General Meeting 2/15/24
Board Members in attendance: Allen Frank, Bill Lennox, Tina Martucci, Jacqui Fortsch, Cory Dailey, Jeanette Dennis, and Joyce James
Tina welcomed everyone to the meeting and asked for a motion to approve last month’s minutes. It was noted that per the by-laws, even though there is a motion and a second, there still needs to be a vote from the overall assembly. A motion was made by AnnaLisa Kelly-Covatta, seconded by Sue Testa, and approved by the group.
Cory reported that there are no new updates on volunteer needs.
Jacqui reported updated fundraisers. Mateys pizza runs from now until the 19th. Pampered Chef will start March 1 and will benefit student accounts. Mr. Sticky’s sticky buns will be March 27, flowers May 12, and salsa May 5. Be on the lookout for emails.
Jeanette presented the Treasurer’s report and the budget comparison. Per the bylaws, the treasurer’s report does not need a monthly approval since it is just reporting the income vs expenses for the month.
Sue Testa pointed out some ways to present the report that would make it more transparent and easier for everyone to understand, such as reporting incomes as separate lines items and identifying what the income was from (ie fair share, Bingo, bandstand) and display them on separate pages as well as breaking out fund raising efforts on separate line items. Sue also made suggestions on budget structure and expressed some frustration in how fair share cost is calculated each year especially and how fair share money is used. Sue and Jeanette will connect on how ro make the discussed changes.
Currently the bandstand income is negative. but that was explained as we made large purchases in order to restock the inventory for the remainder of the year and going forward.
Speaking of bandstand inventory, we are still in need of a parent or two to take over the inventory process. Please let Cory know if you’re interested.
Allen spoke of including the directors in the conversations on the finances. We want to be able to alleviate financial burden situations when we can. That means taking some of the stress off of families, taking care of the instrument side of things and getting gear to where it should be.
For pipers, we are looking at forming a partnership with a company in Scotland willing to work with us to get pipes.
Reminder to please check the weekly bulletin for information. There is a lot going on and many questions can be answered with the information that gets passed along weekly.
District orchestra went extremely well. The students said that it was the best one they attended. There were 104 students from 26 schools from Berks to Carbon county. All the volunteers student and adult made everything run smoothly. Thank you.
Big congratulations for the 4 students moving on to regionals. They are…
Tom Cramer
Andrew Fortsh
Ethan Hawkes
Casey Huey
Regional band is next Thursday at Eastern York HS. LHS has 4 students going to that. We have 10 students in county band on March 16.
Pipes and drums gigs start picking up in March with the Red Hot Chili Pipers March 7 and continuing with the parade of shamrocks.
The band spring concert is 4/5 and 4/6. The orchestra concert is 4/26 and the orchestra pops concert is 5/3. It will be held bak in the memorial gym.
Encourage your students to practice at home. It just supplements the efforts going on at school rehearsals.
Summer band will begin 8/5. Next year’s band numbers will remain about the same . The incoming class was 4th graders during the pandemic. The orchestra numbers will go up because they were able to have more instruction during the pandemic.
Trip discussions are being held. Waiting for approval from BASD. Planning for about a year out. Allen is planning to lay out a 3-4 trip plan. This will aid families in preparing financially.
Bill asked that if your child is preparing to study music after graduation, to please let the directors know. The process isn’t straightforward, prep work needs to be done in order to make sure your student is prepared.
For new business. Sue Testa took the floor to walk the group through the suggested changes that were made when the bylaws committee met. Allen pulled up the changes on the screen for everyone to see while Sue explained the
changes. The bylaws will be voted on at the next meeting, but we wanted to inform the group of the potential changes being made and what will be voted on.
A motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Sue Testa, seconded by Eleanor Mayer and approved by the group.