Vivace MEMOS

Memo Subjects in ALPHABETICAL Order.
To read the memo, see the date following the subject, and scroll to the year and month.

  • Archived Festivals: (11/10/20)
  • AT-A-GLANCE Festival Timeline and Who Can Do What (2/26/20)
  • Certificates: (5/6/20), (5/21/20), (6/29/20),  (7/23/20)
  • Composer Rule: Non-American in Piano Solo E1 and above (4/10/20)
  • Display: Correct Vivace Screen Display (2/2020)
  • Festival Area: Authorize vs. Create (5/14/20)
  • Festivals: Postponements (3/15/20); delays (5/6/20)
  • Functionality: Items Not Appearing on Screen (2/2020); Radio Buttons not working? (2/26/20)
  • Grade in School: Grade in School (3/30/20)
  • Instrument: What if I accidently choose the wrong instrument when adding a new student? (1/2020)
  • Manual Entry of Performance Histories: Performance History “Gaps”?  (10/8/20)
  • Permissions: Reviewer Permissions (2/29/20); Vivace Permissions (1/3/20); (2/29/20)
  • Publishers: Checking a Publisher (2/2020)
  • Ratings: Entering Ratings (3/15/20); (4/10/20) ​​
  • Rating Sheets: Ensemble Rating Sheet Clarification (2/26/20); Teachers Printing Rating Sheets (2/26/20)
  • Registration: What if I notice an error in an unapproved registration? (1/2020); What if I notice an error in an approved registration? (1/2020)
  • Reminders: 2020-2021 Vivace Help Documentation & Videos  (10/8/20) 
  • Reports: (2/3/20); Cup | Point History(2/26/20), (3/15/20), (4/10/20), (5/21/20); JR 3-3 (3/30/20), (5/21/20); JR 3-4 (3/30/20), (5/21/20); Scheduling-Recital Format Reports (3/30/20); Student History (5/6/20) (5/21/20); delays (5/14/20); Cup (6/29/20); JR 3-3 & JR 3-4 (6/29/20)
  • Searches: Having trouble with searches? (1/2020); Finding the name of a teacher (2/2020)
  • Theory: Theory Registrations (1/24/20); (2/2020); Invoice Pricing (3/30/20); (4/10/20); (4/12/20)

Memos in DATE order.
See the most recent memos at the top.

November 2020

Archived Festivals
All completed, certified Festivals are archived and considered “historical” Festivals as of July 1 of every calendar year. On the Vivace Festival Management page, click “Include Historical” to see all archived Festivals. (Click the “up” or “down” chevon in any column to sort.)

October 2020

2020-2021 Vivace Help Documentation & Videos  (10/8/20)
Before you begin the Festival year, review current (2020-2021) Vivace support helps:
•  AT-A-GLANCE Festival Timeline and Who Can Do What in Vivace
•  Videos (see new videos indicated in red)
•  Guides
•  New Vivace Functionalities page
Because we all use Vivace only once a year, it is important that we review the process before we manage Areas and Festivals. These could take approximately 30 minutes to review. Visit help.nfmc-music.org/.

Performance History “Gaps”?  (10/8/20)
Legacy Festival/Area Admins: If you have student histories that are missing performances when they were imported from Legacy, you may now use the manual entry procedure to fill in any gaps.
1.  Watch the Manual Entry of Historical Performance Data video.
2.  Read Section II: Historical Performances Management (Manual Entry) on page 6 in the 2020-2021 Festival/Area Admin Guide.
Links to these resources are also always available at the Support Center. Click “HELPS for FESTIVAL/AREA ADMINS” in the Table of Contents on the Support Center homepage.

July 2020

Certificates — Downloading | Printing  (7/23/20)
Festival/Area Admins may now download reports in order to print Participation and Superior Certificates. The PDF files are listed as “Certificates -” and the Excel files (for merging) are listed as “Certificates-Export” on the drop-down menu in Reports. A complete description of each report can be found by clicking the Get Help button at the bottom of the Reports page. You may want to check the description to make sure you are downloading the correct report. (Click here to see the descriptions.)

