Grant High School Band Boosters

Transcription

1 Grant High School Band Boosters The Grant High School Band Boosters meeting was held Tuesday, September 16, 2014 at 6:30 p.m.. The following members were in attendance: Amy Geoffroy, President X President-Elect Vacant Phaedra Cole, Secretary X Priscilla Klockner, Treasurer X Nancy Puglia, Communications X Brian McFadden, GHS Music Director X Karis Amgren X Dave Howell X Jenny Churchill X Jeannie Daugherty X Donna Wax X Jeff Jones X Mark Jones X Phil Braun X James Churchill X Item Discussion Conclusion/Recommendation Action/Follow-up 1. Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by Amy. Amy welcomed participants to the first Band Booster meeting of the 2014/2015 school year 2. Review and Approval of Minutes The minutes from the May 20, 2014 meeting were reviewed. Minutes approved as submitted. 3. Introductions & Updates from Mr. McFadden Amy reviewed guidelines for meetings: Stick to agenda One person speaks at a time Respectful of all ideas Assign action items Understand issues before going forward Recommended guidelines approved as submitted. 1

2 Update from Mr. McFadden The transition has been going well and it s been a good start to the year. Students are engaged and the first concert will be Oct 8. Student support and leadership is great. There are 97 total students in the program all ensembles combined. Based upon the overall size of Grant, the goal is to get to 15-20% of the total student body involved in the band program. Based upon the current enrollment, the level is 10%. One of Mr. McFadden s goals is to increase enrollment for incoming classes. Beaumont currently has 70 8 th graders. Mr. McFadden would like at least 200 students enrolled in the band program at the start of the next school year. Another goal is to increase the involvement of band in the community. All students should know where the band room is and how to get access to instruments. Pep Band is going to be a bigger deal this year. Mr. McFadden has been having discussions with the new athletic director who has offered to buy t-shirts for the pep band. Shirts should be here by the next home game. Brian would also like the pep band to have hats and the $11/hat will need to be covered by band funds. Overall, Mr. McFadden would really like to get kids to think of the bigger picture and that music isn t just a class you take in high school. For example, Ben Medler from PYJO (Portland Youth Jazz Orchestra) recently visited and worked with the Jazz Ensemble. Brian would like the kids to attend other jazz concerts around town and/or the symphony. Possibly ask MYS,PYP or the Oregon Symphony for discount tickets so students can attend those concerts. Future ideas on promoting the band program include: Pep rallies around school possibly on Thursday nights before games to try and get more people at the football games. Maybe walk around the streets near the school to get more people to attend. Band Flocking happens the week before the Civil War game (Tues night prior). Would go downtown with the pep band and go to businesses and play either the UO or OSU fight song and ask people for donations to play the opposing school s fight song in front of store owners that may be ducks or beavers fan. Caroling around the community and/or in the high school class rooms. Homecoming Game bring in 8 th graders from other schools to play with the pep band. Field trips to middle schools well before forecasting sheets are due. Invite middle school bands to join in one of the Grant concerts for a combined piece. 2

3 4. Upcoming Events/Concessions/ Disneyland Trip Update i) Upcoming Events Mr. McFadden announced that Oct. 8 is the first full concert. The music production/sound class will be running the sound for all concerts this year. Student and parent volunteers are needed for bake sale and program distribution. ii) Concessions Food items for the Oct. 8 concert that are needed include: baked goods, coffee, juice, water, tea. Band students can set up a bake sale at the concert to raise money. Local business have donated items for a raffle in the past, so that is another fund-raising option. Phil volunteered to help with sound. Mark offered to supply coffee and water. Amy offered to bring cookies, but more items will be needed to sell. Donna will organize volunteers. Nancy will post information on Facebook page and the band website and send reminders. iii) Disneyland Trip Update 2014/2015 school year is a trip year for the Jazz Ensemble and Wind Ensemble. Students get the opportunity to work with professors from USC in various workshops as well as perform and, of course, have some fun. To date nothing has been booked, only airfare has been slotted. Gresham HS is scheduled to attend at the same time as Grant. Some of the older students have expressed a preference to change the dates and not attend during the same time as Gresham to avoid any awkwardness with Mr. Budge. Possible new dates are 3/6/15 3/9/15 or 4/10/15 4/13/15. The trip would actually be cheaper on these two weekends. Costs are estimated to be around $1000 per student, so approximately $60,000 total will need to be raised. Require a minimum of 10 chaperones and chaperones do not have to pay since for every 10 paying members, we get 1 free. The students will do most of the fundraising along with the Sweet Sound of Jazz (SSoJ). There are 15 seniors that would not get to go if there is no trip this school year. The Principal has approved, provided that the costs are not too prohibitive. Looking at a total of 56 people that would be going. Group recommended moving dates to either 3/6/15 3/9/15 or 4/10/15 4/13/15. Mr. McFadden to finalize date. 3

