Steve Andrews, Bethzaide Aponte, Dorit Askenazy, Joy Barger, Sue Berry, Megan Brooks, Travis

EBPO Meeting Minutes – September 23, 2014

ATTENDEES:

Steve Andrews, Bethzaide Aponte, Dorit Askenazy, Joy Barger, Sue Berry, Megan Brooks, Travis Brooks, Deborah Cheang, Kat Cook, Mason Cornelison, Karen Ehrlich, Noella Francis, Jen Goeglein, Dave, Kolo, Sarah Kolo, Karen Maline, Charlie Mitchell, Steve Pattison, Karen Ruthrauff, Michael Sims, Sarah Smith, Heather West

CALL TO ORDER

The meeting was called to order at 7:06 pm by EBPO Vice President Steve Pattison, who then had everyone introduce themselves and say the name of their student.

APPROVAL OF JUNE MINUTES

President Travis Brooks asked for a motion to approve the June minutes. Steve Pattison moved to approve the minutes, which were sent to members by email two weeks prior to the meeting. The motion was seconded and the minutes were approved as corrected.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Travis welcomed everyone and said that parents have a standing invitation to all rehearsals. We’ve already had home games and Tag Day, and we have our first band competition this weekend. He told parents who haven’t yet signed up to volunteer using Sing-Up Genius to feel free to hang out; we can always use you. Currently, we need someone with a vehicle with a hitch. He thanked all the committee members who worked over the summer and kept the organization on track.

FINANCE REPORT

Noella handed out the finance report. She reported a current operating balance of $12,652.86 and a total of $21,552.81. This includes a reserve fund of $8,333.45, but not Tag Day proceeds.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

Uniforms: Jen Goeglein said that the five new uniforms came in and Mae Pattison is hemming one pair of bibbers. We also received 20 new shako boxes and the broken ones were thrown away. We’ll be in full uniform, including plumes, on Friday. Jen also ordered two cases of disposable rain ponchos. Sarah Kolo asked if the color guard uniforms had come in and Jen said they had. Travis asked Mr. Mitchell if color guard would wear jazz pants that would carry through Winter Guard, and was told they would not. He explained to new parents that Winter Guard (or Indoor Guard) is a club and not a co- curricular activity like marching band, which guard is part of in the fall. EBPO Minutes September 23, 2014 Page 2

Spirit Wear: Copies of the spirit wear order form were given to band members and it was posted to the website, from which it can be downloaded. Orders are due tomorrow by the end of practice.

Chaperones: Dorit reported that she has had enough volunteers signing up for the football games and competitions so far. Jen reminded Dorit that someone should be designated as the first aider and be responsible for taking the Emergency Forms and the First Aid kit on trips and into the stadium. Travis thanked Dorit for her work as Chaperone Chair.

Fund Raising: Steve Pattison explained “Spirit Nights” to the new parents. He reported that the first one is at Johnny Rockets this Thursday. He’s hoping to get Ledo Pizza for October. There will not be one in November due to Thanksgiving, or in December due to the holidays.

Travis explained that we are designated as a private nonprofit and the IRS is very specific that fundraising cannot be for benefit of single students’ accounts. Now all fundraising must benefit the whole band. For the fruit and cheesecake sale, we offer prizes to the top three sellers as an incentive to sell, and all the funds go to transportation for the spring trip. Last year the band went to Williamsburg and Busch Gardens. This year we’re going on a long distance trip, so we’re hoping to raise at least as much money as we did last year.

Steve asked if we could squeeze a car wash in this fall. Travis told him to look into it, but reminded him that we have competitions the next three weeks. Kat asked if we were going to give prizes to the three top sellers again for the fruit and cheese cake sale, and Travis said yes. He said he would let her know how much the prizes would be this year, but probably the same as last year. She said the vender is comping us 20-10lb cases for all the trouble they gave us last year. There was some discussion about what we would do with that fruit; some ideas included a raffle and donating them to the custodians.

Tag Day: Sarah and Dave Kolo chaired this event and reported that we’ve earned $7,290. By the end of the day we had earned $6,250, and the rest came from tags left on doors and from PayPal. Tag Day was a rainy wet day, but the kids were in great spirits. She reported that we shared Tag Day with the choir again and explained that we split the five top-grossing maps. Even with detailed planning, it didn’t work. Now that we’ve shared with chorus for two years, our historical data is all screwed up. We’ll have to talk about how to organize Tag Day next year. We need to streamline check in for parents. Sarah suggested having it in Mr. Mitchell’s office so that parent’s can socialize in the foyer.

Sarah noted that Melanie did a great job putting people in teams, briefing new students, and answering questions for rookies. Jen asked how much chorus made and Sarah reported they made $5,200. The school said we could have our own Tag Day next year, but we have to figure out how to do that without angering the neighbors. The thing is, chorus has other fund raising opportunities. Karen Erlich suggested going to her neighborhood since there are now a lot of kids who attend Edison now. Silas Andrews took tags to his church and brought in hundreds of dollars from that. Kids can still take tags to their friends or to their neighborhood, especially if their neighborhood wasn’t tagged.

