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MIDLAND CONCERT BAND

BOARD MEETING MINUTES

Midland Concert Band - 2009/2010 Concert Season Board Meeting Schedule

Thursday May 20^th 2010, 7:00 pm

All locations to be determined.

Midland Concert Band - Board Meeting Minutes  

Date:  Sunday, March 28^th, 2010

Location:  Gary and Sue Burgess’ house

Present: Mark Brissette, Gary and Sue Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Laura Hahn, Andrew Reed, Kerry Smith, and Rebecca Rutishauser.

Absent: Dave McCleod and Ellen Peden

The meeting was called to order by Mark at 7:05 pm.

Approval of Minutes:  Gary moved to approve the minutes from the February meeting and Laura seconded.  Minutes for February approved.

Treasurer’s report:  Marcile reported that most of the expenses from March were for the concert last concert.  Most budgeted items are favorable to budget at this point in the year.  We’re still waiting for bills from the MCFTA for the last two concerts.  The checking account balance is $25,725.72 and there should be more information on the CDs interest for the next meeting (reports on that appear to come quarterly).  For planning next year’s printing budget, Kerry would like to know how many tickets people have left over at the end of the year, so she can cut back the print order according.  (She will be cutting back the number of programs as well.)  Andrew moved to approve the report, and Laura seconded.  Treasurer’s report approved.

Conductor’s report:  At the next concert, we will recognize the board members and charter members of the band by asking them to stand up at the end of the concert.  The harp player, dancers, and synthesizer player for the next concert need to be added to the program.  Along with these names, Kerry will also be getting the names of the brass choir members from the MPS band directors at the next rehearsal, and the names of the 7^th graders from Laura to include in the program.  She will also be taking a photo of the tuba section to include in the program as well.  The singer at the concert will be recognized with flowers – Ellen from the percussion section will be asked at the next rehearsal if she can order/pick up these flowers from Smith’s, and if she will also present the flowers to the singer after her solo.  Also at the next rehearsal, Dave will be asked to make sure there are stands and stand lights set up for the brass choir up in the balcony.  For recognition of the tuba section, they will be asked to stand and take a bow at the end of their featured piece.  

Director of Education report:  7^th graders will be coming to the next rehearsal. They will meet at 6:30 before the rehearsal with their parents and then stay for the first half hour or so of the rehearsal.  All of the schools have sent in their list of students to Laura, except Bullock Creek.  There will be a newspaper article on the scholarship winners soon and Laura is hoping to have that set up by April 15^th.  Laura plans to announce the names of all the guest student musicians at the concert and will ask that people hold their applause to the end of the list.

Director of Public Relations report:  Ed reported that we’re in good shape with radio and newspaper ads, and with letters to organizations.  He plans to send personal invitations to some musical individuals for the next concert (for example, music professors and leaders of other musical organizations).  Since joining the Chamber of Commerce, the band has received $1,000 worth of advertising that we can begin to use.  Mark will be attending meetings for the Chamber.  We’re hoping this will give us more visibility in the community, but if we’re not completely satisfied we can get a refund on the membership dues.  The next Chamber meeting is April 8^th at 7:30 am and will be a breakfast and a speaker.  Gary will probably attend with Mark, but if Gary can’t go, Ed offered to go instead.  Finally, the band was recently featured in an article in the local paper, which was great free advertising for the band. 

Director of Advertising report:  Nothing to report

Planning for Next Concert:  Ticket distribution to band members will be at the next rehearsal after Spring Break.  There will also be two complimentary tickets given to each 7^th grader, scholarship winner, and brass choir member.

Planning for Band Picnic:  In the past we got discounted hamburgers and hot dogs through a band member, but this year we’ll have to pay for the meat out of the money budgeted for the picnic ($500 budgeted).  Suggestions for where to order meat from:  Gordon Food Service, Mark to call Doug Vincent to see if we can still get a discount through Sysco, or order from LaLonde’s which can bring food direct to party.  Someone should probably do some price checking research on these options to decide which to use.  Maybe for this year, pick up some KFC for those who would prefer chicken to the hamburgers and hot dogs.  Ellen was planning to rent a tent so that will be an expense as well.  Also, the band usually provides a ¼ barrel of beer from Eastman Party Store – they pick up and drop off barrel at party location.  The picnic will start at 5:30 pm on May 13^th.  For the rest of the food, every band member brings their own utensils and a dish to pass.  Sign up sheet for food and what drinks (regular soda, diet soda, or beer) people would prefer to have the band provide will be passed around at the next rehearsal.  Someone needs to pick up all band provided food and drinks – who did this last year? 