  1. On the Vivace homepage, click Reports in the Navigate button or Quick Links.
  2. Click the Festival tab.
  3. Click Find for the Festival Area & Festival.
  4. Click the downward chevron in the Select Report field (or click anywhere in the field) and click the appropriate report.
    The report will download in your downloads folder or a folder you have designated.

Reminders . . .
POP-UPS
Mac - Click here for instructions to enable pop-ups and select the download location in each recommended browser. Print following the download.
Windows-You will need to enable pop-ups (to download rating sheets, reports, schedules, etc.) from https://festivals.nfmc-music.org. PC users can learn how by doing an internet search for your particular computer and preferred browser.

READING and PRINTING
Mac - To read and print the help documentation [or certificates]: PDFs will automatically open in the Preview app that is included on a Mac. If printing certificates is not successful in Preview, download Adobe Reader (https://get.adobe.com/reader/) and print from there.
Windows - To read and print the help documentation [or certificates]: download the free Adobe reader at https://get.adobe.com/reader/.
NOTE:
Uncheck the McAfee “Optional Offers” if you do not wish to install the McAfee utility.
To print the certificates: print directly from the Adobe PDF menu or download and print.
NOTE: A recent systems update possibly could have changed your computer’s pop-up permissions, so be certain to allow pop-ups from https://festivals.nfmc-music.org!
Please read the FAQs at the Vivace Support Center before contacting Admins.

June 2020

Memo: Reports & Printing Certificates (6/29/20)
JR 3-3 and 3-4​​
These reports are functioning, but Adults and Juniors are not yet separated. This correction is pending.
Also, when you run these reports, the state fee must be entered correctly in order to get an accurate amount to be sent to the State Treasurer. I contacted everyone individually this morning in the states where it looks like we still need to enter a correct amount in the state fee.
Earned Cup Report​​
This report seems to be accurate except that adults are not included. The final report, when completed, will include a separate list for juniors (Federation Gold Cups) and adults (Federation Silver Cups)
Printing Participation Certificates and Consecutive Superior Certificates
​​At the present time, the report (PDF) is available to print Participation and Consecutive Superior certificates from Vivace. However, many areas are running into problems with printing alignment on the official NFMC certificates.
In many cases, adjustments to printers do not seem to be able to make adequate corrections to the alignment. Because of that, NFMC has approved an export of data (.csv file) that can be used with mail merge to print these documents. These exports are not yet available but are pending.
There is also a pending request for the consecutive superior certificates to be divided by teacher. This is an important sorting option because not all teachers distribute the consecutive superior certificates.

May 2020

Memo: Reports & Certificates (5/21/20)
This memo provides information on the status of certain report functions.
If you discover any problems with calculations on any of these reports, please report back to me with specific details and screen shots.
Federation Cup Reports
The Federation Cup by Festival Area is available.
The Federation Cup by Teacher is pending.
Student History Report
The Student History Report by Festival is available.
The Student History Report by Teacher is available.
The Student History Report by Festival Area is pending.
JR 3-3 and JR 3-4
These reports still need to be able to separate all junior and adult data.
This should be completed very soon.
Participation Certificates
The ability to print onto the participation certificates is still pending.
We are in the final steps of refining the alignment with the printed certificates.
Written instructions on how to adjust for variations in different printers will be available when this is complete.
Consecutive Superior Certificates
The ability to print onto the consecutive superior certificates is still pending.
We are in the final steps of refining the alignment on these certificates as well.
This function will also be available in two forms:
1. Alphabetically by student
2. By teacher, and then alphabetically by student

Festival Area: Authorizing a Festival Area (5/14/20)
We will be replacing the term "Create a new Festival Area" to avoid confusion with the State Festival Chair's ability to create a new Festival Area in the state. Tentatively, the new term will be "Authorizing a Festival Area" when referring to granting access to Vivace.

