LHSGB&OPC General Membership Meeting August 13, 2024

General Meeting 8-13-2024

Board members in attendance:

Directors: Allen Frank and Bill Lennox

Jacqui Forsch(President), Steph Cramer (VP Student Accounts), Tracy Luisser (VP Volunteers), Becky Sullivan (Treasurer), and Michelle Miller (Secretary)

Board members in absent:

None

Approval of Minutes from 05-16-2024:

Jacqui called the meeting to order and asked for approval on last month’s minutes. Motion to approve was made by Sue Testa. Second by Yi-Wen Lai . Overall approval by the full organization. (Motion passed)

Jacqui introduced each of the board members, at large members, and one of our community partners (George was not present).

Audit: May 2024

Jacqui gave an update about the internal audit that was performed following the May meeting. The audit team consisted of Becky Sullivan, Yi-Wen Lai, Michelle Miller, and Bridget Carvajal.

Since the last meeting, our previous treasurer resigned. The audit was performed to get the books back in order and in line to keep our non-profit status. The audit showed that there were incomplete records, missing receipts, and mislabeled deposits. Becky and the team have spent time this summer to contact vendors and get our books back in order.

Conclusions of the audit:

Record keeping was poor
Unable to determine if the issue was disorganization or something else was going on

The focus we are choosing is to move forward. We don’t want this to happen again. We want the organization to keep its non-profit status because it is important with all of the fundraising we do. It would be bad for the organization and the kids.

Moving forward:

New treasurer: Becky is our new treasurer. She led the audit. She has obtained as many records as we can obtain, categorizing the revenues and expenses that are coming in, and digitizing them so they are not lost for when the next treasurer comes in. There was a big push to get everything organized and ready to hand off to the auditor at the end of our tax year.
Audit committee: Creation of an audit committee. Yi-Wen Lai is heading the committee. We are looking for volunteers to help. Every quarter the committee will meet and review the books and make sure everything matches up.
New written procedures: New procedures for things like how to handle cash boxes at events, how to label deposits and separate them, how to purchase requisition things. We wanted to get structure around these procedures. These are not finalized yet. We are looking to have them finalized for the next meeting so we can hand them off to Sue Testa to have them referenced in the bylaws so future boards will have to follow the procedures. It will outline the treasurer position and the expectations for that role.
Monthly reconciliations: There will be monthly reconciliations between the treasurer and the vice president of student accounts. This gives a second set of eyes every month and will also make it easier for the audit committee since it is happening monthly internally with the board. At the three month audit, everything should be good and it should be just a check.

QUESTIONS:

Checks weren’t being deposited for a long period of time or points weren’t added into student accounts until emails were sent. Will all this be monitored more closely now?
It will be monitored more closely. We are not perfect but we are good if you call us on it. If checks are not deposited please email us. There were checks that were not cashed and we found they were lost. We had them deduct the stop payment fee and rewrite the check so we could recover some of the money.
Becky stated that the electronic process is making it go much quicker and checks are getting deposited much faster. Our goal is 2 weeks to be deposited and should be faster most of the time.

Overall, just know that we’re a board that is just trying to make things a little more transparent, and make sure everybody knows and can feel confident that their money is being handled well.

Report from VP of Volunteers (Tracy):

Volunteering :
There are sign ups for volunteering. We need help especially for the upcoming home and away games. Clearances must be on file with Mr. Lennox, so if you have copies of them you can scan them and email them to him.You must have clearances to be with the kids.
Bingo:
Bingo is coming up on September 8th. Please come out and help. If you have anything you would be willing to donate for a bigger prize (like a timeshare), please email and let us know.
Bandstand:
We’ll be sending out a signup genius for every home game. We need help with Bandstand. Bandstand is our merchandise area (shirts, sweatshirts, lanyards, bracelets, ornaments, etc). Bandstand will also be at Preview Night on Friday night.
3rd Quarter Snacks:
We would like to set up a Hospitality (concessions) Committee. We need someone to be in charge of making sure that there’s enough snacks and water for the kids, as well as volunteers to help hand out 3rd Quarter snacks. It was decided, we would like to provide each student with a hot dog or pretzel, chips, and water during the third quarter free of charge.There’s not going to be any candy or snacks sold. There will be a sign up genius that will be sent out for donations (similar to last year), but students will not be charged at the game.
Other volunteers needed:

We also need bus chaperones for away games and roadies. Roadies help by opening gates for the kids when they’re coming off the field, handing out water, and helping with section bags.

