January General Membership Minutes

January 8, 2006 

Meeting was opened with the Pledge of Allegiance by President Steve Wolff 

Minutes from last month were emailed out since the web site is still down, motion to approve as emailed made by Mike Wyatt, seconded by Patti Fuhrmeister 

Treasurer’s Report:

                        Current Account Balance $$$$$

                        Student Credits                  $$$$$

                        Operating Funds                 $$$$$ 

Outstanding payments are due for Rowan Field use, Holiday CD’s, and Wings tickets

To date we have only sold 20 tickets for the Wings game, we need to sell a minimum of 100 more.

Mr. Cohen informed us at the executive meeting that the Band Parents are covered by the school’s liability insurance for all Board approved functions. This clause was reiterated by Ed Houghton, anything that is not held on school grounds must receive BOE approval, such as participating in West Deptford Day. We can make a list of planned activities at the beginning of the year and submit for approval with dates TBA. This news frees up $1,000.00 set aside to cover the purchase of insurance.

Steve and Rose are working on compiling a list of items purchased by the band parents for the band so that they can be offered as an official donation to the school and thus will be covered by the school’s insurance if damaged or stolen. 

Fundraising Report: We had a total of 9 orders for the Citrus Sale. In spite of limited participation the sale and distribution went smoothly, Pee Jays really wants to continue working with us and hopes that the momentum will increase in future years. Student credits generated were $159.00 and the Band Parents made $100.00 for paying the bill within 10 days of receipt.

Upcoming events: January- we will sponsor the Wings Lacrosse Night

                              Band Night will be moved to the end of March (usually late Feb. or early March. This is a low effort, decent profit night

                              Pasta and Pops will be March 3^rd (pending final approval from all involved)

                              There are two possible parades in March for Saint Patrick’s Day March 10 (Philadelphia) and March 17(New York City)

                               Hollywood Nights – all Tuesday’s in April are open for this event, but Hollywood has once again changed their policy and now requires a guarantee of 75 ticket sales with $15.00 per head being paid to Hollywood. The feeling is that charging $20.00 per ticket may put it out of range for too many people. Dee Leonard mentioned that another group had recently held a similar event at Clancy’s in Brooklawn, Eileen will contact them to investigate their package/availability.

                                June- Water and flowers at Graduation 

Election Nomination Committee – Eileen Mannion, Darlene McKendry and Anne Connor all agreed to be members of the nominating committee for the upcoming BP officer elections to be held in March. The motion to accept this as the nominating committee was made by Jackie Wyatt and seconded by Joanne Tunis. 

Wings Lacrosse – We need to sell tickets, we really need to get the word out to all of the band parents to make this a success. Students will be bused to the Wachovia center. The Wings players come out for a reception after the game and the West Deptford ticket holders are invited to the post game reception. 

Championship jackets - Original jacket price was $135.00 the current balance due from each band member is $20.00. A motion was entertained to spend the $1000.00 that had been set aside for liability insurance to defray the additional jacket cost. The motion to accept was made by Dee Leonard and seconded by Darlene McKendry. A unanimous vote passed the motion to pay $1000.00 toward the cost of the Championship Jackets. This will make the jackets free to all band members. 

Picnic/Banquet – Discussion was held regarding the addition of a music department banquet at the end of the year to hand out student awards. This will free up time for music at the concerts and allow more time to recognize the students being honored with awards. It would be a joint band and choir event and it is hoped that attendance would be approximately 200 people. Mr. Atkinson has tentatively made a reservation with Nicolosi’s for June 8^th. Dee Leonard had also done some research on venues/pricing. Masso’s would charge $10.95 per head at their facility, and could also cater it in a facility of our choice. Botto’s also could cater the affair for a similar price; the Botto’s rep said that without a dance floor set up Riverwinds might accommodate 200 people. The cost to rent the Colonial Manor Fire Hall is about $200.00. The Thorofare Fire Hall is about $600.00 but John Pagano might be able to obtain special pricing for us. Mr. A pointed out that Nicolosi’s is a West Deptford business and it might be beneficial to support our local business people and that the promise of continued banquets in the future may help with pricing. Thee are about 130 students in the choir with about 40 students being “crossovers” into the band, plus band members and parents should make attendance at least 200 people for the banquet. The overall plan is to make it a celebration of band/choir accomplishments for the year. 

The question was raised whether we should have a picnic as well. Mr. Kershaw thought that this would be a good idea for a band only event, in the past it has helped draw in some of the eighth grade students and getting them excited about the band. He felt it would be worth while if only for that purpose. It was mentioned that different kids in the band enjoyed this event in the past. Some possible venues mentioned were: Clementon Park/Splash World, Bellmawr Lake, Lake Hurff (this will be closing down), and a return to Garrison Lake. Ed Houghton said that he thought that the pavilions at Garrison were nice and that they had sport facilities available that the kids seemed to enjoy. The committee will continue to work on researching banquet and picnic venues –the consensus is that we need to keep pricing reasonable for both events. 

Mr. Kershaw – Student credits will now have to be requested in writing. Rose will develop a form to be utilized. 

The band has been tentatively registered for the Philadelphia St Patrick’s Day parade to be held on March 10^th. Mr. Kershaw is investigating the possibility of participating in the New York City St. Patrick’s Day parade to be held on March17th. 

Mr. Atkinson – 7 sample trip itineraries were passed around for the parents to see. There are 108 students and 30 parents signed up for the trip. The total number of trip participants with chaperones and staff is 151. The price for the trip is $575.00 for students and $625.00 for parents currently but the cost is still being finalized. There has been a change made to using bus transportation instead of trains. It is an 8 hour bus ride as opposed to a 12 hour train ride. This enables report time to be pushed back to 7 a.m. instead of 3:30 a.m. The trip is in need of 1-2 truck drivers, let Mr. K or Mr. A know if you are interested, it would be an expense paid trip. Mike Brocco is going to check with Ward trucking to see if there is anything they might be able to do with providing a truck. Ward is interested in expanding their business into Canada and the truck they supplied for Scranton was seen and commented on. Passports will be required for the trip so Mr. A is trying to coordinate with the county a passport night at the high school to simplify this process. Joanne Tunis asked about the outstanding California trip debt, Steve said we are still working on recouping what we can and Mr. Cohen has asked to be provided with a copy of the list to see if he can do anything to help. The advantage to using the school account for the trip monies is that the school has greater leverage for collecting outstanding fees (report card/ graduation withholding) 

General discussion – Jackie Wyatt asked when graduation would be held, it is scheduled for June 15^th. If graduation is outdoors it will be at WDHS, if indoors it will be at Riverwinds. 

Steve presented Mike Brocco with a photo of the band taken at the ACC Championships to give to Ward Trucking as token of our thanks for their donation of the truck to transport equipment to Scranton for the ACC Championships. 

Motion to adjourn by Rose Rossiter and seconded by Debbie Keen. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Lisa Wolff

Recording Secretary