- Mr. Pirzer’s News:
Band polo shirt orders have come in. Mr. Pirzer has extras available for $25.00 each. Sweatshirts have not come in yet, but should be here any time now. Pirzer ordered extras of these, too.
Important Dates:
2010 BAND CAMPS: 2010 Band Camp dates are tentatively set: Band Camp I 6/14/2010-6/17/2010. Band Camp II Saturday 8/7/2010, 8/9/2010-8/13/2010. School is targeted to start Monday 8/23/09. These dates may change, but look solid for now.
ALL STATE AUDITIONS: This Saturday 9/18/09 at Bucholz,. All students know their times.
EXTENDED FULL MARCHING BAND REHEARSAL: 9/25/09 – Friday, extended rehearsal day. 3:00 – 9:00 p.m. Dinner break around 5:30 p.m. This way Saturday remains free.
NEXT FOOTBALL GAME: 10/02/09 Friday. Eastside game; we are the home team. Report at 3:00 p.m. for practice, ride buses over, thinks we can play entire show from top to bottom. Was unable to do this last time. Full uniform. First performance of entire show.
THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL GAME: 10/8/09, against Bucholz. We are the away team.
FIRST MARCHING BAND COMPETITION: Sat 10/10/09 – Middleburg, we’ll probably play sometime around 12:30 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Mr. Pirzer will have a more definite time once all the bands have signed up.
COMPETITION DATES: The dates of our upcoming competitions are 10/10/, 10/24, 10/31, 11/21. These dates are also posted on the band calendar.
NEXT BOOSTER MEETING: Monday 10/12/09.
Mr. Pirzer reminds us that there are only 4 Marching Band competitions this year, all of them on Saturdays. Please don’t schedule anything else on these Saturdays. We need everyone at the rehearsals. So far, we’ve not had a perfect attendance at any of the rehearsals yet, with a minimum of 5 students out each time. Although Mr. Pirzer wants all students to attend all practices; he is aware that the flu is also going around and DOES NOT WANT SICK STUDENTS to attend class or practices.
We have secured a parent “cheer” bus for the 11/21/09 State Championship. It seats 55 and costs $925, which averages to approximately $20 per seat This price is cheaper than last year, because we are going with another bus line, and the coaches are funding at $500 - $725 less than last year. We’ll have a flyer at our next Booster meeting. - In addition to the bus fare, parents must pay for competition admissions. Costs last year were $12.00 for the preliminary competition and $20.00 for the finals. Bring cash to the competitions as none accept credit cards. at these competitions. Preliminaries site may be in Tampa and finals at Tropicana Field. Lakewood Ranch will not be hosting the prelim this year, so that they can see their own kids perform.
Mr. Pirzer also reminded parents that it is not acceptable for students to miss weekly practice sessions in order to study. The band room is open for studying 3:00-5:30 p.m. on Thursdays, before practice. Mr. Pirzer mentions that he isn’t seeing a whole lot of studying going on in the band room during free time.
THANK YOU TO PARENTS who went with us to Tallahassee. The k ids had a great time. There was a bit of rain. The halftime bands were great. The bands were especially good for our freshman to watch.
BRIGHT FUTURE VOLUNTEER HOURS: Reminder for Bright Future volunteer hours: Keep track of these activities, even when you are participating in fund raiser activities, which are countable since they are raising money for the band. Mr. Pirzer only tracks March of Dimes’ Walk for Babies in the spring.
BAND BOOSTER PRESIDENT: Frank Mason: - No news this meeting.
TREASURER NEWS:
FairShare looks amazing. Only a handful of students who aren’t current in their FairShare status. In addition, all band bills are current, with the exception of a small balance due to Mr. Hogstedt. The treasury currently has a balance of about $10,000.
FUNDRAISING NEWS: - FUNDRAISING GOAL? Initial discussion focused on what our fundraising targets were for the 2009-2010 school year. It turns out that this year is off to a good start. GHS received its $50,000 band funding that was withheld by the school board last year. (This is a rotating allotment distributed each year to a different school). Mr. Pirzer is using this allotment to catch up on band maintenance and supplies -- Such as mallets for the pit, drum line heads, and the like.
