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Governor Thomas Johnson High School Band Booster General Meeting Minutes

General Band Booster Meeting --- October 14, 2009

Meeting convened at 7:05, Mike Hillman presiding. In attendance: Carrie Kurdt, Diane Travis, Nick Hilton, Kathy Hilton, Wendy Roit, Betty Ludwig, Debbie Langowski, Kathy Schiller, Mary Semler, Debby Scheffel, Tom Wright, Nancy Voell, Chris Voell, Andy Hogan, Doug Brown, Jerry Shuck, Terri Kieft, Dennis Kieft, Donnie Stull, Tom Kurdt, Dean Kirschling, Sue Fowle, Patricia Engram, Mark Weitzel, Camille Weitzel, Laura Hogan, Jennifer Banker, Kathi Grover, Maggi Gasemy

Mike opened with Top 10 things overheard at Towson competition.

Mrs. Caulfield addressed the group. She was very excited about our placing in the BOA competition on Saturday. She showed the class a perspective through the years of where the band has been and how far we’ve come. Mrs. Caulfield thanked everyone who does what they do to pull off getting the show on the field from props to sewing. Tickets are available for the next 3 competition. The Shucks will have them. We can both save money and help the band by purchasing them through the boosters. The start time for this week’s show might change based on weather predictions. Show shirts will be here this week. Mrs. Caulfield passed out a synopsis on how scoring is done. She gets a packet from judges’ critique. She gets a recap with every band’s score. Score is divided into 4 categories, music performance, music ensemble, visual performance and overall general effect score. Individual music performance is scored back of sheet contains things the judge is looking for. The top number is the difficulty number of their show. This number goes up the more readable the show becomes. Our demand level is very high compared to other schools. The other number is how well they are achieving their show. The top box number should be higher than the bottom box. They take all the scores and add them together and that’s what gives us the total show score. BOA and USSBA are much more music focused than TOB was. The sheets passed out will be the ones used for the remainder of the season. The difficulty level should not be compared to other bands in our group size; it should be based solely on the music the band is performing. Mrs. Caulfield offered to post the scores for the remaining competitions.

The minutes from September meeting were posted on the website. They were accepted as posted.

Treasurer’s report: 9-1 to 9-30 student account 16,465.82 gen 5,632.17, uniform 5,427.21 for total 27,525.20. Income for month was $16,177.13; expenses were $10,859.57, for a net income of 5,317.56. We have received all of the checks from Ovations.

Andy has student account balances to hand out. July Keys have been credited but August has not. Mike reminded the group that students cannot start a new program if they have a negative balance in their account from the previous program season. The trip is the same restriction.

Fundraising Committee: We will have the Howling Halloween come rain or shine. We can move the activities into the school if we need to. We can tarp over the “pumpkin patch” if weather demands. Instead of trunk or treat, we will move trick or treat stations inside. November 4 th will start poinsettias and wreaths. We’re getting a good price on them and are expecting a good profit. We will sell a 22” plain wreath for $17 and $22 for a decorated one. The first Friday bake sale is coming again. We doubled profits from the first one. We will take orders for cookie platters. The wreaths and poinsettias are a 90/10 split. The bake sales all go to the capital fund. TJ band magnets are available for $10. Colorfest netted $2,325 this year. $232 went into the capital account and the remaining was split into $46.50 per shift.

Public Relations committee was not present. We had an article in the paper a couple of days ago. Jean Wright and Linda Norris have been doing a fantastic job getting the information about the band out and circulating.

Sewing committee report: we are in fixing them as they tear mode.

Uniform committee report: Debbie said they will be muddy on Sunday. She will need help getting them ready again for Monday afternoon change into half dress. We will probably need access to the school on Sunday to work on cleaning them. Mrs. Caulfield is getting closer to having a prototype for the new uniform and we are looking at a lower price than what we had initially been anticipating. We need to be looking at ways to get money from other pockets coming in to help pay for these uniforms. We have enough for the down payment but will still have a deficit to make up.

Special Events committee report: Mike gave a big “hats off” to Susan Brown for the work she did on the Senior Recognition Night.

Trip Committee report: The forms have gone out and we need to have commitments by November 2 nd. There is a trip meeting on the 28 th for anyone with questions or lingering doubts about the trip. We are getting a cost comparison for bus vs. plane.

Grants committee: Chris Voell agreed to look at a grant with Mike and Linda Norris and try to determine what would need to be done to write a grant.

Pit Crew and Props: Yeah Dean! He is the prop man now. Tom said there is no hill at Middletown! He really needs to have enough people here to load and unload for Monday’s county band festival.

The 23rd is a home game and the 24 th is USSBA regional at Towson.

Mrs. Caulfield made a plea regarding the condition of the practice field. We can help by applying pressure to the administration complaining about the condition of the field. Mrs. Caulfield is also going to try to get the sports booster parents involved. The work can be done without too much trouble but we need to get administration approval to actually do the work and keep people off the field while the work is being done and the field is recovering. The field is literally as hard as concrete. We would till it up, add top soil and go from there. The board can work on a draft letter that the general constituency can use to send in a personal letter.

Mike handed out chocolate bars to new, freshmen parents and others who have been especially helpful.

Meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Carrie Kurdt, Secretary