Elections for Board Positions:  Somehow the election schedule got off and most of the board was newly elected last year.  To get back on schedule, we will be re-electing the secretary, treasurer, Director of Education, Director of Special Projects, and are going to elect a new Director of Advertising.  This will get us back on the election schedule laid out in the by-laws.

Planning for the next season:  First concert will be October 3^rd.  Line Midland Santa up now for December concert – Gary reported that he has already contacted him.  We will not be doing a Halloween concert next year.  We will consider having a combined choir for one of the concerts (maybe a patriotic themed winter concert, or at the last concert).  Need to find a creative way to keep the combined choir balanced – maybe suggest each church to please send 2 of each part, or up to 10 individuals?

Other matters:  No discussion here.

Marcile moved and Andrew seconded to adjourn the meeting.  Meeting adjourned by Mark at 8:15 pm.

The next meeting will be Thursday, May 20^th at 7 pm (first Thursday after band picnic).  Ed and Marcile will be hosting it at their home in Saginaw Township .  Finally, thank you to Gary and Sue for hosting this meeting at their home and for providing a lovely spread of snacks during the meeting and delicious chocolate cake after the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Date:  Monday, February 22, 2010

Location:  Laura Hahn’s house

Present: Mark Brissette, Gary Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Sue Gessford, Laura Hahn, Ellen Peden, and Rebecca Rutishauser.

Absent: Dave McCleod, Andrew Reed, and Kerry Smith

The meeting was called to order by Mark at 7:00 pm.

Approval of Minutes: Gary moved to approve January’s minutes and Sue seconded; minutes were approved for January. 

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  As of today’s meeting, the balance is $27,876.13 for the checking account with Chemical Bank.  The interest earned on the two CDs with Dow Chemical has been $17.30 for the 1 year CD and $46.96 for the 2 year CD since they were opened in mid December to 2/22.  We have received $10,000 from the Gerstacker foundation and may get money from another foundation in April.  Everything has been paid for the last concert, except the MCFTA because they never sent a bill.  Ellen moved and Becky seconded to approve the treasurer’s report; report approved. 

Conductor’s Report:  Andrew was interested in getting the jazz band restarted, but Gary hasn’t heard anything about how that is going.  Gary asked the MCFTA to reduce our paid rehearsal time because we don’t use all the time we are paying for right now.  We may save $500 dollars for the last 2 concerts this year if those changes go through.  Ticket sales for the next concert will have to be done at a table because the MCFTA will be using all the ticket booths for another event that day.  George Whitaker made CDs of the first 2 concerts and would like to sell them to band members for $5 a piece – Dick Scott will probably handle selling these, so people who are interested in purchasing them should see him.  Karen agreed to play harp for “ Sunrise at Angel’s Gate” at the May concert.  Gary is working to get some percussion equipment loaned to us for the March concert because Dow will be using their equipment for the Michigan band and orchestra festival.  Sue offered to pass on the May music to the high school students playing in the spring concert and Ellen requested of Sue that the percussion section only get two copies of each song for the next concert to cut down on extra papers in the percussion section.  Finally, spring break will be the first week in April, so there is no rehearsal and Gary will be on vacation April 22, so Jim Huber will fill in.   

Director of Education report:  Laura Hahn shared all of the scholarship applications with the board and recipients for each scholarship were selected.  (Update since the meeting:  All recipients accepted offered scholarships.)  Laura will share with each student that they must come to rehearsals and will notify them of the rehearsal schedule.  Once students agree to accept the scholarship and attend rehearsals and both the March and May concerts, Laura will share the final list of students with Sue, so she can send them the music for the May concert as soon as possible.

Public Relations Report:  Ed Cunningham reported things were basically the same as the last meeting.  CMU NPR station will be running our ads between 3 pm and 3 am when they operate 90.1 for Delta, so we’ll be advertised on at least two stations in this area at the same time.  Ads for our concerts will be running in the Catholic weekly newspaper and Ed would like to get our ads in the Lutheran weekly too.  Ed also shared an idea for how to improve concert attendance.  We could ask area churches to offer choir members for a combined choir at one of our concerts next year.  They could sing either sacred or secular pieces.  Ed offered to send letters to churches to gauge their interest in the idea. 

Director of Advertising:  Ellen had nothing to report on advertising, but reminded the board that should would be finished with her term this year.  Although if there was no interest by anyone to take her position, she offered to cover one more year, but that would be it. 

Planning for next concert:  Seventh graders, scholarship winners, and HS brass players from Midland/Dow for a brass feature will be at the May concert.  We should include that information in the ads for that concert.  We also need to confirm that Mary Adams will be able to take pictures of the guest student performers at one of the spring concert rehearsals.  Also, for May concert, it was decided to just have snacks for performers and not for audience too.  For the March concert, Laura will be bringing to one of the upcoming rehearsals the sign up sheet to help with snacks at the concert.  Ellen suggested for future concert that we think about using some of the Center’s lighting effects (like those used at the Halloween concert) for some visual pizzazz.  