QUESTIONS:

Can parents have a letter to help get supplies for our band?

We are looking for a Hospitality (concessions) Committee Coordinator to help oversee concessions and donations for our events/games. Some businesses will only donate once, so we need help coordinating our efforts between our different events (bingo, football games, springo, etc.)

Will majorettes also get a hot dog?
Yes.
Can I have more information about Bingo?
Tickets will be online presale first. $20 in advance or $25 at the door. Tickets/packets will be distributed at Bingo.
Will Bingo be an individual fundraiser?
No. We have identified certain events, like Bingo and our last car wash, where the proceeds go to a bucket and at the end of the year that bucket is going to help offset the trip.

Report from VP of Student Accounts (Steph):

Steph explained that she is the Vice President of Student Accounts. This means that any fundraising that is done, she will be the contact person. Also, she is the contact person if there are questions directly related to any of the money that’s in your student’s account.
Cut Time:

Cut Time is used district wide. It’s an online website where you can log in and see every amount that your student has fundraised, what has been deposited into their account through fundraising, what date that went in, any amounts that are owed if they ordered an extra T-shirt, and their fair share.

For freshmen, it is not the same account used in middle school. They will be connected, just not yet. Email Steph if you need her to help you get into your account.
Bill will link sibling accounts. Please email if not linked by the end of September.

Fair share:

Fair share is money that we all fairly pay in order to help support the music program (band and orchestra). Fair share is $150 for band or band/orchestra and $75 for just orchestra. If you have multiple children in the program, it is $150 for the first child and $75 for any additional children you have in the band.

Quota:
Quota is any profit that your student makes from individual fundraising. It can be used to pay fair share, trips, T-shirts, or any other cost. Any money raised can roll over from one year to the next until they graduate. Once they graduate, any money fundraised cannot be returned. If you have concerns or questions please let Steph know.
Fundraising:
Fundraising is a big way that we try to support our students. All fundraising information can be found on the website: https://lhsgbopc.org/fundraising/ Typically we have three or four running every month.Students can earn a quota that goes directly into their Cut Time accounts. Some fundraisers earn money for the music program’s general fund. This helps offset the cost for both the band and orchestra. Examples of these are the car wash, dine and donates, and bingo.
Upcoming Individual Fundraisers:
- Fall mums

Contact: Amanda Gori

Cost: $8.50 per plant Quota: $2.00 per plant

Orders due: September 1st

Pick up: September 7th at 11:00am in the Science Lot

Matey’s Pizza

Contact: Diane Cassel
Cost: $7.50 per pizza Quota: $2.00 per pizza

Orders due: September 1st

Pick up: September 14th at 10:00am in the Science Lot

Lottery Calendar

Cost $10 per calendar Quota $5.00 per calendar

Orders due: September 27th
Winners will be drawn and sent prizes throughout the month of October

Ongoing Fundraisers: Wawa Shorties, Weiss, and Shoprite

Contact: Jen Roan

Gertrude Hawk Candy Bars (quota is $21 per box)
Contact: Nicole Lockhart

Dine to Donate: 3rd Wednesday of each month
- August 21st: P.J. Whelihan’s ? 15% of the total bill will be donated to the music program.
Fall Bingo is September 8th
Fundraising financial page: https://lhsgbopc.org/treasurers-report-documents-from-august-13-2024-meeting/

This will be a report that shows how many people participated in the fundraisers, the total accrual of quota profit that was made, and what went to the general fund. This will give a clear idea of which fundraisers are really helping us.

