Mr. Pirzer News:
IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS:
Drum Major Auditions: Wednesday, 2/10/10 at 3:00 p.m. in the band room. 10 students are auditioning. You’re welcome to come watch the auditions.
Concert & Symphonic Band: 2/25/10 – Thursday night – Pre-Festival Concert: Concert starts at 7:00 p.m., Kids need to be there at 6:15. This will be held at GHS, and several guest band directors are coming to judge our bands’ performances. Our bands will play the three pieces that they’ll play at districts. Ms. Sicon will choose a piece for the sight reading component. The Concert starts at 7:00 p.m. and our musicians need to be there at 6:15 p.m. Dress code: Boys: Black pants (no jeans), long sleeve white tuxedo shirt, the band will provide the bowties & cumberbands. Girls: Girls will be fitted for skirts, white tuxedo shirts, black shoes with black stockings.
VOLUNTEER PHOTOGRAPHER NEEDED: Mr. Pirzer would like to get a great group senior picture prior to the 2/25/10 Pre-Festival Concert.
FBA Concert Festival at PK Yonge on 3/4/2010. Concert band plays at 7:00 p.m. Symphonic band plays at 8:30 p.m. Musicians will board the bus at GHS around 5:00 p.m. Dress is as for the Pre-Festival Concert.
3/27/10 – 7:00 a.m. Westwood – March for Babies, March of Dimes. This is an annual event for our GHS band and counts toward community service volunteer hours (Bright Futures). Students must be at Westwood Middle School at 7:00 a.m. The music lasts about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
3/28/10 (Sunday) – GHS participates in a combined concert with the Gainesville Community Band – Starts at 2:00 p.m. Our Concert and Symphonic bandswill play first, followed by the Gainesville Community Band. A large crowd is expected as this year’s performance is a tribute to Mr. Richard Bowles – a long time UF band director and active community member who passed away in December.
If we qualify at districts, we’ll play at State: 4/26 or 4/27 – State Concert Festival: This event will be held at UF during the day.
4/30/10 – GHS Spring Concert at 7:00 p.m. – includes both concert & symphonic bands.
6/12/10 – Saturday – GHS Graduation at the O’Connell Center. The band will meet at GHS at 8:30 a.m. Dress: Musicians will wear their Sunday best as uniforms will already be packed away. Graduating band seniors also participate in this performance. The seniors play the Stars & Stripes, and then join the graduating students.
Practice dates for Concert & Symphonic Bands are posted on the band calendar: PARENTS PLEASE TRY NOT TO SCHEDULE THINGS ON THE PRACTICE DATES FOR CONCERT AS THERE ARE ONLY A FEW WEEKS LEFT BEFORE MBA. Concert Band practice: Thursdays 3:-4:30).Symphonic Band practice: Wednesdays 3:00-4:45
Indoor Drum Line: Has been doing FANTASTIC and fnished third out of 9 and 3rd out of 21 in the last two competitions. Our drum line is in the top of the two classes – in 1A. Mr. Pirzer notes that our indoor drum line show is far from complete, is still undergoing changes, and will be completely different at the next performance. Come see what all the noise is about!!!
THIS FRIDAY & NEXT MONDAY: INDOOR DRUM LINE: Disregard the notice that there is indoor drum line practice this Saturday and Monday. This is incorrect. There are no practices scheduled for the upcoming 4-day weekend, but all other scheduled practice sessions on the calendar are good.
Some Upcoming Indoor Drum Line Competition Dates:
2/27/10 – Metansis (sorry, spelling?) High school
3/20/10 – East Lake High
3/27/10 – State Championships – Orlando, unknown venue site.
OUR INDOOR COLOR GUARD has also been competing this winter and placed 6th out of 9th in the Fleming Island competition. Discussion on recruitment efforts for next year's team. Mr. Pirzer mentioned 12 to 14 contacts from the open house held two weeks ago, and his hopes that we're able to expand and add male performers to our Color Guard team next year. Mr. Pirzer projects that next year's show will be GREAT.
Color guard schedule to be posted.
GURNEY NEEDED: Shhhh. Mr. Pirzer won’t exactly say what the gurney will be used for, but hints that you might find out if you come to the indoor drum line competitions. The show will have a twist ending to it that hasn’t been written yet. The concept of the show is “Mad Scientist.” He needs this by next week. Two volunteers from the booster meeting attendees thought they could find a gurney and will ask around. But, if you can provide one – by all means, please drop Mr. Pirzer a line.