Roundtable Disscussion:   Ellen offered to host the band picnic instead of having the band pay $140 to rent the Chalet.  May 13^th was set as the date of the picnic.  Elections for all open board positions (just Director of Advertising open this year) will be held in early April.  Vicki, a flute player, was interested in maybe being on the board, so Ellen will talk to her at a future rehearsal to explain what the Director of Advertising involves.  Mark will also announce that there is an open position to see if anyone else is interested too.

 The next meeting will be at 7 pm on Sunday, March 28th at Gary and Sue Burgess’ home – 6122 Thornberry.    Finally, thank you to Laura for hosting this meeting at her home and for providing a delicious cinnamon apple cake to snack on.

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Date:  Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Location:  Laura Hahn’s house

Present: Mark Brissette, Gary Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Laura Hahn, Andrew Reed, and Rebecca Rutishauser.

Absent: Dave McCleod, Ellen Peden, and Kerry Smith

The meeting was called to order by Mark at 7:00 pm.

Approval of Minutes: Gary moved to approve October’s minutes and Laura seconded; minutes were approved for October.  Andrew moved to approve November’s minutes and Laura seconded; minutes for November were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  As of today’s meeting, the balance is $28,217.06 for the checking account with Chemical Bank.  The securities account, now held by Wells Fargo, was closed and all funds there ($22,041.54) were moved to CDs at Chemical Bank.  From an older meeting, we had discussed having our books audited, but this would cost $4000 and was decided to be unnecessary.  Marcile also reported that she was concerned the band was running a deficit, so she and Ed researched other locations for concerts.  Bullock Creek and Central Auditorium would both be about a savings of $2000 over the MCFTA per year.  Bullock Creek said they would schedule us before the student activities and the auditorium seated about 600 people.  However, it is a long way out of town, hard to get to in bad weather, and has no close to the door parking.  Central would schedule us behind the students and seats about 500 in the lower bowl.  However, it also does not have close up parking for seniors and is harder to navigate in the parking lot.  Also, a plus for the MCFTA is that they provide ticket help and ushers.  Considering everything, it was decided to stick with the MCFTA.  Andrew moved and Becky seconded to accept the report as submitted; treasurer’s report approved.  Also, kudos to Marcile for all her hard work this year!

Director of Special Projects:  Andrew reported that the attendance at the first concert was 332 and the attendance at the December concert was 442.

Conductor’s Report:  There will be a trio featured at the winter concert and a singer featured at the May concert.  The May concert will also have a performance of “ Sunrise at Angel’s Gate”.

Director of Education report:  Laura Hahn reported that all the scholarship applications were already mailed out.  Howard Garrett is planning to offer $500 for the Kathy Garrett endowed scholarship, so Laura will be coordinating that with Howard.  Seventh graders will be notified in February about the performing at the May concert.

Public Relations Report:  Ed Cunningham may need to follow up with Everett Carpet before the next concert to be sure ads run in the paper as agreed.  Also, Laura suggested to Ed that we can advertise on the MCTV bulletin board (on TV) two weeks or more before the concert for free.  Also, Mark suggested that Ed look into running a crawler on the Weather Channel the week of the concert.  Kudos to Ed for the very nice report and all his hard work this year.

Director of Advertising:  Ellen was babysitting tonight but reported through Mark that all the ads were now paid up.  Her persistence definitely paid off! 

Planning for next concert:  Hospitality committee will need to organize pop and cookies for backstage.  Laura will make an announcement at band on Thursday and will bring a sign up sheet for people to help bring pop, cookies, and plates/cups/napkins for the next concert.  Maybe consider replacing the pop with just cups for water from the drinking fountain (since people seem to prefer the water to the pop at the last concert).

Roundtable Disscussion:   Mark’s telephone number on the next concert program should be changed to (989) 687-2841.  Also, Bob will need to change Mark’s phone number on the website as well.  Other updates for the website, Tom Broka’s phone number doesn’t look right and Dave McCleod might need to change his number if he’s gotten rid of his land line and is only using a cell phone.  Laura offered to check with both of them over e-mail to see if they needed to have their information updated on the website.  Andrew will talk to Tom Broka this week at practice about bringing back the jazz band for the spring concert or for next concert season.  The jazz band could meet from 6:30 – 7:15 at Dow High School since the room is already reserved from 6:30-9:30.  Finally, Laura mentioned that Jerry Schaar, a former member of the MCB, passed away on January 8, 2010.  The board offers their condolences to his family.

Gary moved to end the meeting and Mark seconded.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:40 pm.