For the foreseeable future, this permission is only available for national admins. NFMC will give access to areas new to Vivace based on their spot in the timeline of the application process. For everyone's benefit, we will manage the number of new areas who are admitted at any given time so that the support team will be able to provide answers in a timely manner. Later on, State Admins will be able to authorize a Festival Area in their state.

The application process has been in place since last fall so many applications have already been submitted.

COVID-19 Delays: Festivals | Reporting Deadlines (5/6/20)
Any Festival not yet completed because of COVID-19 must have all registrations completed in Vivace by June 29, 2020, at the very latest. If social distancing means that the actual event takes place AFTER that, into July or even August, that is OK. Ratings for the Festival will need to be entered to comply with our new extended deadline for reporting which is August 31.

NFMC has extended the reporting deadline for areas and states in this situation.
Lisa Smith, NFMC Festivals Chairman, sent the details on March 30.
Here is the exact wording:

Festival centers are hereby given an extension until August 31, 2020 to conduct Festival auditions and file the JR 3-3 (Festival Summary Report). Festival auditions may be conducted in the tradition manner (if in compliance with CDC guidelines regarding mass/group gatherings) OR conducted electronically using methods such as FaceTime, Skype, Zoom, YouTube, etc., OR through any combination of the above (this seems to be the option most states/areas are taking).

Student History Report | Certificates (5/6/20)
The Student History Report by Festival is now available.
The Certificates are in the final stages of testing. There are still a few adjustments being made as far as font and alignment.
We will let you know when those will be available.

Also, the Federation Cup Report by Festival Area is now available.
The Federation Cup Report by Teacher will be available VERY soon. (We know this is needed to help Cup Chairman distribute to teachers.)

We have many reports that are now available in Vivace in the Reports module. New reports under Festivals are:

  1. Student History Report
  2. Certificates—Participation - Junior
  3. Certificates—Participation - Adult
    The participation certificates are formatted to print directly onto the JR 3-9 certificates you have ordered through NFMC.
    NOTE: The template already contains the following text in the Music Club line "Member of the __ Club"
    Consequently, do not repeat the word "the" or "club" as you enter the Junior Music Club Name in Junior Club Name column in Student Management - My Students. This is where the information will come from to fill the text fields for the certificates.
  4. Certificates—First Year Superior
  5. Certificates—Consecutive Superior - 3 year
  6. Certificates—Consecutive Superior - 6 year
  7. Certificates—Consecutive Superior - 9 year
  8. Certificates—Consecutive Superior - other (2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11)
    The Superior Certificates have a field for "held in __". This field needs to be completed on the Festival Area Management home page. You may enter 1)state, 2) city and state, or 3) Festival Area and State. (Commas should be placed correctly.)

April 2020

Entering Ratings (4/10/20) ​​
Area Admins have the permission to enter ratings. This position is limited to two people. The two pass system is designed to catch errors and works best if one pass is done by each admin. In most cases, the area admins are teachers.  Since no teacher can enter the ratings for his/her own students, it is permissible for the ratings to be entered on both passes by the other admin.

 

​Student Point History Report NOW AVAILABLE (4/10/20)
Extensive testing has been done on the student point history report. It is now calculating correctly, but is currently only generated by teacher. The student point history report by Festival Area will be available very soon.

 

Earned Cup Report AVAILABLE SOON  (4/10/20)​​
Now that the student point history report is accurate, the earned cup report is next on the list. The adjustments to the calculations are not yet complete. It should be available very soon.

 

​Non-American composer (4/10/20)
In the Piano Solo event, the verification for a non-American composer is now functioning. At Elementary I and above, if a an American composer is selected as the composer of the choice piece, the registration cannot be completed and the teacher is reminded of the non-American composer requirement.