3/26/10 – Friday before State – tentatively – there is talk about getting together at Santa Fe at their location at their gym. (Sorry folks, but I’m not clear what this event is about).
By the way: What is MPA: Music Performance Assessment (what we’ve been calling “Festival” earlier in this posting)
DAYTONA BEACH TRIP: A take home sheet was sent home with your student today.
Dates: 5/14/10-5/16/2010
Cost: $110.00
Hotel: Same as last year (sorry parents – I don’t know which hotel that was). All hotel rooms are refurbished this year with new furniture, flat screen televisions.
Payment: Beach money is due no later than 4/2/10 – the Friday leading into spring break.
IN ORDER TO GO: All fair share fees must be paid in full by 4/2/1010 – including Indoor Color Guard and Indoor Drum Line fees, instrument rental fees.
PLEASE NOTE THAT IT’S NOT TOO LATE: Mr. Pirzer will still accept Fair Share payments and allow students to attend the Daytona Beach. However, if the money isn’t received in full by 4/2/10 – your students will not be attend Daytona Beach. This is a really fun band trip, and your musician will be glad he or she went! More info as we get closer to blast off date!!!!
Gator Nationals: 3/13 & 3/14: Saturday & Sunday. The Indoor Drum Line and Color Guard have conflicts on Saturday for this fundraiser. We have slots for 40 each day. Last year we made $4,000 from this fundraiser. Parents, musicians, siblings, friends & everyone else are invited. The money raised will go toward your fare share, toward Daytona Beach, and then toward the GSH Band general fund, in that order. Sorry parents – money cannot be banked toward next year’s Fair Share.
2010/2011 dates: Band Camps I & II:
Band Camp I: June 14th-June 17th: 4:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Band Camp II: August 7th, August 9th-August 13th, 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
WE HAVE NEXT YEAR COMPETITION DATES: PLEASE DO NOT SCHEDULE SAT AND ACT TESTS ON THESE COMPETITION DATES. There are lots of dates to choose from for these tests:
Competition dates for next FALL:
10/09/2010 - - Middleberg or Chiefland
10/23/2010 FBS in Lake City,
10/30/2010 – Southern Showcase in Alachua
BLOCK OUT: 11/18-11/20/10 = 3 days of Thursday, Friday & Saturday for the National and State competitions in St. Petersburg.
What is the “National” Competition? We have been invited to the first National Marching Band competition to be held in St. Petersburg at the Tropicana Field prior to State. This is a new, selective competition that is by invitation only this first year. A total of 30 bands will compete in the preliminary competition and the top ten of these will move on to finals. Only three or four Florida bands will be invited, and the GHS Hurricane Marching Band is one of them. National Band Championship will be 11/18, the day before the State Final Championship.
The National Championships will cost a boatload. The charge is $39 per student = $3,900. This covers our entry fee, staff badges, some chaperone badges and all the State Championship fees. This back-to-back competition would require students to spend at least one night in the Tampa area and bus rental of at least two days. Dr. Dixon has approved the additional school absence. If we compete at both of these events, Mr. Pirzer anticipates that he’d find a high school that would allow use of a practice field, that the students would practice Thursday, have some fund Thursday night – dinner, movie or something like that to blow off some steam. Friday a.m. – National Championship prelims and finals later that night, and then compete at State on Saturday. Mr. Pirzer estimates that the total cost for the combined competitions would be about $25,000, or roughly $170-$180 per student.
Lots of discussion ensued on whether we can afford the additional competition, the honor of attending the first National competition, options for additional fund raising, possibly combining costs on buses and hotels with Santa Fe High school. It was decided that Mr. Pirzer will send in the 10% entrance fee to reserve our place. We have until August 1st to make a final decision on the National Championship competition.
Solo & Ensemble: Just around the corner - next Friday & Saturday at Buchholz. Students received their dates and times last week from Mr. Pirzer. All students were given their slips and should have brought them home. If you haven’t seen them, ask for them.