 The next meeting will be at 7 pm on Monday, February 22^nd at Laura Hahn’s home.    Finally, thank you to Laura for hosting this meeting at her lovely home and for providing lots of homemade goodies – we’re looking forward to the next meeting here!

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Date:  Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Location:  Ellen Peden’s house

Present: Mark Brissette, Gary Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Laura Hahn, Dave McCleod, Ellen Peden, and Rebecca Rutishauser.

Absent:  Andrew Reed and Kerry Smith

The meeting was called to order by Mark at 7:18 pm.

Approval of Minutes: The approval of last meeting’s minutes was tabled until next meeting, so that everyone would have a chance to review them before approval.

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  As of today’s meeting, the balance is $20,684.30 for the checking account with Chemical Bank.  Recent bills received were from Everett Carpet for use of their account to run ads in the Midland paper and from the Midland Center for the Arts for $1567 to pay for the auditorium use for the September concert.  Thank you to Marcile for getting both those bills paid promptly upon receiving them.  Relating to the bill to Everett for advertising, Ed mentioned that there were a number of places in the area where we could advertise for free, and thought we should do more free advertising in the future.  The securities account, now held by Wells Fargo, has $22,041.54.  The committee looking at other investment options for the money in the securities account recommended that CD’s would be the best option for getting a better return on investment without someone having to actively manage the money.  After checking with Chemical, Citizens, Independent and Wolverine Bank, the committee recommended putting a third of the money in a Citizens 1 year CD at 1.7% interest and the remaining two-thirds in a Chemical 2 year CD at 1.96% interest with interest rates quoted from 10/21.  Since rates change daily, the interest rates are likely different now.  Before making a final decision, the board decided to check the current rates at Member’s First Credit Union, Dow Chemical Credit Union, 5/3, and National City/PNC as well.  After checking rates, a final decision would be made tomorrow at band.  Since Marcile would not be at band tomorrow, Becky agreed to let her know the board’s decision over e-mail after practice.  Ellen moved to approve the Treasurer’s report and Marcile seconded.  The Treasurer’s report was accepted by the board.

Director of Education report:  Laura Hahn is preparing to send letters to local conductors about scholarships for music students.  She wants to have the letters completed before Thanksgiving.  Laura will call each director to let them know the letters are coming and she will also talk to classes at the county high schools to explain the scholarships.  The board noted that it was important to stress to the potential applicants that if they won a scholarship it was expected that they would come to all of the Thursday practices for the Spring concert in May.  Marcile moved to make scholarships up to $500 depending on need and Dave seconded.  Laura will follow up with the donors of the Pam Rowe and Karen Garrett endowed scholarships to see what they would like to donate those.  $2700 was budgeted for scholarships, so that would work out to 5 scholarships at the maximum $500 and it would leave $200 to add to one of the endowed scholarships if desired.  The 7^th graders would be playing at the May concert, so they would need to be notified sometime in January/February.

Public Relations Report:  Ed Cunningham reported he had called Steele advertising and got a $400 ad for the radio, with $10 per ad.  Also, Gary would need to be asked if he would like to do an interview for one of the radio stations to talk up the concert a week before, like the Cunningham’s did for CMU public radio for the last concert.  Ed has also sent many letters to churches and senior centers as free advertising, which was a new idea this year – a thank you goes out to Ed for coming up with a great idea and making it a reality.  Other free advertising that is going to be used for the next concert is an ad on Garber Chevrolet’s electronic ad board and also the free public radio and TV channels.  For the March concert, Ed will look into buying a crawler from Charter media on the Weather Channel the week of the concert.

Christmas Concert Planning:  Dave McCleod will be getting tables for the bell choir.   The featured flute ensemble will be performing from their seats, so they won’t need any extra set up.  Gary reported that he would be cutting the “British Carol Suite” from the concert line up and may be replacing it with a LeRoy Anderson piece instead.  “O Magnum Mysterium” will also be saved for another concert as well.  The bell choir will close out the first half of the concert, and the flute ensemble will perform their piece during the first half of the concert as well.  Gary also reported that there were conflicting performances for some of the brass players for the two practices before the Christmas concert, and they were wondering if it would be alright for them to miss some of the practices.  Gary wants everyone to at least make one of the two practices the week of the concert.  Mark will make an announcement at the next practice that it is important for everyone to not miss practices, especially the ones the week of the concert.

Director of Advertising:  Ellen reported that everyone had paid for their ads, except one and she would keep working to get the money collected from all the businesses with ads. 

New Member Summary of Bylaws:  Dave reviewed the summary of the bylaws for the new members with the board.  The changes from the last meeting were made and Dave offered to e-mail out a copy of the summary to the board members soon, and then after approval, the summary would be e-mailed to the band.  

