BOOSTER OFFICER OR BAND ROLE: Hi! My name's Rebecca Hamilton, and by now you all know who am, and what my role is: I am the GHS Band Booster Secretary.
NUMBER OF YEARS I'VE VOLUNTEERED FOR THIS ROLE & WILL MY STUDENT GRADUTE THIS YEAR: 2009/2010 was my first and last year in this role. My daughter is a graduating senior, and we’ll both be moving on in June.
A RECAP OF MY DUTIES: As secretary, I try to attend all the Band Booster meetings, post the minutes on our blog, and keep band parents and supporters up to date on the scheduled band activities and fundraisers.
CHALLENGES: The two biggest challenges were the mailing list and getting the blog established.
The mailing list: The biggest challenge was in getting the mailing list established. This required coordination with Mr. Pirzer’s list, with the prior secretary’s mailing list, and with the information that I gathered from students and parents. It took two weekends of organizing, typing, sending test e-mails to get my list set up, and I still don’t have it completely accurate. Initially I intended to create two separate mailing lists – one for the students and one for the parents. In the end, because of how I listed the parents under the student’s name, I couldn’t make it work without creating two separate accounts, and so I decided that sending the e-mails to the parents was sufficient. I’m sure that if I had been more techno-savvy, I could have made it work.
The blog: My goal was to create a permanent record that could be accessed by parents at any time, that would be easy for me to update and maintain, and that could be passed on to the new secretary. I type really fast, and have horrible handwriting, and so didn’t want hand scribe notes. I’m also a bit of a techno dinosaur, so finding a medium that would meet my goals was a major challenge. I consulted my band student, who felt that a blog would be the best way to go, and who walked me through Blogspot.com. Fortunately, Blogspot.com makes setting up a blog really easy. Adding updates is even easier. It also made it easy for me to scribe the notes “real time” on my laptop, proof and edit, and then post the minutes. The coolest thing about the blog is that one can add links to other important websites – such as the GHS band website, the Alachua County School Board.
SUCCESSES: My biggest success was when Mr. Pirzer added a link to the GHS band website to the blog, and when other booster officers started sending me e-mails to post! That was when I knew that the blog was a success. The other great thing about the blog is that it can be passed on to future GHS Band Booster secretarys with a simple password. (The new secretary will need to establish a gmail account, though, in order to link into the blog.)
WHEN I BEGAN PREPARING FOR THE NEW ROLE: I began collecting student parent information, and coordinating with the prior secretary, during Band Camp I. I created an information sheet to send home with the students that collected names, phone numbers and e-mail addresses. I continued this into Band Camp II. In the interim, I began working on the blog and on creating a mailing list.
A LITTLE INFORMATION ON MY STUDENT AND ON ME: My daughter is Jessica Pu, known by most students as “TJ.” She was one of the drum majors for the past two years. Her primary instruments were the flute and piccolo, but the band gave her the opportunity to play a lot of different instruments. She also played trumpet in the marching band during her freshman and sophomore years, and a variety of horns, the saxophone, the clarinet. The band is a safe “home” for creative students like her, and I’m grateful that GHS supports its band program with great teachers, great music and great marching.
In my other life, when I am not a Band Mom, a full time parent of two children, and a full time wife, I am a full time claims manager for Nationwide Insurance Company. It’s a busy life, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
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