- We have 101 students – if each student raises his/her $525 fair share, we’ll have about $50,000. Last year we spent between $60,000-$70,000. We have cut back this year. If everyone pays their $525.00 we’ll be okay. It will be prudent to continue our fundraising even if our fair share is met, as we can’t predict what our future funding will be or what our future expenses will be (remember when gas prices went up to nearly $5.00 per gallon last year, and what an impact that had on our transportation cost?).
FAIR SHARE balances are posted on the board in the band room.
YANKEE CANDLE SALES: Only about 12 people ordered about $1,200 worth of merchandise. Some parents mentioned that had not seen the Yankee promotional material before the fundraiser ended. Comments that another week of this fund raiser might have helped, as the start and end dates were compressed into the start of school.
COOKIE DOUGH: Parents, family members and friends can place cookie dough orders online, anytime, all year long. The profit margin is about 40% and can be designated toward your child. Online orders are shipped directly to the purchaser’s house from the company. [I will obtain the website address and post the link on our GHS blog, but do not have it at this moment].
GATOR DOCKSIDE BREAKFAST FUNDRAISER: 11/7/09 is the breakfast fundraiser. Discussion on what the cost should be -- $5.00 or $6.00 per meal ticket. Susan Weinstein asks for volunteers who were involved in prior fundraisers for assistance in organizing this year’s fundraiser. Please send an e-mail to her. Mr. Pirzer recommended leaving it at $6.00 per ticket. Susan felt that $5.00 would be more marketable, and suggested that each student sell 20 tickets each. Specific details are still being worked on. Tickets will be available at next month’s Booster meeting. Adele will handle the tickets. In past, we had students make the posters on the day of the fundraiser. Recommendation is to have the posters made in advance of the fundraiser this time.
SCRIPT ORDERS: Script orders are prepaid gift cards that we have been using as a fundraising activity for the past 2 years. When you buy a gift card from one of the companies on the script list, a percentage of the purchase price accrues toward your child’s fair share. It’s a great way to earn money off of purchases that you were going to make anyway.
There are new companies on the Script order fund. Go to FundRaiser link on the GHS band website to obtain an order form. Hard copies are also available in the band room. MOST IMPORTANT: Parents need to provide a reliable contact in case there are questions or issues regarding the order. Please read the back of the order form and sign if you want your orders sent home with your student. Otherwise, you’ll have to pick up in the office.
Script offers should be brought in to Mr. Pirzer, who sends them to Jill.
SCRIPT DATES:
9/18, 10/14, 11/12, 12/9, 1/13, 2/10, 3/10, 4/21, 5/12, 6/9.
Between Wed & Friday of the following week you’ll have your cards and an itemization of how much money went to your child’s Fair Share and year-to-date accrual.
SUBWAY CARD: Discussion on potentially adding the Subway gift cards to our list of fundraising activities. The pros are that it operates like any other gift card. You don’t have to buy ahead of time. You can add money to the card at any time. Your child can use the card just like any other gift card, we get a 2% donation. Subway profit from our script orders is 3%.
PAY PAL ONLINE DONATIONS: Discussion focused on determining what level of interest there is in developing a Pay Pal site for online donations that can be targeted toward a specific child’s fair share, the GHS band, Mr. Pirzer, or any other designation – such as “the Tubas” or “the Pit” or “the Color Guard.” Anyone can go to the website, select the child’s name or other donation interest, and make an online donation by credit card or debit card. This can also be converted to an e-mail and sent to relatives and community groups for donations. Payments can also be made through the pay pal company. If one makes a donation – it links to our band booster checking account. Pay Pal fees depend on the credit card being used and can be as high as 2.9% and as low as 1%.
It was agreed that there is interest in developing this idea. Updates on how this develops will be passed along and posted on the blog. Randy Handle is working on this along with our Fundraising chairs.
ART FESTIVAL: The Downtown Arts Festival is scheduled for 11/12/2009. Discussion focused on determining what level of interest there is in committing to a fundraiser for the Downtown Arts Festival that would involve students assisting the artists in setting up their booths for a fee. Right now the Downtown Arts festival doesn’t have a crew or service to help with tent set up. The Downtown Arts festival is supportive of this idea. The exact fee is yet to be determined. This would entail a firm commitment for the student to be on location at 5:00 a.m. on Saturday morning and returning on Sunday afternoon/evening to breakdown the booths.
