Tuesday, January 7, 2014 · Band Room, KHS
Meeting was called to order by President Jolene Berke.
Copies of the minutes were available via email blast and paper copies at the door. A motion to approve the minutes was made by Todd Ochsner, second by Doreen Sheen. The minutes were approved.
Treasurer’s Report from Brent Meyer: Checking $13,556.42, Scrip Account $491.57, Student Accounts $12,867.61, Savings Account $35,501.37. Reminder that a Chicago trip payment of $250 was due Nov 15. Please see Brent or Jan to make payments. Shawna Skaggs has completed the review of the books and was paid $100 for reviewing the past two years.
Old Business
Underclassman Honor Band – Will be held January 20. Candy Holt is coordinating the food for the event. There will be a snack & lunch. Little Caesar’s will bring pizza for lunch and we need band parents to help provide individually sacked snacks. We also need 2 volunteers for lunch help and 2 volunteers for snack help. Sign up sheet was passed around and an email blast will be sent.
Big Band Dance – We will be having two dances this year. We will be playing at the Peterson Senior Center on Sunday, January 19 from 4-6 pm. The Senior Center is doing all the work for snacks, advertising, etc. A free will donation will be taken up with proceeds to us. Main Big Band Dance will be April 4. It is currently scheduled to be held at Sunrise. We will need a volunteer to chair this event.
Runza night – We will have Runza Night on February 25 at both locations. Sign up sheet will be at the next meeting. The only request from Runza is to try to patronize both locations (especially the South). It will help to even out the crowd. Lori Koeppe suggested handing out a “save the date” card to hand out announcing the spring concert at Yanney. The suggestion was well received and expanded to include all band events and to be handed out at the Big Band Dance at the Senior Center, too.
Honor Bands – We have lots of honor bands coming up. For those with students participating, be on the lookout for info to being sent out soon for travel arrangements.
Scrip – Total rebates at approximately $1000 in 5 months, KBPA share is approximately $450. Thanks to Marlene Hansen for introducing us to this project!
New Business
Upcoming Fundraiser – Yanda’s is holding the Nebraska Band Showcase (first annual) on February 1 at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. We have agreed to provide a concession stand. They will have about 12 bands playing in 30 minute increments beginning at about 11 am and lasting until about 8 pm. They would like hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies, popcorn, soda, water, candy – much like Cruise Nite. We can charge what we want, but we must give 15% to the Fairgrounds. Event is free.
Shanda Kincade was going to chair with Arlene Jones assisting, but Shanda had to resign. Robin Farrar & Amy Hardy offered to help Arlene. We will check with Nebraskaland Band regarding them providing a grill and food. We will be providing the menu to Yanda’s which they will include in advertising. Interest sign up sheet is being sent around tonight for working this event.
Directors
Color guard try-outs will be held soon, date is being finalized. Looking at last week of January/first week of February. Spread the word to recruit as you do not have to be in band to participate.
Encourage your kids to continue with band. Great strides are being made in the program. Registration for next year will be beginning in February.
Mr. LeFeber attended the Midwest Band & Orchestra Convention in Chicago this past month. Great experience! Lots of ideas generated here.
Last trip payment will be due April 1. We are not sure of the exact amount since our numbers for the trip have fluctuated. It should be $250 or less.
Placement exams for next year are due on Friday. Students have received info on how to record these. They will be using their new Chromebooks. All students are required to complete this as it is used for chair placements this year and is also a graded assignment.
Uniform carts update: Design has been completed & approved and the first prototype has been built. Following final approval, the remainder of the carts will be built. Ace Irrigation is doing a GREAT job on this.
