Music Booster Meeting
Joe called the meeting to order. Nine people were in attendance.
Minutes from May’s meeting were approved as written.
The treasurer, Diana Zeltner, presented her report as
written with the following additions:
There were 2 checks from the fundraiser that bounced. Mr. Eakin will follow up with the students who turned them in to recover our loses.
She has received an invoice from
Jim’s Trophies dated
She has also received an invoice in the amount of $670.20 from Stratton Greenhouse.
The Middle School contest netted us $1245.34.
Applebutter Fest entry fee has been paid to the Lion’s Club in the amount of $155.00 – this represents a $5 increase over last year.
The piano fund currently has $489.00. Denise Rowles reminded us that Dow Chemical could have some money coming our way.
Upon completing her report, Diana
submitted her resignation as treasure, effective immediately. She said she would stay on for one year
after Mandy’s graduation and that year has now pasted. Bill Schultz volunteered to take the
position. (He then tended his resignation effective June 2011.) Bill did want to make sure that there were
at least two people authorized to sign checks as there are times when he may
not be available do to his responsiblies at the church. Diana said that she and Sally both could sign. Denise Rowles made the motion to accept Bill
as Treasurer,
Joe Routzen announced
new business as follows:
Joe announced that Chris and Sally McKinley have submitted their resignations as buyers and schedulers. He said that Chris commented; that when they took on the position as buyers, it was not to bad, however, when they had the scheduler position dumped it their lap, it became too much for one person/couple. Joe said that we should not expect one person to handle everything that the McKinley’s have been doing.
There was much discussion as to how to get more people involved in the Music Boosters so that the work could be spread out among more people. The music programs are not exclusive to high school. Mr. Eakin felt that a good plan would be to get more parents involved at the middle school level so that when their students are juniors and seniors, they can be grooming the next group to fill their shoes. Parents could be broken up into groups by their child’s school year – senior parents ant one event, junior parents at another, and so on . . .. This could work for football games as well as the fair booth. We will have to rely on Mr. Eakin and Mr. Vaughn to supply us with a list of students/parents by grade.
No decision could be made at this meeting. (Although, out of order as it happened in the meeting, I am including this next item for business here because it fits so well). Denise said that Mr. Brand would like a short (third of a page) description of the Music Boosters and what we do to be included in the hand out that the students will receive on Opening Knight. This would be on the back of a page already planned for the packet and would include information on the Academic Boosters and Athletic Boosters as well. Joe will write the description. We also did some brainstorming on doing something similar to have at the fair booth letting everyone know what we do, what we have accomplished and what we have planned for the future.
Joe then read a letter from the school board thanking us for the new choir robes and for all we do to make the music program so strong and one to be proud of at the Van Buren Schools.
Truck graphics are proceeding and the truck will be ready the first time we need it.
Mr. Vaughn’s report
(as presented by written report at the meeting with the addition of the
following):
Congratulations to the Middle School Choir for their Superior rating at contest – the first ever received by a VanBuren Middle School Choir! J
Although in his written report, Mr. Vaughn highlighted the fact that scheduling two choirs is turning out to be more difficult than originally thought – we may still have one choir next year – with a possibility of having a men’s and women’s volunteer choir. All three choirs would enter contests.
Mr. Vaughn read the requirements of the Music Booster scholarship awarded to Krissy Keiser. It is awarded to a music student who has meet grade requirements and plans on continuing in a music program in college. The check is not issued directly to the student. The student(s) will receive the money after a class schedule is submitted to the Boosters to prove that they have actually enrolled in music class. The money is then sent to the college to be deposited in the student’s account toward payment of tuition, or if all expenses are covered, a check to the student is issued form the college.
Mr. Vaughn requested ideas for fundraisers to help pay for the Show Choir needs, a large group next year (41 overall, excluding the Essentials) and the desire to have a backdrop, etc. Ideas included a spaghetti dinner by the Olive Garden (OG charges $3/person, we would add additional costs for our profit). Also mentioned that it would be nice to have entertainment at the dinner by the students or possibly by Mr. Scothorn with his Knight Jazz band. Denise mentioned that the Zap-a-Snack was a good moneymaker and the product is good. Mr. Vaughn mentioned that his only disappointment was that the prizes never came. He is hoping to receive a check in lieu of the prizes – and we can use this as leverage if we would like to work with them in the future.
Action was required on several requests submitted by Mr. Vaughn:
Mr. Eakin’s report (as presented by report at the meeting with the addition of the following):
Congratulations to the Middle School Band for their Superior rating at contest! J Mr. Eakin mentioned that 14 years ago the Middle School Band got a Superior rating and that group when on to win the first-ever High School Band Superior rating – it’s looking good for the future.
He went on to say that we received several good comments from the directors and judges for a fine job in hosting the event.
Mr. Eakin is also looking for fundraiser events to cover additional cost of the competition show. He suggested that these could be a 50/50 event with some of the money going back to the students to help pay for their fees. One of the ideas was to do a pancake breakfast over the 4th of July holiday at one of the local campgrounds – getting the smell of pancakes and sausages waffling through a packed campground could bring big rewards. No action was taken at this time.
A decision will have to made at the next meeting regarding Music Boosters providing lunch for the kids during band camp week – discussed at tonight’s meeting, there were no noticeable objections, however, no action was taken.
Action was required on two requests submitted by Mr. Eakin:
1. Request to have the Music Boosters pay 100% of the $75.00 for a local field commander training opportunity for Hillary Hachey (chosen by the band by .03% over other candidate) in lieu of paying 50% of training at Ohio Wesleyan ($467.00). Motion made by Bill Schultz to approve request, seconded by Denise Rowles, motion carried.
2. Mr. Eakin requested to purchase a manual about producing a Renaissance Celebration to review and see if we would like to do one for a fresh approach to fundraising. This is not a guarantee that we would do the show, however, it might be worth looking at. Denise Rowles motioned that we purchase the manual, Sharon Male seconded, motion carried.
Additional Business:
Denise announced that the Senior Citizen Lunch will be an annual event and will be held on the last Tuesday of every year. It would be nice to have the music students provide some entertainment.
Denise will be looking at a date to have a pool party for the band and show choir camps, as the first date did not work. A possible date would be August 3rd.
Denise expressed a concern she has hear from of the students about the scheduling competition in the Findlay Contest, which is being held on the same weekend as Homecoming. Mr. Eakin thought he had gotten and “OK” from the kids, but that maybe he only heard a ‘vocal minority’. Denise said that she might only be hearing a ‘vocal minority’ as well. Mr. Eakin thought it would be a good opportunity to get lots of parents to support the kids as it is close to home. This will be further reviewed and if it truly does not work for the students, we may pass on the event.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:05 PM.