Woe is US

Well folks the deed is done.  With yesterday’s anticipated announcement from International Association for Jazz Education president Chuck Owen, the doors have been officially closed on IAJE’s offices in Manhattan, KS, the 2009 Seattle conference has been cancelled, and the whole shebang is about to be turned over to receivership.  The one hopeful note in that avalanche of bad and disappointing news is that an independent investigator will now be assigned to determine how this all transpired.  I for one remain astounded that fiscal malfeasance of this magnitude could only have been revealed in the full light of day to the IAJE board just last Fall — as characterized in an earlier ‘we’re as surprised and dismayed as you’ memo from the board.  How could that be?  How could this level of incompetence have gone on so long, so thoroughly unchecked.  As a 25-year NAJE/IAJE member I for one want some answers — not a pound of flesh mind you — just some legitimate answers as to how the membership and volunteer support of so many of us in the jazz community could have been so thoroughly betrayed.  Have the chickens come home to roost?  WHAT’S YOUR TAKE?