Distance Learning: We have been providing music lessons through the Manhattan School of Music via distance learning. This has been a great experience and the Washington Post even contacted us and did an article on our students using this technology. We have been a leader for this type of program. This program has been discontinued effective immediately by the principal. The reasons are 1) they are not taught by certified teachers and 2) the money we use to pay for the lessons comes in a different fiscal year than the lessons take place. MUCH discussion has taken place. For example, YoYo Mann is not a certified teacher, but would you pass up the opportunity to take a lesson from him? The school actually makes money on the program with the assistance we receive from the state, but the accounting department will not allow this as we pay for it one fiscal year then are reimbursed the following fiscal year. It has been declared a done deal, but Mr. LeFeber encouraged supporters of the program to contact Dr. Dostal. The ESU distance learning coordinator has contacted the commissioner of education for the State of Nebraska to work on this. The fear is that as a leader, Kearney will be setting a precedent and other schools may also pull out or avoid the program.
The program consisted of 11 lessons for the semester. We had about 15 kids participating and the orchestra had about 5 students. Several that made the All-State ensembles were involved in these lessons. We had record numbers accepted for the All-State ensembles this year. Mr. Mitchell gave the example that the instructor for his son’s lessons this summer had to reschedule a lesson as she was giving a concert in Amsterdam. One of the instructors for drumming had to be replaced for the final two lessons as the original instructor was accepted into the President’s Marine Band (top military honor band). These are examples of the quality musicianship of these uncertified instructors.
The money comes from a grant through ESU 11. The money can be paid after the lessons take place, but the money is only paid out once a year in September. So lessons which took place in October 2013 will be reimbursed by the state in September 2014. KHS’s fiscal year runs Sep-Aug, so we pay for the lessons in the one fiscal year then get reimbursed for them in the following fiscal year. The cost of lessons is $60 per lesson ($600 per student for 10 lessons). Another requirement is that to receive reimbursement, we have to show that the student is receiving credit for them through Kearney High.
New school update: Meetings are taking place with architects to get designs in place. We have a fabulous architect designing the auditorium, but are encountering some difficulty getting the architects hired to design the school to listen to him. Mr. LeFeber encouraged everyone to be involved in the school board meetings as the school board is the one with the ultimate decision. It is appearing that to some degree the bond was actually created too small to include everything that we need. We are going to have to fight to get the great building we deserve, and hopefully we will get it. The question was asked about private donations to help with the auditorium. Mr. LeFeber has approached three potential donors in the community but was turned down. He needed some more information to satisfy donors of that size of request. There are still a couple of possibilities within the community that he will approach. The window of opportunity draws closer to closing each day as we draw closer to the finalization of plans. We envisioned a 1200-1500 seat facility which would be the centerpiece of the community. At this point we are hoping for a stage designed which will put us on the cutting edge of theater design with seating for 1000. To put it in perspective, the current KHS auditorium seats about 940, Merryman seats about 650.
Give Where You Live brought in about $4500 for the band. We do have a meeting next week with Bill Oldfather of the Cope Foundation to discuss some of the things we are working on. We gave a presentation at Rotary Club a few weeks ago and just received a donation of $250 from them for the Band Boosters. So far approximately $90,000 have been committed to the campaign ($250,000 goal).
Future Items
Looking forward to next year, there will be spots available with the KBPA board and committees. We will be needing a president-elect and treasurer-elect. Uniform committee will be needing freshman parents. Basketball Concessions/Stadium Clean-up will need a co-chair. Bearcat Marching Festival will also need a co-chair. We really have a mentoring system in place so when you sign up, it is a two-year commitment where you are the helper the first year then in charge the second year.
Mr. LeFeber reported that he has received word that there will be changes to NSBA marching competition next year. They will have a three site system with two festival sites and one competition site. The presumption is that the competition site will be in Lincoln or Omaha, one of the festival sites will be in Lincoln or Omaha and one festival site will be out-state. We will be unable to host as UNK has a home football game that weekend and we don’t have a facility outside of Foster Field. The fear is that this change is made then no one steps up to host so it will be taken away. Parents suggested looking into Lexington or Hastings as sites and that maybe we host. This does potentially change where we will compete. Additionally, NSBA is implementing that the people going to that site dictate the rules at the site.
Having no further business to conduct, a motion to adjourn was made by Ed Uden, second by Todd Ochsner.
