MINUTES

WHS BAND BOOSTERS MEETING

11 December 2008

The December meeting of the WHS Band Boosters was held on Thursday, 11 December, at 7:00 pm in the Band Room.

Director’s Roar: Mark Smith gave the Director’s Roar because Ms. Neal had to pull “tech duty” for a benefit concert.

Mark gave an update on the Disney trip. The details will follow at the end of the minutes.

Jane Follweiler suggested that parents going on the Disney trip could give the chaperones a break by volunteering to chaperone for a day or partial day.

Mark reported that Ms. Neal would like to start up a Pep Band for the basketball games. She will canvas the students to see who is interested. Practice will be on Tuesdays. Someone mentioned that the practice time is the same as the practice for the Academic Team and will affect 4 students.

Administration’s Report: Assistant Principal, Mr. Mark Smith, was unable to attend the booster meeting. So there is no Admin Report this month, although, there were some questions about his lack of attendance for the past few months.

Elections: After the Director’s Roar, Suzanne Clark read the list of nominees for each Board position and asked for any additional nominees from the floor. There were no additional nominees. There was no nominee for Publicity Chair. Vivian Laxton, the current Publicity Chair, said she has a list of places and people to contact for publicity and will gladly help whoever takes the position. All of the original nominees were voted in for the 2009 season. The new Board members will be:

President Vivian Laxton

Vice President Lori Broker

Secretary Kris Woolley

Treasurer Lucy Rivera

Ways & Means Betsy Kobbe (she will need additional committee members)

Publicity vacant

Director at Large Mark Smith

President’s Report: Mark Smith stated that he felt the past two years had gone very well compared to previous years. Mark gave a more in-depth Disney trip report (which follows the meeting minutes).

Secretary’s Report: The minutes for the November meeting were approved.

Treasurer’s Report: Debbie Stevens reported on account balances. Account balances include:

$6,497.67 in the general account

$4,102.04 in the scholarship account

$13,465.85 in the reserve account

$4,218.99 in the student account

Debbie stated that the checking account balance has been a little tight recently. She had to send a check for $10,000.00 to Global Travel for our Disney bus deposit. Kris Woolley delivered a $1,000.00 check from Wal-Mart for the band’s assistance earlier in the season. There is still an outstanding check (Athletic Boosters concession bill) and we have not received an invoice for the busses to Chapters at Liberty High School. Other than that, everything is accounted for.

Mark Smith went over his proposed budget for 2009, which is based on our 2008 actual budget. The budget doesn’t look too bad for next year. The Disney trip will pay for itself. Donations were up for 2008 and the band earned over $2,000.00 for marching in the Fairfax and Autumn Glory parades. Next year we will probably have 10-12 fewer band members and will move back to Group I.

There was a question about the warm-up suits showing as a negative balance in the spreadsheet, since they were all supposed to be paid for before pick up. Mark thought that the figure may have included other items, such as shoes and gloves, which have not been paid for yet. He will look into it.

Jane reported that uniform cleaning will be going up next year ($200-$300) since Prospect Cleaners has gone out of business. She is negotiating a price with another dry cleaner and will put things in writing and have the owner sign the contract. She also mentioned that a lot of uniform pants will need to be repaired.

Committee Reports:

Ways and Means: Betsy Kobbe gave the Ways and Means report.

The Basket Bingo with Junior Fire Company was very successful. We sold 85 tickets and made a profit of approximately $1,600.00. Next time we will need to ask for sponsors for the baskets in order to maximize our profit. The baskets this year had been purchased years ago, in hopes of holding a basket bingo, which never happened. We don’t have a record of the cost for the baskets. Junior Fire Company asked if we would like to hold another bingo in the spring. Betsy told them “maybe”. We still have 8 baskets left from the original amount.

Breakfast with Santa is this Saturday, December 13^th. Emily will be our Food Services worker! This will probably be her last year since she is considering retirement. Cooks need to be at the school by 6:30 (Emily will be there by 6:00). All other volunteers need to report by 7:15. Mr. Donohue-Rick will be Santa this year and will bring everything he needs, including Mrs. Santa, for pictures. The Gazette manager may be attending with her children and the date and time are being displayed on the Walkersville Fire Department’s electronic sign.

Winter Concessions have begun. There have been two games already and Betsy estimates that we have earned $215 and $207 for each game. She would like more helpers. The same kids worked both nights and so far there are no new people signed-up for future games. Betsy reiterated that the calendar is on the wall for sign-ups.

Joe Corbi’s is the next fundraiser. Betsy passed out catalogs. Forty percent of orders will go to the students’ Disney trip account.

The band will have a California Tortilla night on January 21^st from 5:00 – 9:00pm. If you go, you must say the word “band” in order to get credit. No one can solicit inside or outside the restaurant (or we will lose a percentage of our “take”).

Ms. Meda Day is collecting recipes for a cookbook to benefit the band. She needs at least 200 recipes to make it worthwhile. You can e-mail recipes to her at mday@fredco-md.net.

Anyone interested in making crafts to sell is welcome to come out to the Craft Night, held once a month on Thursdays. So far, there are usually 10-12 people who attend. You can make anything that you’d like, or teach others how to make things. We have approval from the school to sell craft items at any games.

