Newsletters

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)

Access Codes for Da Capo Music Festival Registration:

Teacher Access Code: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
Director of Music: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
NYSSMA Festival Host: [Contact the Developer for the access code]

*You are also welcome to test-drive the system with Demo Data.
Email Patrick for more information.

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.

Late-November Newsletter

Late-November Newsletter and Updates from Da Capo Web Development

  • Teachers, you can see which registration platform your local festival is using by going to the NYSSMA website (www.nyssma.org) and finding the ‘2020 NYSSMA® Festival Calendar’ link.  This document is updated periodically and is also published in the School Music News.
  • Festival Hosts, the time for NYSSMA Solo Festival Registration is quickly approaching.  If you haven’t already done so, you may wish to start making your decisions regarding how you will be handling student registration and scheduling.  If you’d like to use Da Capo Music Festivals, please register for a Festival Host account (reply to this email and ask for the Festival Host Access Code) and click ‘Add A Festival’.  Detailed instructions can be downloaded once you log in to DaCapoMusicFestivals.com for the first time. 
  • 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:
    • While modifying the schedule, you can view the individual student’s multiple audition schedule with one quick click.
    • If you are hosting a midweek/satellite festival that does not include a ‘Saturday’, the times shown on the drag-and-drop graphical schedule no longer span the entire day.
    • There is now a ‘scheduling suggestions’ page that makes suggestions for how to create an efficient schedule using this software.  Work was done to facilitate the scheduling of Percussion students performing multiple auditions.
    • The ability to create an estimate and view an invoice is now a built-in feature.
    • Hosts now have the ability to modify breaks for any adjudication room if a situation arises and a change has to be made. 
  • Last month, Da Capo presented a workshop at the NYSCAME Suffolk/SCMEA/LISFA Symposium on Music Education at East Islip Middle School.  I received great feedback from teachers, directors of music, and festival hosts about the ease of use of the program. 
  • A training session for Festival Hosts and their assistants has been scheduled for 4:00PM on Monday, December 9th at Bayport-Blue Point High School. Space is limited.  Please RSVP by December 6th to Paul Weber at [email protected].  Further training via a webinar/screen share is available for Festival Hosts and their associates.  
  • Da Capo Web Development will be at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in Rochester demonstrating the NYSSMA Registration and Area All-State Nomination Software products. 
    • All are invited to the Showcase presentation at 7PM on Thursday, December 5th in the Convention Center Cascade DEF.
    • Also, come visit us any time at Booth #53 on the vendor floor!

Access Codes for Da Capo Music Festival Registration:

Teacher Access Code: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
Director of Music: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
NYSSMA Festival Host: [Contact the Developer for the access code]

*You are also welcome to test-drive the system with Demo Data.
Email Patrick for more information.

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.

November Newsletter

November Newsletter and Updates from Da Capo Web Development

  • This past October, Da Capo met with leadership at NYSSMA and received some great feedback on the program.  Updates to the system were made based on their suggestions including how multiple audition registrations are handled, the exports that are available, and additional billing functions for Festival Hosts.
  • This month, Da Capo will be presenting a workshop at the NYSCAME Suffolk/SCMEA/LISFA Symposium on Music Education at East Islip Middle School on Election Day, November 5th at 10:00am.  Participants are encouraged to bring laptops or tablets to have a hands-on experience with the NYSSMA Registration System. For more information, please visit the NYSCAME/Suffolk website.
  • The manner in which siblings are handled during scheduling has been updated, making every effort to keep siblings scheduled closely together.
  • A process that will import student registration data from an outside source has been developed.  Reply to this email for more information.
  • There is now a scheduling function to prioritize scheduling for particular school districts or buildings.  Navigate to ‘Create/Modify Schedule’ and click on ‘2c. Special Considerations’ to try this function.
  • Further training via a webinar/screen share is available for Festival Hosts and their associates.
  • Da Capo Web Development will be at the NYSSMA Winter Conference in Rochester demonstrating the NYSSMA Registration and Area All-State Nomination Software products.  Come visit us at Booth #53!

Access Codes for Da Capo Music Festival Registration:

Teacher Access Code: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
Director of Music: [Contact the Developer for the access code]
NYSSMA Festival Host: [Contact the Developer for the access code]

*You are also welcome to test-drive the system with Demo Data.
Email Patrick for more information.

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.