 

Theory Event - REMINDER  (4/10/20) ​​
The Theory event is now a separate item on the invoice pricing. IMPORTANT:  If your area had participants in the theory event in 2019-2020, your Festival Admin will need to go to the Festival Area Management page and enter an amount in the theory event. Because of the way Vivace is programmed, this is necessary so that the JR 3-3 and JR 3-4 will be generated accurately.  As I have been working through the system, I have noticed that many of you have not yet done the above step. Please take a moment to enter the dollar amount for theory.

March 2020

Theory Event (3/30/20)
​​The Theory event is now a separate item on the invoice pricing. IMPORTANT:  If your area had participants in the theory event in 2019-2020, your Festival Admin will need to go to the Festival Area Management page and enter an amount in the theory event.  Because of the way Vivace is programmed, this is necessary so that the JR 3-3 and JR 3-4 will be generated accurately.

 

​Grade in School (3/30/20)
The grade in school now displays only when the option to combine is selected during a concerto registration. Previously, it appeared on all registrations but was not an active button until it applied. Since it appeared, we all thought it was active and that the grade in school was being selected automatically. The fact that is was non-active was not clear and was confusing to many of us including me.

 

Scheduling: Recital Format Reports (3/30/20)
For those Festival areas that schedule using the recital format (blocks of times rather than individual times), there is the option to generate reports showing times in recital format. You may select a report in recital format in the schedule tab.  When sending the schedule to the teacher, make sure to select the recital format radio button.

Entering Ratings (3/15/20)
The preferred method of entry is for pass 1 to be completed by a different person than pass 2. Since reviewers are not at the permission level to enter ratings, this requires that there are two area Admins. If you need a second area admin, make your selection carefully and let me know.  I will add the second person as Area Admin. It is acceptable for one admin to enter the ratings for the other admin's students in both pass 1 and 2.
There is a change order in place for the "No Rating" to be replaced with 3 options:

  • Did not Perform   (These students may enter next year with the same
    pieces.)
  • Disqualified
  • Comments Only
    We will let you know when this upgrade is completed.  In the meantime, keep your records so you can go back in and update the ratings. Just thought of something, at the present time it is impossible for anyone, anyone at all to change a rating once it has been certified. This option needs to be available to the national admins because we all know we won't be perfect, even with the 1st and 2nd pass safety net.  Just keep your records so that we can correctly enter the 3 options for a No Rating.            

 

Festival Postponements (3/15/20)
This has been a wild week with many areas under suddenly imposed meeting restrictions which have made it necessary to postpone Festivals.  Every area I have talked to is not cancelling at this point, but exploring alternative solutions. Those of you who were able to finish your Festival before this happened are so lucky!

 

Earned Cup Reports and Point History Reports (3/15/20)
These two reports work from basically the same set of queries. We believe that the reports are fixed, except for one detail. At present, it does not allow a student to combine points in two different sections (ie piano and violin). This was a miscommunication between the practical committee and the developer and should be fixed next week. In the meantime, please please run this reports and proofread to see if there are any other problems.If so, report them directly to me with specific details and screen shots to verify.

 

JR 3-3 End-of-Year Report (3/15/20)
We do know that there is one calculation that needs to be fixed. At the present time, those students receiving no rating are being included in the totals. This is not correct and should be fixed by next week. Please let me know if you see any other problems in the calculations of this report.

 

JR 3-4 End-of-Year Report (3/15/20)
We have asked that the format of this report be changed to landscape so that the print may be enlarged to 12 point or 14 point font.
Then it will be much easier to view.

February 2020

Vivace Permissions (2/29/20) (FAQ)
When each person is given access to Vivace, it includes being granted permission to use the system. Each person is entrusted with certain permissions in the system that allows them to do their respective duties. They need to honor the faith NFMC has placed in them by protecting their username and password and ensuring that NO ONE ELSE is able to use the login to gain permissions they were not assigned. Because there is so much personal data in Vivace, there is a monitoring system in place, and breaches of this trust will result in permissions being removed.