A Wolfgang Chocolates fundraiser will be held in February. Profits from this one may need to be designated to the $150 fundraising fee, which is due by the end of April, since most people still owe this. Debbie Stevens will send out student account statements by March, so you will know what your balance may be, if you still have one. She will continue to maintain the student accounts for the rest of the “season”.

Band Banquet recap: There were lots of good comments about the band banquet this year. Everyone said they had a great time. The only person who couldn’t attend was Lawton. Mark asked if anyone had any suggestions for improvements and there were 3 comments. First, Ms. Neal needs to utilize her staff members more while handing out awards, etc. and should use a microphone, if available. Second, improved directions are needed with “sign” reinforcement, especially in the dark. And third, the snow was a nice touch for the evening!

Old Business: None (again)!

New Business: Uniforms. Our current uniforms are in bad shape. A lot of the pants are falling apart, actually, “shredding” was the word used to describe the pants. Mark estimates that our uniforms were purchased in 1999 or 2000. They are at the end of their life. New uniforms will cost anywhere from $300 to $450 each. Someone made a comment that the kids don’t treat their uniforms very well. John Clark mentioned that in West Virginia, students joining the marching band have to buy their uniform and use it for all 4 years. Quite a few parents argued that kids grow way too fast in high school and they wouldn’t want to have to buy more than one uniform because their child had outgrown their first one. Someone else mentioned that after looking at old records in the file cabinet, it looks like the band took out loans from local businesses to buy new uniforms in the past and then paid the businesses back later. Another suggestion was to charge a “uniform fee” which would help with the cost of replacing uniforms. The fee would be a one-time charge. Other schools handle their uniform problem this way. The fee might be about $50 per student.

We could also consider asking for sponsorship. Maybe we could have the businesses’ name imprinted onto the garment bags. We would need to buy 60-80 uniforms to accommodate different shapes and sizes.

The style of warm-ups that were purchased this year will be available again next year for new band members. The track team has the same style of warm-ups.

The next meeting will be held on Thursday, January 15th at 7:00 pm in the Band Room.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05pm.

Disney Trip update as reported at the Band Boosters’ meeting on 12-11-2008

Since I haven’t finished typing the minutes from the boosters’ meeting last week, here is an update on the Disney trip for those of you who couldn’t make it to the meeting.

Mark Smith recently spoke to Frank Leizear from Global Travel about the Disney trip.

If you would like to speak directly to Frank, his phone number is (301) 570-0800.

There are 30 kids who have paid a deposit to go on the trip. Kewl Express will provide one bus that holds 56 passengers. There will be some seats available on the bus for people other than the students, staff and chaperones, but we will not be taking more than one bus.

The list of chaperones was sent out by Ms. Neal this past weekend.

The cost per student is about $649.

The cost per parent (or family member) is about $449. If you would like to ride on the bus and seats are available, add $200 for a total of $649 per person (same as student).

The trip deposit per person is due January 9^th. The deposit is $225 if you are providing your own transportation or $325 if you plan to ride the bus. The full amount for everyone (students and families) is due 45 days before the event, which will be sometime in early February. Check the payment schedule in the trip packet.

The price will include a 3 night stay at the hotel (Thursday, Friday and Saturday).

Buffet breakfast at hotel.

Park passes for 4 days, Thursday – Sunday (same as students), but no pass for Universal Studios (?) where the band may march in a parade.

THE COST DOES NOT INCLUDE PARKING FEES AT THE PARKS.

If you would like to extend your stay (either before or after or both), the price will increase accordingly. Contact Frank at (301) 570-0800 as soon as possible, so he can make the arrangements. He can get a good price on extra park passes and hotel rooms.

The name of the hotel is the Quality Inn located at 7600 International Drive, Orlando, Florida. Phone is (877) 784-6835.

The hotel is not on the Disney property, however, this will allow for more control by the chaperones. The entire group will be together at the Disney Park, at competitions or at the hotel during the entire trip. The chaperones will not have to worry about kids leaving their rooms to roam around the park when they should be at the hotel.

Global Travel hires staff to provide roaming security from 12:00 midnight until 7:00 am so chaperones can get some sleep.

There will be 4 students per room and 2 chaperones per room. Families can decide how many people they want in their room but there could be a limit based on hotel policies.

If you would like to stay in a different wing of the hotel (away from the band) please let Frank know so he can have a room reserved for you.

The bus will leave for Florida after school on Wednesday, March 25^th and will arrive at Disney World on Thursday morning. The trip is about 15-16 hours by car, but will be somewhat longer for the bus. The kids will be allowed to change clothes and eat (?) before spending the day at the park. They will not arrive at their hotel until Thursday evening and will have a pizza party at the hotel for dinner.

The marching band competition will be Friday morning and everyone will go to the competition.

The Festival competitions will be held the first two days of the trip. Not all competitions are held on the Disney grounds.

The band will check out of the hotel Sunday morning, spend the day at the park and leave for home Sunday night around 10:00 pm. The bus will arrive home sometime Monday afternoon.

Global Travel is insured and will handle any medical emergencies, including transportation for the injured or sick person.

I hope this has answered your questions. If not, please contact Frank Leizear.

Thanks,

Debbie Auwarter