December 2009 Band Booster Minutes
Mr. Pirzer’s News:
Marching season over. Transitional period. Kind of quiet.
WINTER CONCERTS: Winter concert a week from tonight in auditorium. Students arrive at 6:00, concert at 7:00. Attire: They won’t be wearing the band uniform. Just wear their Sunday’s best. Boys: Shirt, tie and nice pants. Ladies: Nice knee-length or longer dress. If the students want to wear something festive, that’s okay, too.
The winter concert will be much, much shorter. No Howard Bishop or Marching Band presentation. There are 5 musical pieces, and that will be it.
12/11/09: Westwood giving a concert in the GHS auditorium at 7:00 p.m. Please come.
SPRING REHEARSAL SCHEDULE: After the New Year: Spring rehearsal scheduled: Afters chool practice sessions: Symphonic – Tuesdays. Concert – Thursdays. Check the printed calendar for specifics.
SPRING CONCERT DATE: Was moved from 4/23/09 to Monday 4/26/09 because of a conflict with the drama department in the auditorium. The State Concert Festival may push our spring concert date to either Thursday or Friday that week. Mr. Pirzer has to check with the school first regarding the availability of 4/29 or 4/30.
STATE CONCERT FESTIVAL: Last week of April – State concert festival. It will be held at UF again either on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ll ask for Tuesday.
SCHOOL BOARD RECOGNITION: JANUARY 12, 2010: We’re invited to the school board meeting for band recognition for all 4 public schools. Mr. Pirzer will take the drum majors and the band captains.
SPRING BREAK is 4/4/2010- 4/12/09.
DAYTONA BEACH TRIP: Daytona: Friday 5/14/09 – 5/16/09 (Fri-Sun). After school on Friday, the kids pack up and go to Daytona and stay at a hotel. It’s chaperoned. It’s a blast. The cost usually runs about $100 to $110 per kid. Students must have their fair share paid by 1/31/2010 in order to go on the Daytona trip. Does not include indoor drum line, but the $525 must be received from everyone.
SUMMER BAND CAMPS: 6/1/14-6/17/2010, and, 8/7, 8/9-8/13/2010 are the Summer Band Camps’ dates.
2010 HURRICANE MARCHING SHOW ALL LINED UP: Next year’s show will be fantastic. Mr. Pirzer already has selected next year’s marching band show and is working on developing the program now. This one tells a story and has great music. He ordered the 2010 show was today!!!! In addition, the color guard is already working on the routines and costumes for next year’s show, too. He’ll announce the program information to the kids this week. The GHS band staff is all jazzed up about the 2010 selection. Seniors from last two or three years will want to come back and watch this one!
INDOOR DRUM LINE FEES: Drum line pays an additional $150 dollars for its fair share. Mr. Prizer has permission forms, and if your child is interested in this – permission form must be completed & returned.
ALL COUNTY BAND FOR HIGH SCHOOL for this year has been cancelled due to multiple scheduling conflicts. It was initially scheduled on the date of Passover and was moved, and moved, and moved, and finally, it had to be cancelled. In lieu of this, the University of Florida will have an Honor Band culminating in a Saturday evening concert. The target date is 4/1/2010-4/3/2010. Fees for participation are $60.00. Mr. Watkins at UF will coordinate this. Students who wish to participate in the Jonor Band need to inform Mr, Pirzer and obtain his recommendation.
MIDDLE SCHOOL HONOR BAND still on at this point, but has also been rescheduled many times, too, and also is in danger of being cancelled.
Band Booster President: Frank Mason:
THE SHOW: He was grateful and expressed his gratitude to Mr. Pirzer. He thought that we should have finished first or second based on the complexity of the show and the music performed. Thought the kids did a great job! As a former band player himself, he can appreciate all the nuances and factors that the kids have to incorporate and memorize in order to perform such a quality show. Congratulations to the staff and to everyone, band field leaders as well, for making this happen.
LOTS OF GROUP DISCUSSION ON MARCHING BAND COMPETITIONS AND STATE FINALS:
Mr. Pirzer: Prelims and Finals are judged by completely different judges. You don’t see bands move up very often. A band’s relative ranking entering into the competition is usually reflective of their show performance. For GHS to move up and jump over a competitor band is a huge accomplishment. Our students really had to regroup this year, because it had so few seniors and was building its experience. To place third in the State is awesome outcome. State Finals was our best run of the season!!.
Our students felt good about the show and could barely contain themselves to get outside of the tunnel. They huddled in a big circle and cheered in exuberance after the Finals show, upon exiting the tunnel.
Scoring at Finals: Musically we hung with everyone else. We were right behind Stoneman Douglas. What held us back was Candide. It just didn’t lend itself to be as successful as Mr. Pirzer imagined it to be. It didn’t give us the same impact that the other three pieces did, especially the last piece, but it’s not where we lost out. We lost out in general effect. We never had a whole grasp of the program until Saturday night. We played catch up this year. Next year our show will have a big general effect.
