The Australian Society for Music Education's (ASME) involvement in the development of professional standards for music educators was a significant and active research time in the history of the Society. As ASME celebrates its golden jubilee, it is appropriate to revisit that history and consider the future prospects of subject-specific standards. ASME became a strong player in the professional teacher standards movement in Australia, as it was one of in excess of 20 professional teaching associations that developed subject-specific teaching standards. The focus of this paper is to highlight and explore the process adopted to write the "ASME National Framework for Music Teaching Standards" (2005), the intense activity that took place around Australian between 2005 and 2009 and the impact of the written subject-specific standards with a change in the brief of a new statutory body.