WHHS Band Booster Club Meeting Sept 7th 2021
September 7, 2021 7 p.m.
14 in attendance
Welcome
By-laws vote - Unanimous
Budget
This budget does not include the band’s money, just the band booster money because they are two separate budgets.
Props are covered because we were able to sell the Alice props.
Competition meals
Jennifer Shirley has offered to handle the meals this year.
$1500 has been budgeted for this, which is a little higher than in the past, but we added a buffer to try to make sure there was plenty of room there.
Moving trucks
We have the opportunity to make this number lower, which we will talk about later.
Asking for the higher number in case that does not work out.
Charter buses for State, in case we make it.
Additional operating costs
The plan in the budget right now is to stop using membership toolkit and replace with mail chimp.
Membership toolkit costs over $400 per year and we do not use all of its features.
Mail chimp costs $120 per year.
Also one of the great things about mail chimp vs. membership toolkit is that with mail chimp we can have three mailing lists, which we’d like to get to - the parent list, an alumni list, and a community list, where we can announce performances, and ways to support the band.
We also have the ability to lower the cost of the website because we are paying for a higher level than needed.
Square
This is a category that we ask that you trust us and let us handle it.
Previously there was a category for paypal fees, etc.
We pay 3% every transaction. We only pay this when we bring money in.
Instead of making up a number, we’d rather say we have fees because we received money.
Awards and events
Mostly the same as it has been in the past
Recruitment
This is a new category that Mr. Ritchie asked for; to have future band member t-shirts when we start recruiting in the spring.
We’d like to start giving out t-shirts to the kids we see at the middle schools as an excitement item to build hype and to be able to walk into schools with something in hand.
Shirts will have the band logo and the words “future band member” somewhere on it.
Fundraising
Approval for board discretion ip to $500 per fundraising and approval for fundraisers pre-collection (example: show t-shirts).
Any fundraiser over $500 to be approved at parent meetings.
Fundraiser results to be reported monthly.
Donations to band
Approval for board discretion for normal donations to band under $500 like flip folders or instrument repairs.
Any donations to band over $500 to be approved at parent meetings.
Donations to band results to be reported monthly.
Donation of next year’s show
This is where the bulk of the money is.
$25,000
Biggest show we’ve paid for to date.
When the budget meeting was held, the thought was let’s be aggressive. If we miss it, we miss it. We can go lower on the show cost, but we’d rather have a number in front of everyone that says this is where we can go.
The idea there being with the donation of next year’s show that the band boosters would pay for the drill writing, copyright of the music, and music arrangement.
Question raised - Are we going to budget for concessions or just count on the fact that it pays for itself?
We will treat concessions through the year as one fundraiser that we spend a little money on up front.
It was actually a little over the $500, but we should be covered for the season in terms of it being profitable.
We will also track the fundraising so that at the end of every fundraiser we can say this is what the profit margin was, this is how it went, this is what the involvement was, all that data.
First football game - 75% profit margin; J.V. game - 40%
Good results on concessions so far.
Question raised - Will we be doing fruit sales again like we have done in the past?
The board has firmly said no, we will not do fruit sales.
The thinking right now on fundraising is that we would like to increase corporate sponsorship with the board reaching out to companies and making it very clear what the benefits of sponsorship is.
Question raised - Where does the money for this budget come from? This is not from the student fees, right?
No, it's from corporate sponsorships, additional donations we’ve received beyond parent donations, concessions, and fundraisers.
Ideally we would like to organize some sort of big fundraiser in the spring where we all work really hard for a short period of time. One that we can be proud of what the result can be vs. strongarming our students into selling things, where the margins do not turn out that great.
Point raised - Smart time to ask businesses for money is right before mid-April when they need that last minute taxable donation.
Question raised - What if we get to $15,000 instead of $25,000...are we holding to that magic number?
We have no ability to spend beyond our means.
We will do everything we can to get to that number
The important thing to remember is that the things we do now determine the quality of the show next year.
Budget vote - unanimous
Alumni Band
Beginning Homecoming this year, we are starting a new tradition by having an Alumni band.
We want to give graduated students the chance to come and play with the band.
The form will be in this week’s email.
If you know any graduates (from any year), please let them know. We would love for them to join us.
We fully understand that this year will be smaller than in the future. Our hope is by just getting this started and getting emails of graduates we can move into having a really good set up.
