance. Of course, others may also seek to fill this void by promoting alternative visions for empowering, serving, and gathering the jazz community. While I generally believe such diversity is quite healthy, I would strongly encourage all such efforts and leaders to attempt to collaborate and seek ways to unite us in spirit and strength.

Finally, I would encourage you to recognize and remember IAJE for all the tremendous good it has done in the past 40 years. Many individuals have contributed along the way, often at considerable personal sacrifice of their time and resources, to establish and advance the work of this association. Much has been achieved that can never be taken away! Therefore, the vision, effort, and shared passion that have fueled the growth of IAJE and its programs should not be forgotten or considered in vain. Rather, the spirit that is IAJE must be rekindled into a new vision for the future.

Sincerely,


The IAJE Board - Chuck Owen, President

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This message has been sent to you by the International Association for Jazz Education, PO Box 724, Manhattan KS 66502, USA � info@iaje.org

Fundraising Goal Reached!

Thank you so much to the generous donors who helped me raise $2900 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, a fabulous charity that, since the 1950s, has made a huge difference in the outcomes and quality of life of those afflicted with blood cancers.

I got home from a gig Tuesday night with $300 cash in my pocket and thought, well, I can use this money to make my minimum goal. There in my email was a wonderful message informing me that a fan I originally met through MySpace had donated $190, exactly the amount I was short! Turns out he liked those wetsuit videos! (And he's a sweetheart.)

But hey, you can still donate any small (or large) amount and help me get to a nice round $3000 if you wish. You'll get a receipt for your taxes via email, and the link is secure online:
http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/AlexaWeberMorales

Now all I have to do is finish that race on May 4!

I have four plans:
Plan A: Finish the race.
Plan B: Finish the race in three and a half hours.
Plan C: Finish the race in three hours and 10 minutes.
Plan D: Stay positive if the weather is really hot and focus on plan A.

Tomorrow we have a brutal brick workout planned (bike+run). And Sunday we're swimming in the Bay! Woo hoo!

IAJE Goes Bankrupt

Friday, April 18, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM


American jazz gathering, planned for Seattle, is canceled

By Paul de Barros

Seattle Times jazz critic

The most important American jazz gathering of the year, scheduled to
take place in Seattle in January, has been canceled because its
presenter is declaring bankruptcy.

In what is being described as a "perfect storm" of bad luck, unchecked
growth, fundraising and management failures, the International
Association for Jazz Education (IAJE) � an important link to Seattle's
successful school jazz-band scene � has collapsed.

According to IAJE's legal counsel, Alan Bergman, it will go into
Chapter 7 bankruptcy and be turned over to a trustee, its assets
parceled out to creditors.

A letter from the group's president, Chuck Owen, is scheduled to go
out to members as early as today, announcing the bankruptcy � and
essentially the dissolution � of the 40-year-old organization.

"It's a dark day," said band director Clarence Acox, whose
award-winning Garfield High School jazz band has performed at IAJE's
gathering four times.

"It's one of the best jazz events in the world, for the performances
by great musicians, clinics, meetings, a place for people to network
and exchange ideas. It was the one event when all the people in jazz
could get together and have fellowship."

Roosevelt High School band director Scott Brown, whose band has played
the conference as well, agreed.

"I'm bummed," said Brown. "We had hoped to perform, but it's way more
global than that. It's exposure to so much music that's going on
around the world, to information about the business, networking,
clinicians."

IAJE meets in different cities each year, but often in New York.

It began in 1968 as a modest professional gathering of jazz-music
teachers, holding its first conference in 1973.

In 1997, the conference embraced an "industry track," absorbing
another convention previously sponsored by JazzTimes magazine, which
brought in record companies, agents, managers, radio professionals and
high-profile performers such as Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones.

Since then, the organization has formed chapters worldwide and has
become the site for the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters
Awards ceremony; commissions of new works; an academic conference;
programs to promote women in jazz; and a wide array of other programs,
including a teacher-training institute.

In a good year, the conference attracts 7,000 to 8,000 people, a
must-attend for anyone involved in jazz.

Rumors that the organization was in trouble surfaced after this year's
dramatically underattended conference in Toronto, down 40 percent.

In a March 25 letter to 8,000 members, Owen announced the suspension
of IAJE's magazine, its search for a new executive director, its
scholarship programs and its summer retreat.

The letter also explained that the organization's ambitious capital
campaign had spent more money in startup costs than it took in.

Owen asked members to donate $25 and netted about $12,000 from 250
donors, according to Bergman. Greg Yasinitzy, IAJE's Northwest
division coordinator, said he had been told IAJE liabilities exceeded
$1 million.

Bergman said he felt the organization's rapid growth had outstripped
the expertise of its founders.

"A bunch of jazz musicians formed this organization and it grew into a
multimillion-dollar operation with a huge convention and a big staff
and big journal, but it was still run by a volunteer board elected by
the membership that met twice a year."

Though the conference in Seattle has been canceled, there is already
talk of a regional conference that may take place instead.

Team in Training: Taking Off My Wetsuit

Please join my generous sponsors in supporting this triathlon challenge with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. You too can say you helped cure blood cancers! It's quick and secure online, and you'll get a receipt for your taxes via email. Donate today!

http://www.active.com/donate/tntgsf/AlexaWeberMorales

Soccer Mom!

I help out in school every week for an hour. It's not fun. First-graders drive me freakin' nuts. I know this because last year, when I helped out in kindergarten while breastfeeding the baby, I was unflappably cheery. The plus of being in the classroom is observing that my son is not the only one doing things that instantaneously activate the anger center of my reptilian brain. Another plus is seeing that the other parents who help out in the classroom aren't finding this any easier than I am.

