Streaming video service now available at McPherson Public Library

The next great thing has arrived at the McPherson Public Library!  Through the library website, library patrons can sign up for quality video entertainment and education with RBdigital Video.

This popular streaming service offers a full slate of original and exclusive programming, from the best in movies and television to concerts to educational courses. Included are popular favorites on Acorn TV and IndieFlix, as well as concerts on Stingray Qello and educational channels, such as The Great Courses and LearnItLive. Viewers will enjoy both the quality and the selection. 

Thousands of hours of commercial-free programming are available, and new shows are added weekly, so there’s always something to explore. Streaming content may be viewed on laptops, PCs, mobile devices, or television. Please note that this service is available only to library patrons residing in the 67460 zip code.

“This project has been in the planning stages for eight months, and we are excited to make it available for patrons now,” said Library Director Steve Read, “There is just the right balance of entertainment and educational channels.” 

To access RBdigital video, go to macpl.org/mplstreaming. This page will provide information for support services, details for watching streaming channels on a variety of technology, and step-by-step instructions for streaming access. 

RBdigital Video is made possible by the McPherson Public Library Endowment Fund. 

For additional information call the library at 245-2570 or email them at [email protected] 

McPherson College president elected to national board

Michael Schneider, president of McPherson College, was elected to a three-year term to the Board of Directors for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). He will represent Region VII, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. President Schneider was elected at the close of the 2020 NAICU Annual Meeting and Advocacy Day held in Washington, D.C. last week.

“NAICU does extraordinary work for private colleges and I am honored to serve,” said Schneider. “I am excited to advocate for the hundreds of mission-driven colleges and universities that educate many of our nation’s best students.”

President Schneider has served McPherson College in a number of key positions since 2002 helping spearhead increased giving to the college and enrollment numbers. The college appointed him president in 2009, at the time he was the youngest college president in the United States. He is a graduate of McPherson College and earned an MBA from the University of Denver and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to returning to McPherson College, he ran a publishing company and supported a range of start-ups from information technology to green energy.

Today, he is passionate about lifting up liberal arts through an entrepreneurial mindset that sparks the interest and imagination of the entire campus. The college’s strategic plan, Community by Design, changed the way the campus plans for the future. The plan, created by the entire campus, focuses on creative initiatives like The Student Debt Project, which partners with students to eliminate student loan debt. Under his leadership, McPherson College has been named in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the list of “Great Colleges to Work For” for the past five years.

As a NAICU board member, President Schneider will help set the association’s agenda on federal higher education policy, actively encourage support for the association’s priorities and initiatives, and oversee the organization’s financial administration. As part of his service, President Schneider will be a member of the board’s student aid committee, which is spearheading work to enhance the federal Pell Grant program. 

With more than 1,000 colleges, universities, and associations as members, NAICU serves as the unified national voice of independent higher education and reflects the diversity of private, nonprofit higher education in the United States. Member institutions include major research universities, church-related colleges, historically black colleges, art and design colleges, traditional liberal arts and science institutions, women’s colleges, two-year colleges, and schools of law, medicine, engineering, business, and other professions.

MC Band works with composer for KMEA concert

It is a big moment for the McPherson College band.

The band will perform at the Kansas Music Educators Association (KMEA) state convention on Feb. 27 at Century II in Wichita. This is the second time in the past three years that KMEA has selected the band to perform.

Kyle Hopkins, director of bands and associate professor of music, says being selected to play at the convention that hosts thousands of musicians and music educators from the across the state is always an honor, but it is remarkable for a band consisting primarily of non-music majors to be selected twice in such a short time.

“I am proud of what we have built in our band program with mostly non-majors. It’s always been my mission to make music a part of my students’ lives regardless of their majors,” he said. “It’s really unheard of that a band from a small college like ours is selected to perform twice in three years.”

The performance is special for another reason as well. The band will perform an original piece of music composed exclusively for it by Meri Jenkins, a musician from Wichita. Jenkins has a degree in music performance from the University of North Carolina and studied composition there. She writes chamber music for the quintet Intrepid Brass and performs with the Wichita fusion jazz and funk band, Daydream. This is the first time she has written for a full band.

“This is a really big deal,” Jenkins said. “I hope it is the beginning of a career. It’s both exciting and terrifying to think about it being performed to such a big audience and one that is so musically oriented. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that people like it and want more.”

Performing new music is not unusual for a band and is an important part of the band experience, Hopkins explained. It is common for bands to form consortiums and commission new works. However, the McPherson College band took this practice a step further and worked one-on-one with a new composer to create a new work written specifically for the band.