It was felt that this would be a great fundraiser, and Randy was volunteered as the liaison for the Art Festival Fund Raising idea to coordinate children & festival okays, etc. First goal will be to determine what the level of interest is at the student level, followed by evaluating the level of interest among the festival art vendors.
HOLOGRAM CUPS: It was agreed that the hologram cups were very nice, but it was felt that the cups wouldn’t make a suitable fundraiser item because of price and issues in the who, when and where’s of marketing the cups.
UF CONCESSION STANDS: The concession contract requires concession staffing beyond the football season and includes other university sport activities. This has traditionally been a fundraising activity reserved for the color guard because of its second season, which begins in January, and its increased costs. This fundraising activity is now open to band students as well.- Each concession stand requires about 12-14 volunteers per concession stand per game, and earns about $40-$50 per volunteer per game. A ratio of about 1 adult to 3 students is needed. Adults earn money toward their child’s fair share, but the maximum that can be earned per concession is two fair shares.
It was noted that this is a serious commitment requiring volunteers to arrive 3 hours prior to game kickoff. When the band has performances that conflict with concession staffing, parents must step in and staff the concession stands.
Sign up sheets are in the band room prior to football games, and Shannon Monck is coordinating this for the band and color guard. The goal is to sign up 8 color guard and 4 students and a couple of parents per game. If the color guard doesn’t use its allotted slots, those slots will be opened up the band students. The slots will be filled on a first serve basis. Questions on this should be directed toward Eileen Monck or Shannon Monck.
An idea was suggested to create a list of alternates for last minute calls when concession volunteers don’t show up as scheduled. Volunteer “taxi’s” to drop concession volunteers off would be helpful, too, as parking is difficult to manage on game days. Volunteer “taxi’s” should coordinate with Eileen Monck and Cheryl McFadden.
Ruth Dean is the liaison between guard and band fundraising.
VOLUNTEER NEWS:
Bruce noted that he’s had a good turn out of volunteers for everything. Everyone who is signing up is turning up as scheduled.
COLOR GUARD NEWS:
Color guard parent Cheryl McFadden has additional fundraising ideas of car washes and yard sales that she would like to brainstorm with other color guard parents. Some of her past activities included pre-sales of car wash tickets and netted more than $200.00 in just a few hours. One suggestion was a fundraiser yard sale at GHS on 11/12/09. Students staffing the fundraiser would earn money toward their fair share. Yard sale "drop offs" would go toward the general fund raising efforts and not be targeted to an individual student.
Cheryl is anxious to get dates and activities on the calendar, and asks that other parents contact her at 271-6490, or at work, 264-6723, or text 672-7552. Cheryl mentions that she’d also like to open the door to all parents for all the kids to participate in the fundraising activities, so that we can get as much money as we can into the general booster fund.
OTHER:
Trailer concerns: Mr. Pirzer affirmed that the issues w/trailer hitch are being resolved. Our volunteer coordinator is not sure who is pulling the trailer for the next game. John says he’s willing and able to pull the trailer for most of the games, but more volunteers are needed.
Supporting our students: Mr. Pirzer especially wants parents of our freshman students to know that we have a long-standing tradition of having the largest cheering crowds of all the schools at our activities. The sea of purple really boosts the students’ moral. Mr. Pirzer encourages our parents to attend these activities and to be loud and enthusiastic spectators. Cheer, clap & carry on as our band takes the field and exits the field. It’s also good entertainment!
Band CDs and DVDs: We are unable to provide copies of band performances on CDs and DVDs However, many of the competitions have professional organizations that make copywrited DVDs available for purchase.
Pictures: Mr. Pirzer encourages parents to send him pictures for the Hurricane website. Put the pictures on a CD and send them in with your student. If not used for the website, they’ll show up in the end-of-year slide show.
Band Booster Meeting Participation: The question was “What can we do to get more participation at the Band Booster meetings?” The answer is to add your personal touch to the invitation. Call a parent or two on the Friday before the booster meeting and remind them of Monday's booster meeting.
See you at the next booster meeting on Monday, Octboer 12th!!!