RECRUITMENT & FRESHMAN: GHS had open house 2 weeks ago and received almost 50 contacts – 32 instrumentalist & 12-14 interested in color guard. Mr. Pirzer is requesting parental help (in addition to the students) in recruitment this year and asks for phone volunteers. We did this last year, and it was hugely successful. Mr. Pirzer will distribute phone lists of 8-10 students and asks the volunteers to call these students and parents --- tell them the great things about our school, our school programs and our BAND and COLOR GUARD. We want to make sure that we get those that are zoned for GHS, but we also want to recruit from potential IB & Buchholz students. Out-of-zone applicants will declare their school preference by month’s end. IF YOU’RE WILLING TO MAKE PHONE CALLS, PLEASE LET MR. PIRZER KNOW.
UF Honor Performance: This was in lieu of the All County Honors Band performance, which was cancelled this year due to multiple scheduling conflicts. Applications for the UF Honor Performance have already been turned in. The performance date ran into spring break, and so there wasn’t a great amount of interest. Only three students applied for it.
Treasurer Report: Given by Mr. Pirzer for Suzanne Clark, who was unable to attend.
Balance: Checkbook balance $7,786.88
Fair Share is coming in okay: Thank you very much parents!!!!
Fair share was last updated and posted on Thursday and includes indoor color guard and drum line fees.
Here are some of our fundraising numbers:
December Script order: $395.30
January Script order: $79.15
FEBRUARY SCRIPT ORDER IS DUE THIS WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY!!
3/10 is the March Script deadline for orders
(some discussion on whether Script could be automated and ordered online next year).
Toojays - December: $75.00
UF Concessions: $2,003.75 – All football season checks are posted to fair share balance
$528.00 silent auction and tickets at holiday concert
(Mr. Pirzer recommends another silent auction/tickets at the spring concert)
$785 from the Hire A Hurricane Downtown Arts Festival.
Fundraiser Report:
Chicken Dinners: Nothing planned and most likely we’ll not have a chicken dinner fundraiser.
NEW FUNDRAISERS:
Candy Bars: Mr. Pirzer has 50 cases of candy bars in his office and Maria Plaza is our volunteer coordinator. It’s easy profit – each case earns $25.00 of profit, which is a 50% take-home number. The fundraiser will raise $1,300 when all cases are sold. HERE’S THE SCOOP: Students cannot sell the candy bars on campus. They can’t take the candy to the lunchroom, to class or even sell the candy bars around campus. So parents, you’ll need to take these candy bars to work or to other events. The kids can check out a case at a time from Mr. Pirzer. The sale price is $1.00 per candy bar, and it’s an easy sell. We’ll sell them until they’re gone.
Cookie Dough: The order forms are in. It looks like we’ll target the end of February through first two weeks of March for sales, with deliveries prior toSpring break. Mr. Pirzer will send the order forms home with your students. PARENTS – PLEASE BE SURE TO ASK YOUR STUDENTS FOR THE ORDER FORMS. Send your orders and money to Mr. Pirzer, who will place the orders.
PANCAKE BREAKFAST AT APPLEBEES: 4/17/10 - $200 deposit already paid. Tickets are $6.00 each. VOLUNTEER IS ASKED to be in charge at Applebees on the morning of the breakfast. Contact Laura Netardus. It’s possible that we’ll combine the pancake breakfast with a carwash as Applies has generously volunteered it’s carwash hookups, too. We may target this fundraiser for the National competition.
Discussion on targeting fundraiser as follows:
Cookie dough, Gator National, Chocolate – Fundraising for Fair share, Daytona Beach
Baskets & pancake – Fundraising for National Competition & State Competition costs
After fair share & Daytona Beach are paid for, all additional funds raised go to general funds.
Volunteer Coordinator: Our volunteer coordinator is soliciting students and parents for the Gator National race fundraising event. For you new parents: This is an early morning, done by around noon, event in which you direct cars to parking spaces. Afterward, if you'd like, you can watch the remainder of the Gator Nationals for free!!! It earns $50 per person, per day. It’s an easy $100 bucks for a parent, student combo.
OTHER:
Low attendance with only 13 attendees at this month’s Booster meeting. We had lots of pizza, though.
New officer elections: We are targeting elections in April.
RANDY HANDLE : Randy touched base with the Spring Arts Festival head person, who was concerned with liability protection. Mr. Pirzer doesn’t believe that this should present a barrier, as we have GHS liability protection. However, because it’s at the end of Spring break, it may be difficult to get recruits for this fundraiser scheduled for 4/10, & 4/11. There’s no school on 4/12/10, either. Randy will circulate a list to gauge the level of interest before making any commitment to the Spring Arts Festival.