“This was a really a unique experience for all of us,” Hopkins said. “We were able to meet so many times and have great interaction with the composer. The students loved being part of the process. If they had their way, all we would play is Meri’s piece.”

The work titled, “The Sisu Within You,” refers to a Finnish construct that means discovering extraordinary courage, determination, perseverance, and dignity after reaching the end of physical, emotional, and psychological endurance like a “second wind” of inner strength. Jenkins said titles for her compositions usually come at the end of her writing process but that was not the case this time.

“I like to name my pieces with words that don’t translate easily to English but describe complex feelings,” she said. “This one came to me before I was finished. This was a very big undertaking and I was questioning if I could finish. It was how I felt when I was writing this. I had to find that within myself.”

Both Jenkins and Hopkins play horn and perform with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and Wichita Grand Opera. Jenkins has a master’s degree in horn performance from Wichita State University and when Hopkins learned she also composed, he proposed that she create a piece for his concert band.

“It was a leap of faith for both of us,” Hopkins said. “It was a huge risk for her because she had never composed for a full band, and it was a gamble for me placing my faith in such a new composer.”

According to Hopkins, the gamble paid off. Because Jenkins spent so much time getting to know the band, she was able to write music that featured individual musicians and highlighted the strengths of the ensemble. She also incorporated thematic suggestions made by the students.

“Trying to find ways to create community within the band can be challenging,” Hopkins said. “We are all together only about three hours a week so having time for something that is unique and binding isn’t easy. The creative process with Meri was very much a community-building activity. It gave us a sense of us.”

Jenkins agreed that composers do not often get an opportunity to work closely with the performers and she appreciated all the time she was able to spend with the students.

“Being able to break through the barrier between composer and performer really inspired me,” she said. “Getting to hear the excitement of the students is what fueled me. Kyle believed in me as a new composer and now it’s my turn to believe in them to perform my piece. I am very proud of all the students and how they embraced my work.”

The band debuted the new work at its fall concert in November. Since then, Jenkins and the band have reworked much of the arrangement. There will be one other opportunity for audiences to hear the piece this year when the band performs it on March 8 at McPherson College during a collaborative concert with Hutchinson Community College.

City announces 2020 funding for four organizations

The Special Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board met on February 5, 2020, at 11:50 a.m. to hear proposals from various requesting organizations for funding in 2020/2021.  The board heard from four requesting parties.  The notes from the meeting are attached and include information from the presentations and discussions related to the requests for funds, followed by the recommendations of the board.  The requests and recommended funding amounts are as follows:

-DARE/ADIS: $7,000 plus DARE related wages

-Central Kansas Foundation (CKF): $20,000 in case reimbursements

-Omega Project: $7,500.00

-Prairie View - Drug Alcohol Outpatient Services: $2,500.00 in drug and alcohol case reimbursement

The total amount recommended for appropriation in 2020 is $37,000.00 plus DARE related wages.

McPherson awarded CDBG Housing Rehab Grant

On Thursday, February 13, 2020, the Kansas Department of Commerce officially announced awardees of the CDBG Grant for the 2020 round of funding.   McPherson was awarded a $300,000.00 Housing Rehabilitation Grant.   This is the 3rd CDBG Housing Rehab Grant received by the City of McPherson since 2016. This grant includes rehabilitation work on 13 homes, including both rental and owner occupied, in a target area best described as bordered on the west by Main Street, on the north by Avenue A, on the east by both sides of Elm Street, and on the south by Avenue F. The grant will need to be completed by March 14, 2022.  We are extremely excited and thankful for the opportunity to utilize another housing grant in McPherson.  Including this grant, over one million dollars in reinvestment has been made to McPherson properties since 2016.

The City of McPherson received the CDBG Housing Rehabilitation Grant Agreement between the City of McPherson and the Kansas Department of Commerce at a required grant workshop.  To officially accept the Housing Rehab Grant the City of McPherson must execute the attached agreement.  

Also included the Condition Letter from the Department of Commerce and some additional information received at the grant workshop on some of the grant requirements.  A map of the target area is also included.

Agreement:go.boarddocs.com/ks/comks/Board.nsf/files/BLQW3L81E3CA/$file/Grant%20Agreement%20No.%2020-HR-003.pdf

Condition Letter: go.boarddocs.com/ks/comks/Board.nsf/files/BLQW3N81E3D6/$file/Condition%20Letter%20for%20Grant%2020-HR-003.pdf

Map: go.boarddocs.com/ks/comks/Board.nsf/files/BLQW3T81F106/$file/CDBG_2019_Revised%20Map.pdf