January 2020 Newsletter

January 2020 Newsletter and Updates from Da Capo Web Development

• Happy New Year from Da Capo Web Development! It was an honor to have such a large audience at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in Rochester last month. I met so many wonderful people at the conference and received some great feedback about the registration program. Following the Winter Conference, I was invited by the President of NYSCAME/Suffolk to present a detailed training at Bayport Blue-Point High School. The training was well attended by Festival Hosts across Suffolk County.
  
  It’s been a busy winter break, full of adding new features to Da Capo Music Festivals and developing software for county music organizations across the state. It has been a pleasure to work with such dedicated individuals.
  
  
• I would like to answer some questions that I have been asked, in the hopes of preemptively helping teachers and administrators.
  
  • Where can I find the deadline date for a festival?
    • Teachers can find the deadline date directly on their ‘Home’ page. All of the festivals from their zone are listed. The right-most column contains the registration (and deletion) deadline date. Student auditions that are cancelled after that deadline will incur the NYSSMA adjudication fee.
    • Directors can see the deadline date *for festivals in which students are registered from their district*. If a director of music would like to see all festivals in their zone, they should register for a teacher account on DaCapoMusicFestivals.com.
      
      
  • What are the different levels of access that are available in Da Capo Music Festivals? Why can I not find the link to create a festival?
    • There are three different levels of access in Da Capo Music Festivals. They are all outlined on the following webpage, which is accessible from the DaCapoMusicFestivals.com login page. Account Types for Da Capo Music Festivals.
      
      
  • Where can I find the access code to register for a Teacher account? (Or a Director of Music or Festival Host account?)
    • The access code to register for a Teacher account is printed on Page 3 of the Teacher Instruction Packet.
    • The access codes to register for a Director of Music or Festival Host account can be obtained from Da Capo by replying to this email (patrickhait at gmail dot com).
      
      
  • How do I enter a Home-Schooled student from my district?
    • Directors of Music, only, can see a special building called “District Office”. Instructions on how to register a student for District Office can be found on page 6 and 7 of the instruction packet.
      
      
  • I think I have an account, but I forget how to log in!
    • There is a very user-friendly ‘Forgot Username’ and ‘Forgot Password’ feature that can be found right on the DaCapoMusicFestivals.com login page. Instead of creating multiple teacher accounts, it would be best practice to use the ‘Forgot Username’ feature to find your account.
      
      
• New features for Festival Hosts are constantly being added to Da Capo Music Festivals.  Over the past few weeks, the following features have been added:
  • Ability to email all teachers involved in your festival and CC your Zone Representative
  • Ability to show a ‘Special Message’ to teachers regarding ‘important notes’ about your festival. This text will show up in Bold Red text when the Teacher registers a student (For example: If you are only hosting All-State for one particular instrument family.)
  • Additional billing recording options, including: By Teacher, By Student, Partial payments
  • Auto-Schedule Accompanists in ‘like rooms’ first (An attempt is made to prevent the accompanist from going between several different instrument family rooms back-to-back)

Da Capo Web Development is a Proud Institutional Member of NYSSMA and Commercial Member of SCMEA, supporting Music Education Throughout New York State and Suffolk County.