Minutes from UAAB Board Meeting on March 18, 2000
Meeting came to order at 9:00 AM
Present were John Prokop, Dave Ball, Dave Olson, Allison Howard, Lee Oler, Bryan Pierson, Elizabeth Anne Rowe, Ward Stevens and Gary Sawyer. Absent were Monica Jasso, Mike Coyle and Shannon Casey.
Minutes from the meeting on January 11 were discussed and approved.
Treasurer’s Report. Dave Olson indicated we spent $75 for pop and water for the UA Band at Rodeo Parade. We received $40 for ads for next newsletter. Dave was unprepared to provide any more information. (Looking back at the notes from Nov. and Jan. meetings, we have not had a full Treasurer’s Report and we should have one for our April Meeting. John will talk to Dave on this.)
UAAB Budget for 2000. Dave Olson presented a proposed budget for this year with projected income and expenditures providing for planning levels for all budgetary items. Budget levels were approved as proposed. A copy of the recommendations are made a part of these minutes.
UAAB USC Trip on October 7, 2000. John reported on a discussion 2 weeks ago with Shannon Casey. Shannon will attempt to get information on how early we can get a commitment on tickets. We talked about space for about 50 musicians, but discussion at this meeting indicated we need to get a block of 75 that will allow us to have extra space for larger instruments. We must expect to pay for our tickets. We hope that we can return unneeded tickets in advance of the game. Shannon will work to get us seats in the middle of the block expected for the UA fans at the game. Dave Olson reminded us that at homecoming the U of A waves it’s half of the ticket cost, to reduce our cost. Perhaps we can receive this same kind of assistance. We also can pick up part of the cost of seats from UAAB funds to reduce the impact on individual alums. Lee Oler has had an email exchange with a friend on the USC Band Staff. He suggests we contact USC Games Management for the UAAB. He gave us the name and number of the woman in charge of visiting bands. John will contact her and determine what we need to do on this end, including what needs to formally come from the U of A.
John will write something up for our next newsletter on the trip. Alli Howard volunteered to be a telephone contact for information about the trip, and take names of those that want to do it over the phone. Lee Oler volunteered to be the email contact for the trip - for information and collecting names of those that want to do it by e-mail. They will coordinate to develop the band that will go to USC. Alli indicated it is not likely she will be able to make the trip because of her job. If she can’t make it we will need to find someone to serve as our music leader. There were 3 others that indicated they would plan to go on the trip from the Board.
One of the things to consider is that many of the potential people that may play with us at USC are not getting the Quarter Note newsletter. John will look into getting the word out through the various UA Alumni groups - using their web sites and newsletters. Perhaps we can also get word out through Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma.
School of Music Bulletin Board. John visited with Joe Swinson in the Office of the Director of the School of Music and Dance about getting a bulletin board of our own in the School of Music, hopefully near the Band Offices. Mr. Swinson was optimistic about our chances and instructed John to write a letter of request to Interim Dean Cutietta. This has been done. Gary Sawyer would like to gain use of part of the space and offered to purchase a board with glass doors that can be locked. There was agreement that this would be a good idea. In addition to current events, we will have general information about the UAAB and how to become a member.
Visit with Deon Hill. John reported on his visit 2 weeks ago with Deon Hill who is in charge of equipment in the School of Music. Deon agreed that we can put new heads on the Bass Drum we are using and have them painted to show the Alumni Band. Alli volunteered to get the drum and take it to Instrumental Music at Speedway and Kolb to get it checked out and an estimate on needed repairs. Discussion indicated the heads should be placed on the drum and aged before painting. We will check this out, but have the drum ready by the end of Summer.
We also want to get Sousaphone bell covers. We want to have an attractive design with possible use of registered elements, requiring approval. We understand that when we receive approval we will be required to use vendors approved by the UA. We want to get several covers, but the number will depend on the eventual cost. All Board members are asked to suggest designs for the drum and Sousaphone Covers. Give any ideas to John. Sketches will be most welcome.
Deon provided information on storage arrangement for instruments we will use. First, it appears like we will have all the large instruments we need, but they will be stored at a warehouse near 22nd St and Euclid Ave., so they have to be moved to the UA each time we use them. In some instances they will temporarily go to room J at the Stadium, or to the School of Music. Cases must travel with the Sousaphones. We have a particular problem in connection with our rehearsals prior to football home games since sousaphones will be brought with cases to the School of Music, and then transported to the stadium area. Deon wants the sousaphones to end up with their cases which will have to be worked out logistically. We discussed a possibility of returning all large instruments to the University Van at the School of Music that will be used to being them back to the storage area. Anyway, much yet to be worked out.
