MTNA code of ethics: one member's response.

This letter was received in response to the "Dear Reader" that appeared in the June/July 2004 AMT.

I would like to address actions adopted by MTNA's Board of Directors concerning the revision of MTNA's Code of Ethics, the establishment of an Ethical Concerns Committee (ECC) and a "process for enforcement" to accompany this new code, as stated by Gary Ingle. I believe there could be some serious ramifications of these actions, many of which may have not been considered by the Board of Directors of MTNA.

Don't we already have a very good judicial system in this country to which we may freely take any of our business disputes? That same judicial system has historically been very good at weeding out minor grievances between all business people for multiple decades. Because the process of being involved in any kind of lawsuits with each other as business people is arduous and expensive, our judicial system is able to deter against most of the unnecessary lawsuits that are initiated between business people today--a process which wisely provides all business people both the necessary time and chance to think twice before initiating many frivolous lawsuits in the first place.

We too, as members of MTNA, must fall into this same category of professional business people in this country, all of whom our country's judicial system more than adequately protects. That same system sufficiently provides for the most appropriate and legal venues in which to assure a due process to anyone accused in the event that severe and repeated injustices have actually occurred due to an accused's unethical or immoral behaviors, all of which can be legally managed in our courts. Why should an ECC of MTNA offer its own members a redundant process, not to mention such an ECC's also having to then possibly find itself in the position of serving as an arbitrator or mediator in numerous grievances and complains between MTNA members and their business clients and colleagues, as Ingle suggests: ..." An ECC has been established that will deal with alleged violations of the Code through procedures that assure due process to the member who is accused of an alleged violation ..."? We, as business people and members of MTNA, already are guaranteed this very same thing by the judicial courts in this country whenever that becomes legally necessary.

Practically speaking, instigating a rigorous enforcement of a newly revised MTNA Code of Ethics, by setting up a redundant ECC to do that very thing, will probably, in time, only serve to bring numerous legal complications, endless ramifications and undesired consequences upon a completely overwhelmed ECC. Our Board of Directors and MTNA members currently engaged in the music teaching business in this country simply are not fully qualified or trained to handle these kinds of legal matters.

Additionally, the hasty establishment of an ECC, with the sole purpose of enforcing or arbitrating the newly revised Code of Ethics, would not give the most inexperienced generation of our newest teachers/MTNA members sufficient time to learn and then implement it into their own individual music studios' specialized artistic and business needs. At least, not without having to deal with the fear of reprisals by an ECC in the event that an honest mistake or two is made in their ethical behaviors while learning to teach private music themselves. Just as many of us, who are more experienced teachers or MTNA members, in the past always have had the benefit of possessing both ample time and freedom to make mistakes in our own ethical behaviors and subsequently learn from them without any fear of being judged or disciplined by an ECC.

Therefore, I would respectfully ask the Board of Directors of MTNA to reconsider its decision to establish this ECC. Instead, they might consider disbanding it and concentrating their efforts on a more didactic strategy of disseminating the Code of Ethics throughout the membership of MTNA, free of a harsher punitive approach or stance, which the formation of such an ECC will only succeed in perpetrating. I commend the Board for their efforts to advocate for an updated and relevant Ethical Code for the MTNA of today.

LeAnne Baehni-Schultz

Topeka, Kansas