Roundtable Disscussion:   The band is running out of tuxedos to hand out.  Perhaps in the future it would be a good idea to explore buying more.  Mark offered to ask at the next practice how many people still need a tuxedo.  Mark also offered to ask about volunteers to work the cookie and juice table at the next concert, and agreed to call Auburn greenhouse to check the price of poinsettias.  Mark will also ask if someone would be willing to replace the irreplaceable Dave as hospitality manager for the March concert, since Dave would be out of town.  Mark also offered to contact the Chamber of Commerce to see if the concert band could join.  Finally, Mark was going to ask for volunteers to help with the set up and take down for the next concert.  Since its often hard to get volunteers to help with set up and tear down, it might be a good idea to look at other options to make sure people worked at least one concert, perhaps by signing up each section to work a concert or signing people up by last name to work a specific concert in the future. 

Laura agreed to let Kerry know about putting an announcement about the scholarships in the next program.  She also noted that from her experience giving out free tickets to senior centers to give out as prizes for game nights worked very well at generating interest in concerts.  She also made the brilliant suggestion of e-mailing the band roster to section leaders and interested band members instead of printing many expensive copies to hand out. 

Gary agreed to do a radio interview before the next concert.  The ticket fundraiser is going well.  The next step is for Andrew to visit with the schools to hand out tickets and explain how the fundraiser will work.  Gary or Mark will follow up with Andrew on this.

Marcile brought up getting another co-signer on the checking account, and it was realized that Jim would probably have to be removed before he left for England .  Mark didn’t think he could act as the new co-signer, so Marcile will have Becky added instead.

Ed offered to check with the papers to see if the next concert could be added to the month’s listing of local events. 

Ellen agreed to check with Sue Bovid to see if she would still be able to provide the Christmas tree for the next concert, even though she wouldn’t be able to play the concert.  Ellen also offered to see if she could find a rocking chair to use for stage decoration.  In case Sue can’t provide the tree, Dave offered to check with the Center for the Arts to see if they have a tree we could borrow and he offered to ask if they had any special Christmas lights, like those used for the Halloween concert.

Dave moved to end the meeting and Gary seconded.  The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 pm.

 The next meeting will be at 7 pm on Wednesday, January 13^th at Laura Hahn’s home.   The December meeting has been cancelled.  Laura will e-mail directions to her house sometime before the meeting.  Finally, thank you to Ellen for hosting the meeting at her lovely home and for providing homemade apple and pumpkin pies – yum!

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Midland Concert Band - Board Meeting Minutes

Date:  Tuesday, October 13, 2009

 Location:  Ed and Marcile Cunningham’s house

 Present: Gary Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Dave McCleod, Ellen Peden, Rebecca Rutishauser, Jim Schutz, and Kerry Smith

 Absent:  Laura Hahn and Andrew Reed

Approval of Minutes: The previous meeting minutes were reviewed and pending the removal of some side notes that were not meant to be in the minutes, the minutes were approved.

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  As of today’s meeting, the balance is $23,266.39.  The securities account, now held by Wells Fargo, has $22,041.20.  A committee has been formed to look into a different place to save the money in the Wells Fargo account, in order to make a better return on investment of this money.  Marcile questioned if the band needs to have its books audited, like churches often do.  This will need to be followed up with an answer at a later meeting.  The Treasurer’s report was accepted by the board.

Tickets:  Jim started a discussion on ticket sales from the last concert by reporting that Andrew found attendance was 322 people. Some concerns were raised about the tickets, including 1) people attending using last year’s ticket (despite the tickets using different color inks), and 2) people coming into the concert after intermission without tickets.  To increase attendance the following ideas were suggested: 1) run the newspaper wrap in August (hard to do because the newspaper decides when they run advertisements, but its something to keep in mind for next year), 2) Get more people to participate in performing, so they bring more guests, and 3) do a fundraiser with the local high schools to sell tickets. 

Fundraiser was suggested by Andrew and Joel.  Participating high schools could have students sell tickets for MCB concerts and get 50% of the cost of the ticket (for example) back to be used to support their high school band program.  Andrew would likely go with Gary and/or Jim to share the details with the local music directors/band directors for Midland county area high schools (all public and both parochial schools in the county).  Before Andrew goes to present the final details, board members offered to find out if the local high schools were interested in participating in the fundraiser.  Gary offered to speak to Calvary and Midland Academy .  Dave will talk to Bullock Creek.  The Cunningham’s offered to speak to Coleman.  Ellen volunteered to talk to Meridian .  Jim offered to speak to Midland Public Schools.  Thanks to everyone who volunteered to speak to the local schools to get this fundraiser started with the upcoming Christmas concert!