4 5. Treasurer Report Priscilla reported that there is currently $ total in the account. Priscilla will need to review all the documents she was given from the prior Treasurer and will work on obtaining an itemized report from the school bookkeeper. Past expenses have included: Band workshops SSoJ rentals and decorations End of year gifts for seniors Pizza at Lincoln (pep band) Ralph Irwin Student Musician Performance Scholarship Fund In May of each year, the Grant Band Boosters shall calculate 10 percent of funds remaining in the Booster Account and vote to set them aside for the following year s scholarship account. This new dollar amount will be added to any remaining dedicated scholarship funds from the previous year. Scholarship Fund has a balance of $956. Per the guidelines of the fund, need to make sure it is being promoted and information is available on the band website. 4

5 Karen and Amy will be co-chairs for this year s event. Will need people to help with procurement of Finalize date for SSoJ. This is the largest fund raiser for the band and it takes a donations for silent auction. lot of planning and many people to make it successful. Planning Committee to meet Estimated that the event brought in around $3000 last Will need a design for posters. separately. year. Feb. 20, 2015 was the original date, but it wasn t posted to the community calendar. At this point SSoJ is now tentatively scheduled for Feb Sweet Sound of Jazz Update (SSoJ) The event offers a variety of deserts (some homemade and others donated by local businesses), a silent auction and raffles. Selected bands will play and this year it s possible that the choir and Royal Blues will attend as well. Ticket sales can be done online through the Boosters or available through the school bookkeeper. The small gym is the preferred venue and alcohol is not allowed. Moving to a different venue will cost money as well as additional costs for moving furniture and band equipment. Need ideas on how to promote this event throughout the neighborhoods and will also need to decide upon a theme. Last years theme was Mardi Gras and we were able to save on decorations as the Boosters donated some since their fundraiser had the same theme. Discussion about whether or not we could get banners printed with sponsors names if they donate a certain amount of money. Would also want to advertise at local music companies. Phaedra, Donna and Karis volunteered to be on the planning committee. Amy will organize a separate meeting for SSoJ and will send out an to parents regarding the meeting. Mark offered to donate coffee again this year. 5

6 7. Fundraising Discussion Mr. McFadden has several fundraising ideas in mind. One of his main focuses will be to offer fundraisers whose purpose is not to trick parents in to giving money, but rather get the students engaged with raising money from their community. The idea of profit sharing was introduced whereby the band program would team up with a local business (most likely a restaurant) and that business would agree to donate a percentage of the profits for the evening to the band program. Something like this done once per month could result in significant funds and is fairly simple to organize. Other ideas include: Bowlathon Car wash Guest performing groups to play with our band (jazz). Clinic during the day, groups play at night. Brian described a fundraiser that the Boys & Girls Club in Salem does every year. He has a possible connection for a beer and wine festival. Nonprofit that would go through Boosters and would donate profits to the band. Could pick a date in July/Aug and this could be set up as a Blues festival. Can get a bunch of designs for apparel via discounts through Nike and sell the items. Jazz bands at Tony Starlights and Jimmy Maks Bake Sale at Fall Concert Brian will work on setting up the first profit share. Some possible ideas include: Burgerville, Fire on the Mountain, Atomic Pizza, Kennedy School (this may be tough to get). Will need other volunteers to organize future profit share events. A lot of hours are needed for a car wash. Group felt that this was not a reliable fundraiser. Students can bake items for bake sale. Brian to determine date for first profit share and how to advertise the event. 6

7 8. Open Positions A number of positions are open with the most urgent being the President-Elect: The President-Elect would work with and shadow Amy for a year. Amy was already Send all nominations to Amy. planning on a 2-year commitment, but it would be good to have some help. Donna offered to be the volunteer coordinator. Additional positions discussed include: A person in charge of fundraising Mark volunteered for hospitality. Volunteer coordinator Hospitality Pep Band & Marching Band need help for the The group decided that we do not need a uniform committee. Veteran s parade to ensure there is enough water (this is the drum major s job for most events except for parades.) Travel Chair need to assist Brian and to make sure there are volunteers for Disneyland, All State, etc. This could also be part of volunteer coordinators duties. 9. Questions/New Business/Next Meeting No new business Meeting was adjourned at 7:40 p.m. Next meeting is Tuesday, October 21 at 6:30 p.m. 7