November 22, 1999

The meeting came to order at 6:30 PM at John Prokop’s home.

In attendance were John Prokop, Dave Olson, Elizabeth Anne Rowe, Alli Howard, Mike Coyle, Bryan Pierson, Ward Stevens, and Andrew Barcellos. Absent were Dave Ball, Lee Oler, and Monica Jasso.

John indicated he will write up brief minutes from the Nov. 6 Full Membership Meeting.

Treasurer’s Report - Dave Olson presented a Transaction Report showing all income and expenditures since July 31 and resultant changes in the UAAB checking account. Balance as of 11/21 was $744.64.

Revised By-laws - John passed out copies of the revised By-laws adopted on Nov. 6. A copy of the revised By-laws will be included in our Web site in the near future. John also passed out a new listing of Board members and contact numbers.

Meeting with Gregg Hanson and Jay Rees - John gave a report on his meeting on Monday, November 22 with Gregg and Jay. The topics discussed included: homecoming day events, away game in the future, alumni stadium bands, student rep on our Board, the new band liaison position now held by Shannon Casey, use of band instruments, alumni night at band camp, the upcoming 100th anniversary of the U of A band, and communications between the Alumni Band and the U of A Band Program. Following are highlights.

Homecoming - We recognize problems with our entrance at half-time and will take steps to avoid in the future. Get music earlier. Jay explained that last minute changes in the program by the University caused last minute changes in music this time around.

Away Game - Jay is supportive of doing this and we recognized need to have plans in place much earlier. We looked at next years schedule and discounted the possibility of us going to the Utah game which is the first game of the season. Question was raised at this Board meeting about going to the USC game on October 7. John indicated he overlooked that when talking to Jay and Gregg. Subsequently John has asked Jay by Email for his advice on us going there, but has not heard back. The Board members present thought going to the USC game was appealing.

Stadium Bands - The results of our effort this past Fall were disappointing. We will plan for doing this again next football season. Part of the answer is getting word out earlier to alumni and reaching more of the younger alumni. We also need to resolve the confusion with the skybox band. We can’t really have two bands unless we have adequate numbers of people available to play.

Student Rep on Board - We agreed to discontinue this position, last held by Nicole Rost.

Instruments - The Alumni Band would still like to have a few of its own large instruments. We will be getting sousaphone bell covers and wish to repaint the drum heads on the bass drum we have been using. Jay and Gregg see no further need for this one bass drum and said we could go ahead on the drum idea. John will coordinate this with Deon Hill in the near future.

Alumni Night at Band Camp - We will do this again in August, 2000, but get word out sooner and better so we can have a large alumni presence. We will again provide refreshments.

100th Anniversary of the U of A Band - This comes up in 2002. We agreed that the Alumni Band will be involved in planning for the events that will take place as part of this celebration.

Alumni Band Playing in General - Gregg Hanson sees no problem with the Alumni Band occasionally playing for University/Alumni Association activities. In fact, if we can put together a small strong pepband, they may even steer some requests to us that they cannot handle and now turn down.

Communications - We discussed the fact that several of the purposes of the UAAB depend on our knowing what is happening in the U of A Band Program and having good current communications. Jay and Gregg are supportive of this and will help us provide better information in our quarterly newsletters. We will be not only providing information about concert schedules, events, developments, but also merchandise available, such as video recordings. The UAAB will also make better use of postings on the School of Music Bulletin Boards and possibly even get our own posting area in the future.

Critique of Homecoming

• Breakfast - We had more than 80 people in attendance. Problem with walk-ins - some folks did not register or pay. Work at better arrangement for registration tables. Food was good, with only sausage and some bread left over. It would have been better if we had the podium and microphone at the same level and closer to the attendees. Perhaps use more signs to direct people.

• Merchandise - Sold most of it. Lots of shirts still available.

• Questionnaire - Only14 returns and not that useful. In future put any questionnaires in newsletter and ask questions as part of registration information.

• Rehearsal/instruments - We still need to work out better arrangement for Room J. We had to be there by 8:00 AM, but our meeting ran past that time. Several Alumni were late for rehearsal - some that didn’t come to breakfast didn’t know time had been moved up.

• Parade - Minor problem with people not lining up in a timely way, requiring lots of adjustments in ranks. We had a few people in the parade and later in the stadium with us that did not register, especially drummers, who added lots of sound for us, but we didn’t know who they were. Try to arrange for drum major / parade leader in advance. Discuss use of the goose step some more. We had more than 80 marchers.

• Tent - Location was fine. Need to improve the serving of food to make things move faster and avoid the long line. We ran out of drink. Need more and we might consider selling drinks to non band people on the mall.

• Playing at Tailgating - No drums - doesn’t know what happened to them, but they showed up at the stadium. Otherwise things went okay.

• At the Stadium - Problem with seating. Our area not defined and several people had to be relocated. We were crowded in part because there were several people who did not have tickets - 10 drummers? Consider better ways to control this next year. Prefer seats higher in the end zone, better view of the game and better for putting sousaphones behind the top row fence. We weren’t able to get complimentary beverages as we did in past years.

• Half-time - Problem with entrance as mentioned earlier

• After game - No formally planned activity. Several people went over to the Big A Restaurant. A few went to the POA after game activity at the Student Union.

Basketball Pep Bands

We will provide Pep Band for the Women’s game on November 27 and Men’s Games on December 21, December 28, and December 30. We had a problem this year since the formal word that went out with the homecoming newsletter was not accurate, so we will have to rely solely on the telephone to get individuals to play at these games. Since the U of A Band will not be going to a bowl game, there may be more interest by students in playing at these games. John will be checking with Jay Rees to see if we can coordinate this a little better than in the past.

UAAB Mailing Address :

We have been using Room 103 in our published address. It should be Room 102 of the School of Music, where our box is located.

Newsletter

The next quarterly Newsletter will go out in early January. John will get together with Dave Olson and Monica to get this started. Need to get articles written, decide on social activities, information on U of A Band activities, and get advertising.

Future Meetings

Tuesday, January 18 at John’s home
Tuesday, February 22 at John’s home

12/02/1999 12:52:10 PM