Concert Review:  Jim shared the results of the survey taken after the fall concert.  Overall, the surveys showed people thought the concert was good and music was adequately challenging.  Using statistical software, there were no anomalies or correlations, so overall the data looked good.  For future surveys, it might help to give people more warning, since only 25 people returned this survey.

Christmas Concert Guests:  Santa is all set to come, along with a bell choir from First Methodist Church .  The bell choir will do one solo piece and one piece with the band.  There will be a plethora of good music choices for this concert, so might change up the songs selected/the concert order to accommodate all the great options.  Dave moved to ask Greg to change the concert announcing to more of a continuously running narrative between songs and Ellen seconded.  The motion failed.  Another thought was to perhaps ask some guest high schools to perform with the band every concert in order to get more people to hopefully attend.  For the next meeting, consider if the band wants to ask 4-8 students to participate with the band for each concert (based on instrumentation needs).

Public Relations Report:  Ed Cunningham reported that for the Christmas concert there would be 2 radio ads in Midland and Mount Pleasant , so listen up for those.  Also, there would be an ad in the Saginaw paper, and letters sent to local churches and retirement homes to help publicize the concert.  It was suggested that maybe tickets could be sent to local senior centers so they could give them out as door prizes for senior game nights and help get people interested and excited about the concert.

Upcoming Agenda Items for November:  Figure out décor, punch and cookies for the Christmas concert.  Find volunteers to staff the cookie table.  Discuss scholarship applications, and discuss new member bylaw summary sheet.  December board meeting is cancelled.

Roundtable Disscussion:   Dave has put together a summary of information from the bylaws to hand out to new members.  Changes to the summary will be reviewed at the next meeting and include:  1) add expectation of helping reset band room after practice, 2) add website address, 3) add information on what to do if there is inclement weather, and 4) new members need to be sure their e-mail addresses are correct on the band e-mail list in order to ensure they receive band e-mails.  Kerry was going to coordinate work on the Halloween concert program with representatives from the Symphony.  Dave will look into light covers for the Halloween concert and Jim might bring a smoke machine (need to check with Center on policy for that).  Ellen asked Kerry to add the new Holiday Inn as an advertiser to the next program.  Ellen also explained that Open Door, a local nonprofit, needs donations to help buy presents for 80 people who would not receive presents otherwise.  Also, Open Door needs lightly used or new coats and boots to give to people in need.  If you would like to help with either of these requests, please talk to Ellen Peden, or listen for Ellen’s announcement at an upcoming band practice.  Any help for Open Door would be greatly appreciated!  Finally, Jim requested that his phone number be changed to 430-2361 on the website, and he asked Gary to look into a possible conflict between Blast from the Past brass musicians performance and the Monday practice before the Christmas concert.

 The next meeting will be at 7 pm on November, 18^th at Ellen Peden’s home.   The December meeting has been cancelled.  

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Date:  Monday, September 14, 2009

Location:  Jim Schutz’s house

Present: Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Laura Hahn, Dave McCleod, Ellen Peden, Andrew Reed, Jim Schutz, and Kerry Smith

Absent:  Gary Burgess, Susan Burgess, and Rebecca Rutishauser

Approval of Minutes: The previous meeting minutes were reviewed and approved.

Review of Action Items:  1) Next year the address list needs to be updated to include season ticket purchasers and donors.  Kerry offered to check if it is possible to send out select e-mails.  2)  Someone needs to make an announcement at band to see if there are any former concert band members who still have band owned tuxedos.  Also, does anyone in the band have an extra tuxedo that they would like to donate to the band?

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  There was $16,660.83 in the checking account at the last meeting.  The final balance for this month is $18,783.80.  The report was accepted by the board.

            Budget Review:  Contributions were down $1000 last year from 2007 levels. 

            For this year, we need to increase ticket sales from last year's levels. 

            We need to improve the investment holdings for the band by putting the savings into a higher yield account.  Dennis and Becky will form a committee to look into higher yield savings options.

            Who writes the grants for this year?

            Publicity – Removed $2500 line item for the MCFTA magazine.

            It was suggested that the band copier be given to Sue Guessford so she can use it to make                                    copies.

            The goals for this year are to sell more tickets in order to make sure this year doesn't end with a budget shortfall like last year.  Also, we'd like to decrease the expense of guest soloists/guest conductors.  There is currently an approximately $1500 deficit for this fiscal year,      so these changes will help to balance the budget.

Andrew Reed moved to approve the budget.  Motion seconded by Laura Hahn.

Follow up Discussion from previous meeting:  Two additions to the bylaws will be presented to the band this year. 

1)      The e-mail list will only be used for band business.

