Montrose Community Band

August 18th, 2006 Minutes

Those in attendance were Lyle Miller, Jim Gibson, Joe Reitz, Donald Ludlow, Yvonne McChesney, Andy King and Dave Loncar. Herb Probasco was not present but he sent an e-mail to Yvonne to read to the members. Meeting was called to order at 7:40 pm. Minutes Approved 9/29/06

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Minutes

The minutes were read individually and approved.

Treasurer's Report

Jim Gibson

• Deposits for August were $132.55,
      Deltarado donations: $14
      Main in Motion $118.55 ($18.55 donations)
      Expenses for August were $193.34
      PO Box rental $40
      Clarinet Ensemble music $153.43
• Total donations for 2006 performances so far is $820.05
• Current Balance $6,939.58
• Andy King asked if we had gotten a check for Deltarado days, Jim replied, not yet.
• Pending expenses: music from JW Pepper, Jim asked Andy how many pieces were returned: 5 or 6. Andy will return them shortly, still have to be mailed back.
• Lyle remarked that the city grant request has not been responded to yet

Committee Reports

Fundraising

Herb Probasco relayed the following information:

• Jim Gibson is planning to contact Lee Van Winkle from the Mail Room to learn whether he wants to co-sponsor the Sept. 17 concert. He's best reached in Durango, probably. Mail Room would have his phone number.
• Until we have some longer-range plans for using money, I am reluctant to pursue much fund-raising at this point. Even with the recent purchase of music, I imagine we still have close to $5,000 on hand, and we should think about how that money will be allocated. In addition, we need to work on recruiting more members and stimulate more consistent rehearsal attendance by current members before we seek more money.
• The proposed retreat meeting after the September 17 concert should address recruitment and attendance.

Publicity

Herb Probasco relayed the following information

• Publicity for Sept. 17 concert: item sent to Monitor Magazine, which has an early deadline. Banner will be dropped off this week for updating and eventual hanging at Ace Hardware before the concert; other publicity will be sent out in a week or two.
• Publicity and the Newcomers club: I have tried to reach someone with the club; one person appears to be out of town; another is recovering from surgery, and I will follow up in a week or two.
• Other publicity: I was contacted by Heather from KREY-TV about a feature on the band. I gave her our rehearsal time. Called her back last week to suggest that she check us out at Main in Motion on Aug. 17. Heather no longer works for the station, I was told. I left a message for the news department in hopes that someone will follow up.
• Andy mentioned the KVOD (kvod.org) is a classical music station and that we should have our concerts advertised there. They always mention concerts frequently the week before they happen. He will let Herb know.

Membership

Donald Ludlow

• Don has talked to the music director of the church, she does keyboard and her husband plays trombone.
• Andy has some players in mind that may come and play, sax, trumpet, horn, drums
• Matt, the director at Cedaredge who plays trumpet, may bring kids.
• Members that have not been showing up need called: Tina Woodrum, Dave Reddish, George Van Allen, Lyle will call George.
• Dave Loncar mentioned that maybe we could give incentives for HS students to be in the band, they could get credit on something. Yvonne remarked that they can meet community service requirements when they are in Senior Seminar at MHS. Katie noticed that the HS music was easier to play after playing with us.
• Someone mentioned that Round the Valley may put an ad in for us at no cost when they need a filler, we should supply a standard ad and they will run it when they can.
• Yvonne mentioned that Aaron Hernandez may want to play with us, she will call him.
• Joe mentioned that Cheri has the Bass Clarinet music and there are two pieces that are the originals that Thomas Hensley needs for the concert. Yvonne will get a hold of her.

Uniforms

Yvonne McChesney

• Cameron will leave his vest with Chris, his brother.
• Andy needs a paisley vest. Yet maybe he should wear his tux.
• Doug Reed needs to turn in his uniform if he is not going to play. Yvonne will contact Liz to see if she can get a hold of Doug.

Website

Yvonne McChesney

• Statistics:
  July's visits 1020 now our highest month, up 129 from June 2006 (our lowest month).
  Hits are from Google, Yahoo, MSN, MVCB, rockmuzic.com, New Orleans and Baton Rouge search engines, probably in response to our inquiries.
  Search string of note - Carl Bivins made the search.

Librarian

Joe Reitz

• The summer music will be collected the next practice after the last Main in Motion.
• Joe will need help for the Christmas music because he is going to have to have knee surgery. Sondra may help.
• The extra music needs to be moved down from his house before the roads get closed.

Old Business

• Yvonne suggested a new nomination for Musician of the Quarter and he/she was accepted and that person will be announced at the concert.
•   Regarding the fall retreat: Jim suggested Arrowhead for the fall retreat but it may cut down on attendance. Lyle has a place in mind. Regarding the date of the retreat, Andy said that October is a very busy time for him because of marching competitions but if it only affects him he'll work with it.
• Lyle showed a pocket calendar, a pen and a desk calendar to consider as a thank you gift for our members and sponsors. All of these items would be embossed with, "Compliments of . . ."Yvonne asked what the profit would be. The response was that is just a thank you gift. Because many people have their own calendar types and pens that they prefer that maybe these gifts would not be appreciated that much. We could consider other items.
• Regarding the Denver/Montrose combined concert Yvonne mentioned that we should ask the band for volunteers.
• Regarding the donation to the New Orleans Concert Band, they didn't have any needs but Herb gave me a list of schools and bands in the area that were in need of instruments. Lyle mentioned that in the National Band Associations magazine the St. Bernard Parish Community Band had lost everything, even the place they practiced, and they are taking donations to rebuild. It was voted on and approved that the funds should go there and that we would increase the amount from the $373 collected to $500 as a round number and because we can. This will be announced at the fall concert as well.

New Business

• Herb relayed the following note: Sept. 17 concert: we need a theme and an emcee. I can look for an emcee, but won't complain if somebody else wants to do that.
• Yvonne mentioned that the Pavilion rates will change January 1, 2007. Jim will check it out, maybe he can lock in this year's rates by booking now.
• Dave Loncar brought up the fact that he thinks we are stretching our abilities too thin by having the Main in Motion performances. We need more quality rehearsals for the main concerts and it cuts into out time. Maybe a pep band could be used for the Main in Motion concerts. Joe mentioned that the fall concert should be moved back two weeks to the end of September to allow for more practices since it is typically our most difficult concert. Lyle thinks we should keep the Main in Motion events since it increases our exposure.
• Dates for next year's concerts were decided on, these are all contingent on availability of the Pavilion.
  March 25, June 30, last week in September, December 16.
• Regarding the performance with the Delta HS Wind Ensemble, that could be scheduled for the spring and we would have Thursday concert in Delta and the Sunday concert here. Yvonne suggested that we should poll the band. Lyle suggested that it should be brought up after the fall concert, people would be more receptive at that time.
• Dave Loncar also brought up the issue of dress rehearsals being so far away from our concert, we rehearse on Monday and the concert isn't until Sunday. The board explored other days but felt that it would be too difficult to get all of the members there on Friday or Saturday.
• Andy King's vision for this band:
  He would like to step up the musicality of the group to attract more better players.
  Regarding the music selection he chooses confidence builders and some that are one level up so that we can be challenged and remain interested and grow.
  Regarding rehearsals; they are for what the musicians cannot do by themselves. They are not for learning your part. If you are learning in rehearsal you are wasting rehearsal time.
  There are three levels of listening:
1. Yourself for note tone, it is the foundation
2. Your section to compliment it
3. Everyone else to fit in with the band
Andy will mention this to the band as well.
• It was brought up that Andy should write his vision down and it be given to the band as well.

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Meeting adjourned at 9:18 pm.