Fundraisers are online. You will enter your total sales on the forms on the website.
If you have ideas for fundraisers or would like to chair a fundraiser, email Steph.
band-vp@lhsgbops.org

Report from VP of Treasurer (Becky):

Becky put together a packet of four separate documents.
- The first document is a very high level overview of what was able to be categorized from last year.
  - There’s an unknown category because it was the money that she had no idea where it went or where it came from. Because of this, there is an unknown in the subcategories of each of these budget headings.
  - We brought in $126,000 last year. We spent $179,000. So, we had a budget deficit of $53,000 last year. We were projected to have a budget deficit of $11,000 according to what was budgeted last year.
  - The budget numbers were taken directly from last year’s but there wasn’t much budgeted for income or expenses.
  - If anybody needs more details or feels that they really want to examine it better, Becky has more detailed financial records and can gladly share.
- The next document is the upcoming year’s budget.
  - Last year’s fundraisers stick out because there’s unknown fundraiser income of $6600. That came in from fundraisers last year where you can see there’s some blanks. The fundraiser budget for this year came directly from last year’s fundraising records. It looks like some of the fundraisers lost money, but that is not the case because that unapplied money belongs somewhere in there. Becky didn’t want to pad a fundraiser. Right now there’s no way to decide which fundraisers were successful based on last year’s records or to know what to pursue this year. But by the end of this year, every fundraiser will have its income and its expenses and we’ll be able to see how much we’ve made. So going forward next year, we can decide which fundraisers bring the biggest impact.
  - This budget is kind of a hybrid based on last year’s numbers and then some changes that were made when we met as a board back in May. This year’s budget is without any additional fundraising that Julie is working on chairing for us. We are budgeted to bring in $120,665 and we’re budgeted to spend $143,370.00. This leaves us with the deficit this year of $22,000.
- QUESTION:
  - Does the $86,000 in the account include both general funds and student account funds?
    Yes. The student account money is in there because the Gateway Music Festival checks are also coming out of the account. There is a budget category for the Florida 2025 trip in one of the event categories. Nothing is budgeted in there because we don’t know what we’re going to be taking from the student accounts. It will depend on what they fundraised. We only have one bank account so at the end of the day that’s something that needs to be worked through. Whether or not we open another account where student funds sit and then the checks that are made on the students’ behalf come from that individual account. But for right now that account doesn’t exist, so we can categorize everything but still have to report the money being in the account.
  - Are student accounts accounted for separately in some way to make sure we don’t feed into them when we pay out of the general fund?
    There’s no way to reflect it on the financial statement, so every month we are going to provide you with an addendum so you will see how much came in in the month that doesn’t actually belong to the band. It’s not going to show on the treasurer’s report because it’s all in the same account but it will show on the addendum.
  - What happened to the $50,000 deficit from last year?
    The $50,000 deficit just ate into what was sitting in the account. So it’s a budget deficit but it didn’t overdraw the account. There was money in the account to cover it and they were just chewing away on what had built up over time.
- If you have a check that you wrote to the band last year and it is still sitting in your account uncashed, please rewrite that check minus your stop-payment fee and bring it to Becky, give it to another board member, send it to the PO Box, or have your kid drop it in the money mailbox that we’re going to put in the band room. We have a system in place so this won’t happen again.
- Motion to approve the 24-25 budget was made by Sue Testa. Second by Marilyn Kelly-Cavotta . Overall approval by the full organization. (Motion passed)
- The last page is July’s expenses and credits.
- For every month, Becky keeps a folder for digital receipts. When she reconciles the bank statement, every receipt that is associated with the bank statement has been uploaded in addition to having the hard copy. There’s no way to lose anything. We can’t reconcile if there’s not a receipt present. Then it goes to Steph (Student Accounts) to do the secondary reconciliation. If she says there’s still a receipt missing or it doesn’t add up, we have to track that down. There is backup documentation for every expense we have. If on the off chance we get audited, we can defend our expenses and we don’t risk losing our nonprofit status.

Report from Directors:

Mr. Lennox
- Cut Time:

Cut Time is going to be updated. If you have a freshman you may see they get uploaded but nothing goes through, yet. Give us a little bit of time. We have some freshmen that transferred in from other districts that don’t have emails yet. So if your student is from another district, we just don’t have a school email through BASD for them yet.

Mr. Lennox is also in the process of updating some of the other Cut Time features (uniforms, instruments, trips, etc.).

Buying and upgrading instruments:

Do not buy instruments from Amazon or Temu. Mr. Lennox can’t repair these instruments, and neither will the repair shop. Yes, they’re cheap but they don’t sell replacement parts for them. Please just email the directors and ask for recommendations.

Students have to update and upgrade certain parts of their instruments. A lot of our expenses go to upgrading and updating what we have. We’ll borrow instruments from the middle school and the mouthpiece is just not great.There’s nothing worse than playing on a really old mouthpiece.