2)      A release  form for the band to use pictures of band members will be presented so pictures of members can be used on the band website and for other advertising purposes.  All band members will need to sign a release form.  Sue may pass out the form to new people who join the band.

Ellen Peden moved to present the picture and e-mail changes to the bylaws to the band.  Andrew Reed seconded the motion.

A committee has been formed to determine why members do not return to play in the band from year to year and from concert to concert.  If a retention problem is found, this committee will come up with solutions on how to fix it.  Andrew Reed has volunteered to chair this committee.

A second committee has been formed to look at how to increase attendance at concerts in order to meet our budget goal of selling more tickets.  Jim Schutz volunteered to chair this committee.  Some initial ideas:

·      let the Humanities teaches in the high schools know about our concerts

·      get some posters into the high schools

·      do some advertising for Blast from the Past and have Blast advertise for us.

·      change up the music... get different music, some more popular musicals, more recent music, some more classics, etc... make our concerts more 'eclectic'

·      there is likely no silver bullet to getting more people in the seats

Jim will be asking for other volunteers to serve on these two committees at the next band practice.

Advertising Report:  Ellen Peden has 24 advertisers lined up currently.  Of those 24, one is a  new advertiser!  There are 28 total advertising spots available.

Public Relations Report:  Ed Cunningham reported that the wrap (full page newpaper ad) is done for the next concert.  It will be in the Midland paper on September 27^th, so be on the lookout to check that out.  The Fall advertising page is also done.  Six senior centers have also been contacted.

Printed Materials Report:  Kerry Smith reported that the season ticket mailing is done.  The program proof will be sent through the band on Thursday, so that people can check that their name is listed and spelled correctly.

Roundtable Disscussion:  Ed's work is going well.  Laura and Jim offered to give Marcile some pointers/tips on how to optimize her use of Excel.  Ellen has collected $2700 from advertisers for this year.  Kerry needs the music order and the list of playing members for the concert program, so she can finish the program proof. 

The next meeting will be at 7 pm on October, 13^th at Ed and Marcile Cunningham's home.   Ellen will be hosting the November meeting.

Secretary's note:  Thank you to Dave McCleod for taking notes at this meeting!

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary

Date:  Monday, August 24, 2009

Location:  Jim Schutz’s house

Present: Gary Burgess, Susan Burgess, Ed Cunningham, Marcile Cunningham, Ellen Peden, Rebecca Rutishauser, Jim Schutz, Kerry Smith

Absent:  Laura Hahn, Dave McCleod, and Andrew Reed

Jim called the meeting to order at 7:05 PM.  He also passed out the meeting agenda, list of action items for the year, an e-mail with a list of ideas for improvement from Bob Adams, and some possible changes to band policies.

Approval of Minutes: The approval of the previous meeting minutes was skipped since the last minutes in the Secretary folder were from a long time ago at the January meeting.

Treasurer’s Report:  Presented by Marcile Cunningham.  Several checks, including those from the Cathy Garrett fund ($200), the Pam Row fund ($200), and the Alden and Vada Dow Foundation ($2000) were recently deposited and recorded in the financial record.  Thanks go to Marcile for going above and beyond her job description to take care of the thank you notes for these donations.  Marcile is currently working out of a paper ledger, but will be moving the bands books to an Excel spreadsheet soon.  The checking account currently has $16,750.57 and the securities fund with Wachovia/A.G. Edwards had $22,100.62 as of June 30.  The securities fund sends quarterly updates and appears to make 30 to 40 cents interest every month.  Ellen made a motion that we look into a fund that pays better interest.  Jim seconded, and it was approved that Ellen and Marcile would research if there might be another savings account that would pay better interest.  Gary noted that Marcile should be receiving bills soon from Music Time and Pepper.  Finally, Marcile will be sending the disc with the mailing list on it to Kerry soon. 

Printed Materials Report:  Kerry Smith presented a draft of the letter for ticket solicitation and a ticket order form (check it out if you get a chance – the music note bullet points were very cute).  The rest of the board looked the letter over, and made the following changes.  Ticketing for the Halloween concert will be done by the Midland Center for the Arts, so the season ticket package will be 4 tickets for the same price as last year.  Ticket questions will probably be directed to Andrew Reed, but we need to check with him before we send the letter out.  If Andrew can’t be the contact person, the Burgess’ offered to act as backup and take phone calls too.  This is the 34^th concert season.  After these changes the letter/ticket form were approved.  If we receive donations before the end of September, Kerry needs to know at least a week before the concert in order to include their names in the program.  In case we receive a donation later, the program will have a statement about “if we missed you for this concert, we’ll be sure to get your name in the next program”.  Ellen is expecting to hear from all the advertisers by September 10^th and will give Kerry that information for the program as soon as she has heard from all the advertisers.  For the concerts that have songs in memory of someone, Kerry needs pictures of the person to put in the program for those concerts.  Kerry will get 224 tickets printed and give them to Ellen to send to the advertisers.  The program covers and ticket design will be left the same as last year, but blue ink will be used instead of green.  Marcile should receive a bill for the ticket printing soon.  Kerry and Ellen both need letterhead/envelopes, which they will get from me or from the Burgess’.  Finally, Kerry asked that everyone think about possible creative filler material that looks professional (no photo shopped heads on a page) for the programs.