What a delight, then, to discover that I truly enjoy watching my son's soccer games! I just signed him up this season to the Oakland Soccer League. We lost the first game, last week, a zillion to one. But my husband and I had so much fun yelling from the sidelines. And I felt good because I'd had a gig the night before and had gotten home at 3 AM and skipped the 8 AM Team in Training workout. The whole family was on a high the rest of the day after soccer.

Then, this Saturday, I managed to gig the night before, sleep 5 hours, do a practice triathlon AND watch my son's game (which was later in the afternoon, making all this possible). Unfortunately, we lost the game TWO zillion to zero, and there was a slight dampened enthusiasm among the parents yelling on the sidelines. We stayed after the game to watch the next two teams for a few minutes. One team was all Mexican (though one Farsi-speaking muslim family was part of the fan base). We've said to our son that when he gets more experience we'll try to get him on a Mexican team.

The mood was pretty serious as they warmed up. The coach told them (in Spanish) they'd better win the game. He told them to get angry out there. He told them to work hard. But the other (all-white) team was very, very good. Emilio and I found ourselves impressed by how well these kids controlled the ball and how fast the action was. My son wanted to leave but I said, "Let's just watch a few minutes. You know how I like seeing fast runners because it inspires me? We're getting inspired by watching good soccer players."

That night we had an interesting discussion. My brothers and I were always -- still are -- very athletic. Physically, it was clear we had the basic materials, but we were never on super-great teams. I went to a division III college where sports were an after-thought, though I did gain some great experience. So the question is, are great athletes made by the teams they join? Do you point your child towards mediocrity when you put him on a team that never wins, lets everyone play and isn't particularly -- excuse the pun -- "goal-oriented"?

Conversely, must winning teams involve high-pressure, negative intensity that stresses seven-year-olds out?

Of course, I don't expect my son to be an instant soccer star. I think it's fine for him to start out on a low-key team (also, it's coed, which I like). I just worry that, as with academics, perhaps I push too little. It seems to me that the key to instilling a work ethic is to push just enough. Are we?

Team in Training Update: Trial Triathlon Weekend

We left last Friday for training at the site of the May Wildflower triathlons, Lake San Antonio in Monterey County. The site is beautifully situated East of Salinas, with rolling, green hills and twisted oaks. The weather was still chilly, but thankfully the Saturday morning swim in our wetsuits ended up being in warmer water than the previous week's. It took me 18 minutes to get to the halfway point in the 0.9 mile swim, but 40 minutes total. The first five minutes were brutal as I gasped for air. I tried to draft off other swimmers but quickly lost them. But I was content with my performance -- the night before I had worried it would take me over an hour.

Next, we had a leisurely transition into our bike gear for the 26 mile ride along the actual Olympic course. I managed to complete that in 1 hour and 49 minutes -- and I made sure to enjoy the scenery periodically. We all got back to camp at around 3 pm for rest, dinner, speeches and skits.

There are so many reasons I am loving Team in Training and the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society: The enthusiastic people and their breadth of athletic ability and knowledge, the opportunity to explore parts of the Bay Area and Northern California I haven't seen before, the good humor, the camping, and the unwavering yet positive focus the organization maintains on curing blood cancers.

In the evening, several speakers shared their stories of cancer survival with us, inspiring sympathetic laughter at their foibles and tears for their pain and struggle. Among the hardest stories to hear are those of children, such as one spirited five-year-old who had just come through lymphoma -- the same type his father had endured 30 years before, only with new treatments that didn't leave him unable to eat solid food for months at a time. We were urged to celebrate life and our bodies, to enjoy the present moment, and to succeed at our fundraising efforts so that more cancer-killing panaceas could be discovered.

That night, we sang songs around the campfire. Thanks to my ear plugs, I slept late -- but not too late. It was 10k time. While the previous day's swim and run had left me feeling like Olympic distances weren't as hard as I'd thought they'd be, the Wildflower 10k (6.2 miles) is mostly uphill, except for the last mile, which winds dramatically downward. I set out with my frequent running partner Gretchen, who is a faster swimmer and biker than I am but likes my running pace. I told her I wanted to run 8:30 miles if at all possible. We were doing well for a while -- at one point, as we passed others someone said "There goes Gretchen and Alexa -- they're quite a team!" Of course, that gave me a boost of energy that lasted maybe a half mile. Then an endless hill crept up on us.

We were going too fast to talk, so I couldn't distract myself by chatting with Gretchen. I began to suffer mentally. "How're you doing, Alexa?" Gretchen asked as she began to pull away from me. I was losing my motivation. A gap quickly widened between my running partner and me, but I kept her in sight. Eventually, my mood came around. I began chanting in my head: "look at the sky, make your feet fly." The hills would not stop. "Do you think we're past halfway?" someone asked as we passed the next water stop. "We must be, by my watch," I replied. I began to count trees as I passed them. It seemed to work. Next I counted rocks, then bushes, then trees with forks. I noticed a young guy beginning to bound up. Suddenly, I could see the point where the hill ended and the last, steep downgrade began. I sped up. The ground was flat and I passed two people. The slope began to steepen and I picked up speed. There was Gretchen and I called out hello as I passed her. "Way to sprint!" she called out. I must have passed six people at the end, but running a downhill mile sprint isn't quite the same as floating -- I could feel nausea and chills as my body began to question this hectic pace. But there was the last turn, and then another runner to pass, and there was the finish -- and I did it in 52:30! According to the Wildflower results page, that puts me at 8:30-per-mile pace! Definitely a personal record.

If I can keep my expectations reasonable yet ambitious, I now know I can complete this Olympic-distance triathlon in a time I can be proud of.

We have only a few weeks left -- and I only have $380 left to raise! Won't you help me reach the goal? Here's where to go to make your tax-deductable donation to this generous organization online.