The alumni will use the same call time as the band uses.
We would like to emphasize that it will be graduates only. It is not for anyone currently in high school now.
Color guard graduates are welcome as well!
The RSVP form has a field asking if an instrument is needed. We will take that as far as we can in terms of the instruments we have. If we run out we will figure it out from there.
Finance
Current Finances
August
Starting balance - $412
Deposit - $7972.21
Payments - $72.34
Ending - $8311.87
September
Starting balance - $8311.87
Deposit - $857.12
Payments - $1816.35
Ending - $7352.64
Donations to date
$800 matched to $1600 by anonymous donor
Still have a lot more to go in donations that can be matched.
Question raised - How does Amazon Smile fit into this?
It is in there. We just got an email that there was a $20 deposit made.
If we could get everyone to join, it would really help.
Amazon has now configured it so that you can use it in the app. Karen will send instructions soon.
Volunteer Opportunities
It takes an army to keep the band playing.
We really do need more people, so please volunteer today!
We have competitions coming up and we will need a lot of help in the following areas:
Chaperones
Truck drivers
If anyone has a pickup truck, that would also be helpful
Props
Food
The success of the band depends on the involvement of the parents.
Thank you to everyone who volunteers because we know it is not always easy.
In the email this weekend, there will be a special competition 101, which will talk about:
What to expect
Volunteer needs
And if anyone asks, yes, the 10 people who sign up to volunteer get in the competition for free! If you are not signed up to volunteer, you must pay to get in.
Truck loading test this Friday
6:30 p.m.
We will have one truck.
The goal of this test is to make sure we know how everything is going to be configured in the truck and how we can maximize our space with everything we have.
We know we need two trucks, so we will load, unload, then load and unload again.
Why are we doing this? Uhauls are less than half the cost of the Penske trucks, so if we can fit everything into two Uhauls it will cut $2000 off the travel budget.
If anyone is available, we’d love to see you there.
Point raised - Our band will be on the field at halftime. That is different for us. That is a great incentive to volunteer. Quicker we get on/off the field, the less we get yelled at and the more we get to do it again.
Fundraising
Right now we are focusing on corporate sponsorship.
We have made changes on the website where they can now follow the link and sign up to become a corporate sponsor.
If you are working for someone, have someone who would like to donate, or know someone who would like more information just let us know who to talk to.
Email Phil at phil@ta5.com
We will start talking about doing other kinds of fundraisers later next year.
Questions, Comments, New Business
Question Raised - Are we doing Middle School Night?
Yes. It will be 7-8 grade.
It will be held on October 15.
We are expecting a good turnout from both Sevier and League.
Mr. Ritchie travels to Sevier twice a week to work with Mrs. Marsh. She is in a very unfortunate situation where she has 2nd year 7th graders and all the 6th graders that were virtual that didn’t get to do band. Mr. Richie is trying to get over to Sevier to help as much as possible so they do not all leave the program.
Our schedule right now, as it stands
9/17 - We will perform at halftime.
9/24 - Homecoming and Alumni. We will perform post game
10/15 - Senior and Middle School Band Night. We will perform halftime assuming the Senior Night festivities still happen before the game as scheduled.
10/29 - Spirit Week. As of right now, there has not been talk of when we will perform due to the check reveal and Spirit Week. If we make State, we will probably not have a performance that evening so that they can go home. If we don’t make it, we will at least have a final performance. Whatever we do, plan on having a celebration of the season.
9/2 - Mr. Ritchie has scheduled a Camp Day from 9-8 to play catchup.
This is no one’s fault but we did lose the guard this week. They are back for the most part, but we also lost 75% of the trumpet section.
This day will be very beneficial for everyone and will help us catch up for Easley.
Question raised - Will we have any other Friday’s to rehearse on the field?
Yes
We cannot on October 1st, however, we can on October 8th, and the day before Upperstate.
We will lose the Tuesday before Upperstate due to teacher professional workday, so we will work hard on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
With the classes we are getting into the thick of it and kids are getting stressed out. Please encourage your kids to keep pushing forward. If we keep having rehearsals like we’ve been having, then Mr. Richie feels we will have a great payday at the competitions.
At Easley we are class 1A
Boiling Springs - 2A
Upperstate - 4A
We are in smaller classes so we are going to be fighting for a slot at Upperstate but Mr. Ritchie thinks we can have a very nice start to the season.
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