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About MAGA Inc.
by Robert Gavin & Mike Tseng
If you are thinking of becoming a professional music arranger,
electronic arranger, orchestrator and/or copyist, you should
also think seriously about belonging to a professional association
whose objective is to advance and protect the professional
status and interests of its members. The Music Arrangers'
Guild of Australia Incorporated (MAGA Inc.) is such an organisation.
It is a national body registered as an incorporated association
with the Australian Securities Commission as well as the Department
of Fair Trading (NSW), and as such, it is a unified entity,
which has brought together all the former State Divisions
of MAGA. In so doing, it is represented by a stronger voice
as reflected by the size of its overall membership throughout
Australia, which currently numbers about 300. Its Registered
Office, together with a sitting National Executive, is based
in Sydney. Non-NSW Executive Members are located in Brisbane,
Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.
The Guild's members are Australia's music arrangers, electronic
arrangers, orchestrators and copyists who notate by the manuscript,
computer or music file method. A set of Rules, Definitions,
Regulations and Allowances forms the basis for regulating
and governing operations of the Guild. A Recommended Fee Schedule
for different categories of work is also provided to members
only. The Guild's aims include the setting of a professional
standard within the music industry with respect to arranging,
electronic arranging, orchestrating and copying, irrespective
of whether the work is undertaken by the manuscript, computer
or music file method. To ensure that new member admissions
have a minimum standard of proficiency, be they arrangers
or copyists, an entry test is conducted on applicants. Subject
to the approval of the National Executive, a successful applicant
will be notified of his/her admission into the Guild. For
the casual beginner or the music student MAGA Inc. also offers
an "entry level" of accreditation called the Certificate
of Merit whereby the successful applicant is recognised as
achieving the preliminary standards set by the Guild. Such
persons may then move on to Full Membership within a three-year
period.
A distribution list of current financial members with phone
numbers, addresses and the type of computer software used
by the respective member (where applicable) is issued periodically,
for use by anyone seeking the services of an arranger, electronic
arranger, orchestrator or copyist throughout Australia. Often,
contact is also made among members wishing to swap ideas and
information, or where extra assistance is required on any
job. While the Guild is not an employment agency, the Secretary
has referred clients to members specialising in particular
types of work in their respective States. Occasions have arisen
whereby a team of copyists from different States have combined
to carry out a job via contact made by telephone, fax, email
and post.
A Newsletter, The MagaScene, is produced and also issued
periodically. It endeavours to provide as much information
as possible in order to keep members informed on issues arising
at National Executive level through to news occurring in the
music industry. Seminars and workshops have been organised
such as a Forum on Traditional Arranging and Copying in which
eminent speakers were invited to relate their experiences,
and an Expo on Arranging and Copying on Computer, in which
manufacturers' representatives and experts conducted demonstrations
on the workings of different hardware and software equipment.
The Guild also provides for the category of Business/Corporate
membership to cover members who execute work under their Business/Corporate
names, as long as they are already individual members of the
Guild. There are also excellent membership opportunities within
the Friends of MAGA Inc., an ancillary form of membership
that comprises of individuals and organisations that offer
a close and rewarding contribution to the ideals of the Guild.
A comforting thought to a new member of MAGA Inc. should
be the realisation that the National Executive comprises of
professional arrangers and copyists throughout Australia who
are familiar with manuscript and computerised music notation,
and they are always ready to assist members on any questions
they may have in the execution of their profession.
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