UAAB Performance Opportunities. Recently we were invited by the UA Office of Advancement to provide an Alumni Pep Band in Phoenix for a special event. After considering it we decided not to do it. We did not have an organized band, or a ready list of people interested in doing such a thing. The event was on a Tuesday at 4 PM which presented a problem for working people, especially those in Tucson. We have decided we want to be better prepared to be able to accept these events. It is also known that the UA Band program gets more requests for a pep band than they can accommodate and we wish to be considered for these overflow opportunities. Dave Ball agreed to take the lead on this. He will chair our new Pep Band Committee, which will include Elizabeth Ann Rowe and Alli Howard. Dave will write an article for the next newsletter on this subject. We will be asking people to let us know of their interest to strengthen our list of people for these bands. We will require a uniform appearance and will stress good instrumental balance when we put a band together. A suggestion was made that we could have extra shirts available for temporary use for those that don’t have them. We will make our interest and availability known to the UA Band leadership, the UA Alumni Association, the UA Office of Advancement, and others.
Statement of UAAB Purposes. Lee Oler pointed out that we needed to add an "s" to "Band" in the 2nd item of purposes in our newsletter to indicate we were supporting the UA Bands rather than the UA Band. This will be changed.
Proposed Web Site Change. Gary Sawyer reported that our current site on Azstarnet has reached it’s capacity and he has found a free site available on Xoom that offers up to 500 Mb of space. He went ahead and secured a user name, but the site has some limited commercial advertising on it. We agreed to pursue this further, but decided if we can get space on one of the UA Servers that would be superior. Alli will check with Mike Coyle to seek his advice on how to go about it. John will approach the University on this if it seems we can do it. Also the address secured by Gary for the Xoom site is UAB which represents the UA Band. It would be better if we could be UAAB for the Alumni Band. Gary will look into such a name change. There are now several UA band related sites and we will ask to be linked with them.
UAAB Mailing List. We have had a continuing problem keeping up our mailing list of individuals that meet our criteria for membership. First there are strict privacy concerns and rules that do not allow us to get a list of band members from the University, and the Alumni Association is only interested in graduates, and will not code them as band alumni unless they are requested to do so by the student. On top of this, we have had decreasing success getting band members to fill out our cards which allow us to capture them for our mailing list. Part of this is lack of cooperation from Band Leadership. It just isn’t seen as important. In this regard, Alli suggested we take advantage of a time later in the Marching Band Season when the members are asked to complete information for the Cedric Dempsey Cancer Run to also fill out our cards. We also thought our cards could be simplified, and be less "busy". We basically only need name, UA ID Number, instrument, years in band, possible graduation information, and, of course an address, including a home address. There are discrepancies between the list maintained by Gary that mirrors the Alumni list and the one maintained by Dave Olson. Dave and Gary will work together the bring the lists in line.
We also agreed we should continually look for people we have missed in the past, asking them to let us know where they are, and preferably let the UA Alumni Office know, if they have graduated.
UA Bands History. John suggested and there was agreement for the UAAB to become more aggressive in keeping up the history of the UA Bands over the years. Reference was made to the 1985 History written by Paul Grimes. There are many gaps and of course we need to be sure there is something in place to keep up our history record. It was noted that KKPsi and TBS are doing some of this, as well. We need to coordinate with these other groups. John will start a history article in the Newsletter that will be continued to provide regular information about important aspects of our past. John passed around some photos and information he borrowed from Floyd Weil that could be used for future Newsletters. We have about a dozen copies of the Grimes’ history and will make them available to band alumni.
UAAB Records. John pointed out that records of the UAAB over the past 34 years are scattered, and we should bring them into order and keep them up. Dave Olson indicated he had quite a bit of material that he will give to John to sort through to start this project.
2nd Quarter Social Activity. John proposed and it was decided to have our next Social opportunity as a family type party at John’s home. He has plenty of off street and street parking, a swimming pool, large covered patios, and lots of inside entertainment space. His home is centrally located near River and Swan. The date will be Saturday, June 10, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM. We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and drinks, and ask guests to bring something to share. We will extend a special invitation to Jay and Greg and their staffs to attend as our guests. We have not been successful trying to have a midweek social for adults at local drinking establishments. John will write something up on this for the Newsletter.
Newsletter. Our next newsletter will be for April - June. We will get it out in early April and established a deadline to get material to Dave Olson of Friday, March 31. Following are assignments made for items: John - President’s column, history article, USC trip, Social event, membership information, and UA concert - other activities and events. Dave O. - Rodeo article, Web links, Bd of Director info, advertising procedures. Dave B. - article on Pep Bands. Lee Oler - Excerpt of article written by Chris Pierson in November Leaky Bugle. Gary - something on Band Boosters.
Next meeting will be on Saturday, April 8 at 9:00 AM.
Meeting adjourned at about 11:45 AM
(Notes prepared by John Prokop for UAAB Secretary)