WHHS Marching Band Board Meeting Aug 31st 2021
Date: August 31, 2021 7 p.m.
Attendees: Joseph Richie, Alan Johnson, Shannon Stewart, Karen Nelson, Phil Yanov, Megan Thomas
Budget
Karen, Alan and Mr. Richie met and went through the budget from last year.
Broke down each line item in terms of what made sense for the band budget and what made sense for the booster budget since they are separate now.
No more Membership Tool Kit
We will make the move to Mail Chimp for the mailing list.
There will be a few things, like sponsorship, that we will have to move elsewhere, but Wix has a form builder.
Should also be able to reduce the Wix plan we are on because we are on the Ultimate Plan and it seems the main benefit of the plan is payment processing, which we are not doing.
Question was raised - What is it we are trying to get to with Mail Chimp? Is it cost avoidance, some feature set?
Basically just having a mailing list.
It will be a big cost reduction (we are paying $400 a year).
Most of what Membership Tool Kit does we do not use.
We will also review what we are using on Wix, what we are not and compare to the pricing plan to make sure the budget matches the lowest possible pricing plan we can use on that.
Show for next year
It will be put on the booster budget as planned to donate the show.
The line item is $25,000. This is higher than we've ever spent.
Mr. Richie’s thinking there was let’s set that high so people see a high number in terms of what we’re approaching.
Obviously we can pull off $15,000 for the show at the lower end at the grade we’ve been doing show quality at.
This number covers the drill writer (this year it cost $5000), music rights (which is a big chunk of money), and the music arrangement.
Question was raised - Does Mr. Richie know or have interest in learning to do some of those things later on?
Thinking the plan is no.
Mr. Richie sees it already as a full-time job and that is one of the easy things to take off.
Bottom of Budget Items
Fundraisers
There are several items where for fundraisers we want to say that we can run a fundraiser if it's under $500 in cost to us upfront.
There are other fundraisers where we are pre collecting the money (t-shirts are a great example). We gather the money and the cost comes out of that, so we feel totally comfortable. Not a lot of risk of loss.
Basically we are asking for blanket approval rather than saying we need to go back to the board or we need to set a weird arboratory number in the budget for that.
We would ask for approval if the number is over $500.
We will be reporting the results on the fundraisers.
Donations to the Band
Under $500, it’s at our discretion (example: flip folders).
Over $500, we will seek approval.
Deposits
Add a special line item for donations
Question was raised - Have we received any sponsorship checks?
Three checks have been received from one person.
Not specific to a student.
By-law Vote
Not going over by-laws again.
Has been shared on the band website for a month; time to vote.
Presentation
Question was raised - Will the presentation go on the website?
Yes
Would also like to share it in this Sunday’s email.
Alumni Band
Alan asked Mr. Richie for an inventory of instruments; will have tomorrow.
Knows he has plenty of brass instruments.
Can make stuff work with percussion.
Does not think he has a lot of woodwinds.
Think we have something for just about everyone that wants to come.
Does not expect it to be a huge ordeal this first year.
Need a form for registration.
Name
What instrument they play
Do they have an instrument or do they need one
Alan will get with Shannon on this.
Will be held Homecoming night.
Will need to know what consumables we need, like reeds, etc.
Have plenty of reeds, mouthpiece cleaner at school as of right now.
Trucks for Competitions
We will do a test run of loading the truck for competitions.
Still working out the details but needs to be soon.
Truck rental costs
Penske is drastically more expensive.
Renting two UHalls instead cuts the cost of transportation in half.
Will need some parents and hopefully get student leadership to come and help out (Mr. Richie said leadership will be there).
Plan is to load, empty, then load and empty again to simulate loading it twice to make sure everything fits.
Ohana Sports Photography
Made a comment on our Facebook page about whether we were interested in using them again.
Who are they?
Two years ago they did our banners for seniors and the group.
They were used to motivate the band.
Shannon will pass along information to the group.
Payments
Second month payments are coming in slower than the first month. Not received a lot.
Some parents have reached out, asked for another week due to financial hardships.
Some may be afraid to keep putting in money due to what’s happening at school with Covid numbers rising (this is speculation only).
Midweek Emails
Could focus on we are only at this percentage of the second payments.
It’s really important to get these payments in because it will determine how great the season is, and how the season runs in terms of all the nice things we try to get.
We are doing okay at the moment; we are not pressing for cash.
Game Night
Has been policy that the kids are not able to walk to the visitors side without a chaperone to go to the concession stand.
This has not been reinforced in the past, however, was enforced during the WH/Greenville High game.
Question was raised - Do we need more chaperones?
As of right now, no. The kids need to go in large groups.
Mr. Richie will talk to Coach Choplin to figure out a plan before the next home game.
9. Friday’s Away Game
Need someone to pull the trailer.
Could we provide snacks for the kids?
Seems to be a large issue with some of the kids not eating.
Phil will get snacks and get to Alan to bring to the game.
10. Buses
Kids are required to wear masks on the buses.
The buses fit 60 students; we have 34 riding, so definitely enough room to space out.
At the moment, we still have two buses for each competition.
It is more than we need, but if we see we like the distancing, we can keep that.
Might be worth the cost because at the moment the district is paying for all of our competition buses except for State.
Put in the request for two, but will double check.
Only thing we have to pay for is the second driver, which is $20/hr.
11. Covid
Guard was sent home today because one student had Covid (also one student in the Winds section) and they were all in very close contact.
They must each contact Dr. Grant individually. He is handling their instructions on a case by case basis.
The thought is he will require a negative test.
At the moment, we are planning on the guard not being here this week.
Jay is putting all their work on Google Classroom.
As it stands, they all must quarantine for ten days.
12. Last Friday Night’s Concessions
$2700 in revenue (do not know profit yet).
Will put together a spreadsheet with total cost, revenue and profit for each game so next year’s board will know what to expect.
13. Money from Sponsors
Question was raised - How are we going to take money from sponsors? As in people who want to write bigger checks?
Best option - physical check.
Can use Square.
Takes away 2.7%
.30 on website
.10 on machine
The problem right now with people donating directly from the band website is that they say they are going to give a certain amount of money, then automatically get a receipt. Now they have a tax receipt for something they have not given us. We would have no way of saying we never received the money.
Need a way to send an invoice on Square.
Also need a name, phone number and email to follow up and get sponsorship information.
14. Square
Karen will put statements on the drive so that Alan can review them as well.
Square does not let you transfer or revoke owners.
When the position of treasurer transfers, we will likely have to close the account and set up a new one.
15. Background Checks
Will be done Tuesday for board members.