 

Reviewer Permissions (2/26/20) (FAQ)
The permissions list and videos have stated that reviewers will have the ability to enter ratings after the Festival. This is not correct. Only the two people assigned as area administrators have the ability to enter ratings after the Festival.

  1. Approve or Not Approve registrations
  2. Send the emails regarding unapproved registrations
    (The Area Admin will also receive a copy of this email.)

 

Earned Gold Cup Reports (2/26/20)
The Earned Gold Cup Report has been under revision. The computations were not being done correctly. This was also the case with the Point History Report and several others. The corrections are almost complete. I will let you know when we feel they are now computing accurately. At that point, if you are still seeing errors, you will need follow the chain of command and report any problems. With Festival season in full swing, it will be good to have these things corrected.

 

Radio Buttons not working? (2/26/20) (FAQ)
Did your little “Approved” or “Not Approved” buttons stop responding as you were working on registrations? If so, set your browser magnification a little lower to resume the function of these buttons. Google "browser magnification" to learn how to do this on your computer (Mac or PC) and your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). If the problem persists, contact your State Admin or your computer-savvy student.

 

AT-A-GLANCE Festival Timeline and Who Can Do What (2/26/20) (FAQ)
Want to take the mystery out of the Festival experience? Take a look at the new AT-A-GLANCE Festival Timeline and Who Can Do What document which is a quick look at the timeline and which tasks everyone should/can do. (Found at the Support Center homepage.)

 

Ensemble Rating Sheets Clarification (2/26/20) (FAQ)
When you print a Rating Sheet for a Duet or other ensemble, only the first student registered will be listed on the Rating Sheet. When the rating is recorded via scanner or manually, the other partner(s) will automatically receive the rating for that event. Their grades will not be visible online until all ratings are certified.

 

Teachers Printing Bar Codes on Rating Sheets (2/26/20) (FAQ)
Teachers can now print their own rating sheets. To insure the bar code prints on Rating Sheets, be sure to test print first! If the bar code does not fully print, adjust the scaling settings in your print dialogue window.

 

Seeing the Teacher Name of a Student Who Needs to be Archived in Another Festival Area (2/2020) (FAQ)
When a student from a different Festival Area needs to be archived, Admins will now be able to see the previous teacher's name.

 

Theory Student Registration (2/2020) (FAQ)
How can I schedule Theory students and see a report?
Registrations for the Theory Event must be approved, but they are not scheduled. You will see all approved registrations on the Theory Event Register report found in the Report listings.

 

Checking a Publisher (2/2020) (FAQ)
When approving registrations and you need to check the publisher, click the edit icon to see the complete registration.

 

Functionality | Items Not Appearing on Screen (2/2020) (FAQ)
Admins, when troubleshooting with users regarding functionality or items not appearing on the screen, first ask 1) what kind of computer they are using and 2) which browser are they using.

 

Correct Vivace Screen Display (2/2020) (FAQ)
MAC users should use Chrome or Firefox browsers in order for Vivace to display correctly in the scheduling module.

 

2020 January

How to Enter Theory Registrations (1/2020) (FAQ)
To enter a student in the Theory Event, see “Musicianship” at the very bottom of the Events choices and click. Choose Theory.

 

Having trouble with searches?  (1/2020) (FAQ)
Less is best! See why and how.

What if I notice an error in an unapproved registration? (1/2020) (FAQ)
A teacher may correct any error in an unapproved registration. 

 

What if I notice an error in an approved registration? (1/2020) (FAQ)
For approved registrations, please contact your Festival/Area Admin.

 

What if I accidently choose the wrong instrument when adding a new student? (1/2020) (FAQ)
First, archive the student with the incorrect instrument. Then, add the student with the correct instrument.