Stoneman Douglas has a huge number of band students and doesn’t march freshman in its competitions. All you see are seasoned marchers in the Stoneman Douglas show.
Palmetto Ridge is a massive band with over 300 students. Every 3-4 years they do an audition marching band. They make it really small and create a competitive band. Mr. Pirzer’s philosophy is that the band is for everybody, not just for the elite best marchers.
Role of seating in final scoring: Mr. Prizer thinks we placed where our ranking played out. We went 7th from the end. That might have worked against us. It is really hard to remember what a band did 7 shows ago. The later the performance, the higher the score, but some of the bands that went after us didn’t make it into the top five. We practically jogged to the field from warm up. The kids were a little rattled. The most important thing is the 5 minutes in the parking lot after the performance – win, lose or draw!
Newberry High was ecstatic to place high enough to compete at State and to come in 12th. Kudos to all Alachua County marching bands.
Mr. Pirzer tells the kids to not post anything about our performance, music, etc. online until after the State Finals. After that, it’s okay.
RECOMMENDATION: There was a recommendation that Santa Fe High be used as a role model for schools hosting competitions. Mr. Pirzer notes that there are not a whole lot of schools that want to take on hosting competitions, and especially not the State preliminary competitions. The 2A site had a water line break, and the field was wet and muddy. Having hosted two shows at North Marion in the past, Mr. Pirzer knows how many things can go wrong.
Mr. Pirzer suggests we fund raise money to dome the base ballfield (ha ha).
Treasurer News:
Checking account has $5,000 in the check book. We are still trying to keep the trailer fund separate ($2500 for that) from general funds. We have $2100 bills to pay. Now that marching band season is over, there won’t be as much going toward staff costs. From here forward, we should be cash in cash out each month.
Fundraising totals:
Moe’s - $165
Hire a Hurricane: Downtown Arts Festival - $785
Guard yardsale: $110
Concession stands: 3 games pending receipts
November script – $674
Fair Share: Fair share has trickled even more so.
$19,000 left on the Fair Share
Fundraiser News:
SCRIPT: Jill: Script is due Wednesday. Turn in by Thursday a.m. at the latest. Turn around time will be by next Wednesday for the holiday break.
BJ’S FUNDRAISER: This Sunday 11:00 – 9:00 p.m. All day!! Watch the football games at BJ’s. Bring the friends and family. Make it a tailgate party! 15% goes to the Band’s general fund. No credit for Happy Hour specials and alcohol.
Moe’s fundraiser: $165 was earned from the Moe’s fundraiser, which equaled 15% of the gross revenue.
TOOJAYS: December fundraiser date to be announced.
Future fundraisers: Update: AppleBees – pancake breakfast targeted for a weekend in April. Suggestion that we can combine this with a car wash in parking lot. He recommends that we steer clear of the 10th, as we don’t have any school that Monday. We need to put a $200 deposition to secure. Spring break is 4/4/2010- 4/12/09. Return to school 4/13/09 Tuesday (Monday is off, too).
BRAINSTORM SESSION: GIFT BASKET auction for the winter concert. Discussion on pre-sales of raffle tickets versus silent auction. Funds raised to go into the band’s general funds. Suggestions for basket themes: Spa day basket, Movie tickets, scrap book basket, tool basket, Gator basket – museum, natural history, butterfly, pet basket, etcetera. It was decided that with such short notice, we would focus on three theme baskets of Coffee, Chocolate and Movies for a silent auction with a minimum bid.
Laura Netardus – contact person.
Thanks were extended to Randy Handel for spearheading the Hire A Hurricane fundraiser and also to Adela who spearheading the Gator Dockside fundraiser.
FROM RANDY: Hire-a-Hurricane had great reception. The artists loved it. He thinks it will be a great fundraiser for next year, too. He’s checking into the Spring Arts Festival possibilities, too. The Spring Arts Festival is held in mid April, right after spring break.
Gatornationals: March 13 & 14.
Discussion on cookie dough and chicken dinner fundraisers in the spring.
Volunteer News:
A question on whether guard and drum line will be attending the same winter events, and the answer is some times. Our volunteer coordinator is recruiting crews for chaperones and set up. Indoor show will be further advanced than last yea with cosume changes and painted floor.
Color Guard News:
UF Concession Stands continue after football season and will need continued staffing.
Other:
Solo & ensembles: Forms are due on Friday are will be held on February 19 and 20 at Buchholz High School.
Drum major camp – probably will have something in January.
BAND SUPPLIES: Band supplies are good. We probably won’t need any more water or crackers for awhile. Thank you to all those who donated. The band is pleased to have enough 9 volt batteries to last.