Review Music and Guest Performers/Conductors:  Gary presented information on the season.  He will soon be meeting with someone from the MCFTA to ask about them advertising for the MCB on the marquee out front or in their yearly fliers, since the band will be helping them out by doing the Halloween concert.  Jenny Schwab will be the featured soloist on the oboe for the first concert, but will regrettably miss the last three concerts since she will be recovering from hand surgery.  We wish her the best with all of her surgeries.  The Choral and Camerata Singers will be featured at one of the concerts.  Jim will guest conduct that piece for band/choir that features variations on “My Country Tis of Thee”.  Other pieces for this year are “In the Mood” and “ Sunrise at Angel’s Gate”, which is about a location in the Grand Canyon .  The sheet music for this song was ordered during the meeting.  “ Sunrise at Angel’s Gate” will feature pictures from the Grand Canyon projected behind the band, so a person to operate the projector (who can read music!) will need to be found for that concert.  The Halloween Concert will have the following music:  “Chiller and Thriller Medley”, “Allegro barbaro” (with dancers), “Funeral March of the Marionettes” (played by bassoon ensemble), “Ghosts in the Attic”, “The Wrath”, “Night on Bald Mountain” (guest conducted by Antonia, conductor of the Midland Symphony Orchestra), “Who’s that Masked Man?”, “Phantom of the Opera”, “Zorro’s Theme”, “Galloping Ghosts”, and “House of Horrors”.  For the Halloween concert we will be joined by volunteers from the symphony orchestra on various instruments.  Everyone needs to do their own costumes (make sure not to block the view of those behind you!), and if desired, sections can organize section wide costume themes.  For the Christmas concert are the following pieces:  “Bells of Christmas”, “Stars and Stripes for Christmas” (conducted by Santa), “Lo How a Rose Er Blooming”, “Russian Christmas Music”, “Laughing all the Way”, and “O come, O come Emmanuel”.  For the winter concert the pieces will be: “American Barn Dances”, and “ Changing States ”.  For the spring concert, the pieces are:  an Alice Cooper piece, “Troopers Tribunal March”, “Tiptoe though the Tubas”, and a Sousa march.  There will also be a featured vocalist, Barb Jacques.  Thanks go to Jim Schutz for suggesting the website, Pepper Music, which had great music choices for concert band, some of which will be featured in the upcoming season.

Advertising Report:  Ellen Peden gave Ed a large ad for a Sunday ad in the Midland paper.  Ed suggested that we also look at advertising in other cities, such as Bay City .  Ellen is expecting 28 advertisers this year.  Some have already paid and a few have asked for doubles, but they can only have singles because we have too many advertisers!  Ellen will bring a receipt for stamps to Marcile at the next meeting.  Ellen needs Kerry to let her know when the 224 tickets have been printed and she can pick them up.

Goals for the Year:  Jim Schutz led a discussion to brainstorm goals for the year.  The following ideas were suggested:  1) have more consistent board meetings, 2) do an exchange with the Shepherd and/or Bay City bands (concert featuring MCB and another band), 3) discuss dues, 4)  find ways to retain people, 5) use a comment box to get feedback from the band, 6) evaluate section leaders and how music is distributed, 7) review appointed positions and see which would like to come to board meetings, 8) create a budget, 9) review attendance policies and ways to keep people through the entire rehearsal, 10) review mailing list, and 11) discuss Bob Adam’s ideas for improvement.

Roundtable Discussion:  Jim introduced the idea of a roundtable discussion at the end of every meeting to discuss anything people are concerned about.  For this roundtable, Ellen pointed out that percussion equipment occasionally goes missing and needs to be inventoried. We realized that there was no property manager appointed who can take care of this, so a property manager will need to be appointed ASAP. 

The next meeting will be at 7 pm on September, 14^th at Jim Schutz’s house.  Marcile and Ed will be hosting the October meeting, and Ellen volunteered to host the November meeting.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM to enjoy the delicious walnut brownies, and cherry and blueberry zucchini bread made by Jim.  (Note to Jim:  please give Ellen the recipe for the zucchini bread!)

Respectfully submitted,

Rebecca Rutishauser, Secretary