Hospitality: Steve Pattison gave the report for Mae, and said that we have enough water and chips for Saturday. Mae sent an email last week saying we would do a grab and go breakfast for the kids EBPO Minutes September 23, 2014 Page 3 before they get on the bus. Travis said to wait until we get emails from Mae to send in donations because they had so much food in the past that a lot expired and had to be thrown away.

District Assessment: District Assessment will be held in February and will be a chance to raise funds through concessions. As the event nears, Dorit will send a Signup Genius to ask parents to volunteer for whatever is needed.

Pit Crew: Travis explained to new parents what the pit crew does, which is put large instruments, the mallets and other pit instruments, guard equipment, and the drum major platform on the trailer to be transported to competitions, and then offload the trailer at the competition site. After the competition, they leave for Edison and offload the equipment, giving the students one less thing to worry about. At football games, they load mesh carts with the pit equipment and instruments, as well as the drum major platform, and tow them to the football field using an ATV. During competitions, the pit crew has to work just as efficiently as the students because they are judged and timed, just as the students are. We have an opening for Pit Crew Chair for next year.

Travis reported that, Mr. Mitchell has been very diligent about assigning funds for the trailer, but in the future we might need a truck. We will need a second driver for the flatbed trailer and a tow package (a hitch would work). A typical SUV could pull the trailer. There is some maintenance required, but we can put it in the shop to have those things taken care of.

The Band Banquet is November 15 and Megan Brooks asked for volunteers to work with her. She’s thinking of a black and white theme to commemorate the Piano Man show.

Publicity: We need a publicity chair.

eScrip: Dorit volunteered to be the eScrip chair. eScrip is a rebate program that will send money back to the band if people sign up with their Safeway cards.

BAND DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Mr. Mitchell thanked parents for letting their kids being in the band and discussed the upcoming competition on Saturday. He also thanked the Kolos for chairing Tag Day and said he enjoyed driving the kids around and seeing the neighborhoods.

He announced that for the Parade of Champions at JMU, the band doesn’t have to stay for the whole day because the Marching Dukes will be performing twice. We go on after 10 a.m. and then JMU marches at 1:00 p.m. We’ll be back in time for the kids to go to the homecoming dance.

The spring trip. Mr. Mitchell reported that New Orleans has officially been taken off the list of possibilities for the trip. It was too much money and too far away for a bus trip. The destination will either be in Orlando or Atlanta. Wherever we go we’ll visit the theme park (Disney or Six Flags), but first we’ll go to a local high school and perform for them, and listen to them perform for us. The trip will be on the upper $500-$600 range.

He ended his report by repeating the invitation to parents to watch practice. EBPO Minutes September 23, 2014 Page 4

NEW BUSINESS:

Winter Guard: Sarah Smith reported on plans for Winter Guard. She said that auditions would be held in mid-November and while she and Edgard don’t yet know what the show is, they are looking for new rehearsal space. Last year they used the Key Center but that wasn’t optimal. Currently they are trying to create a budget and wanted to know how much the EBPO is willing to budget for the Winter Guard. For each member, costumes are about $140, silks are about $40 each, and they need paint for the floor. She said they have enough poles but she doesn’t know how big the rifle line will be. She invited everyone to let students know that anyone can try out for winter guard, and they are expecting several band students.

Question—Kat Cook asked if students can get reimbursed for the section shirts they bought for skit night. Travis said the problem is that we didn’t set a limit. Kat said that she’s pretty sure that no one even spent $10 per shirt. Travis said we will reimburse for the shirts, but next year we have to set a cap for the price of a shirt. Action Item: The board will come up with a reasonable cap, including fabric or puffy paint.

Freshman Parent Issues: Sue asked if we were going to choose a Freshman Parent Representative at this meeting. Travis asked Sue and Noella to explain to new parents what the FPR does. Travis asked the freshman parents what they think would make their transition to the band easier. Heather West said until two weeks into the school year, they knew nothing about the ability of kids to buy food before a game and have it delivered to them during the third quarter, or that all the band parents sat together.

New parents agreed that they wish there had been a parents’ meeting before the school year started. There was also agreement that we need to develop a plan to orient new parents before the season starts. Karen Maline suggested that we create a parents’ handbook.

Karen Ruthrauff just moved here from Valdosta, Georgia, where her daughter would have joined an enormous marching band. She noted that the band director held a rising 9th grade band night at the high school cafetorium during the second semester of 8th grade. He and his staff were on hand for miscellaneous aspects. His bookkeeper set-up student financial accounts, the uniform chair made appointments for the fittings, and parents could volunteer to be bus drivers. (Lowndes offers a driving course for bus driving substitutes.) Karen said that, while the Marching Eagles and the Georgia Bridgemen are different sizes and do things differently, it might be a good model to work from.

ADJOURNMENT

Steve moved to adjourn. The motion was seconded and passed. The meeting was adjourned at 8:38 p.m.

Respectfully Submitted, EBPO Minutes September 23, 2014 Page 5

Karen Maline EBPO Secretary