Cleaning instruments:

If your instrument hasn’t been cleaned, Mr. Lennox can look at it and tell you where to go if you’re unsure. He really recommends Nazareth Music. We don’t have a lot of spare instruments, so please let the directors know ahead of time. Instruments need to get cleaned pretty regularly. Please don’t spray it with bleach, Pine-Sol or any of those things. Don’t take it upon yourself to take it apart and clean it. Take it to somebody who knows what’s going on because you wouldn’t stick your phone in the sink and scrub it. It’s the same kind of ordeal.

Calendar:

If you want the calendar on your phone, the schedule that we had out is on our website. To get it on your phone all the time, you can go to https://lhsgbopc.org/ and click calendars. At the very bottom you can hit “subscribe to calendar”.

Mr. Frank
- As we get into each new thing of the year, there’s going to be information that comes out right before so it doesn’t overload anyone.
- Communication:
  Email is best. Email both directors because that really helps for them to be on the same page.You can message through BandApp for quick things, but email is better especially if it is a lengthy topic.
- Co-Curricular Program:
  Our program here is a Co-curricular program. The commitment made to the program is a graded class. As we get into the rehearsals, that’s all part of the grade. The directors understand absences. Family always comes first. Health comes first. But it doesn’t work when we have a lot of holes or when we have people missing. Mr. Frank knows things happen but asks that as part of the commitment, families really consider the absences of their child, and that work and things like that should not take priority. It will impact the grade. There’s a performance calendar on BandApp. Consider what your child misses and why because grades will be impacted. As soon as the summer rehearsals are over, rehearsals go from 7:00 AM to 9:00 AM. As far as marching band goes, there’s nothing after school except for the actual performances. Know that the commitment that you have made along with your child is what makes this program what it is and why we are known literally across the world.
- Preview Night
  Mr. Frank discussed the upcoming Preview Night. This is a preview of what we’ve been working on and a Fall Sports kick off. If your child is an athlete they will also walk with their team. Our new Food Service will provide dinner for the band and athletes. This is a non-uniform performance and will last about an hour.
- Football Games:
  Our first game is a travel game to Pennridge. Your students will get more information. You are never responsible for getting your child to a game unless they are an athlete coming from something else. If you ever want to take your child home from a football game, we ask for a note from you in advance (an email is fine) and then at the game we need to see that your child is physically taken by you.
  At football games when your child is in the bleachers, they are working. We ask that you don’t come up and hand out concessions during the first and second quarter. Those things need to stay out of the bleachers. Throughout the entire game we play a lot. We ask that you allow your child to be part of the band during the entire football game. They usually do get a break during the third quarter. That is their time to go relax and be social remembering that they’re still representing the band. They must stay in uniform, stay out of the way of the football fans who are trying to watch the game, and be courteous to the rest of the stadium. They are to be professional when in the stadium. Third quarter break is the opportunity if you want to catch up with your student, but please during the game allow them to be part of the band and to get the job done.
- Next week’s schedule is Monday 8-3pm. Tuesday-Thursday is 6-8:30pm. Thursday is the rehearsal before our first game. We will be marching with bear skins.
- LHS Music Department
  By being here, you are now part of the Liberty High School Music Department. Things are done in different ways than it was done in the middle schools. This is where we come together and we share the talents of those schools both from a student perspective but also the parents. The systems that are done in different places, we try to work together to find the best system to support these kids. The parent board that we have right now, their goal is to leave this in a better state than what they received. The goal is always when they leave they want to hand off something better. Our job is to just be the custodians of a program and to hand it off when we leave. The board worked tirelessly all summer to clean up and create the best system to support you as families, to support your kids, and to support this program. Mr. Frank thanked the board for their work this summer.
- BandApp:
  In years past, Remind was used. Remind set limits and was going to charge, so we changed to BandApp. It’s a great tool for us to send things out. Years ago, we turned off the comments because the comments started becoming a little excessive. There is a chat feature on the band app and it is helpful from time to time. There was a lot of discussion this summer about shoes and schedules. A lot of those questions or comments are helpful to the large masses. What we’re going to ask is when we get to a point where it becomes more of a conversation between two people, there’s a private chat option. What happens is when multiple messages start going out, people get tired of the notifications and they turn the notifications off. Then information is not seen. Mr. Frank wants to leave the chat feature on because there are times where good questions do come out. Before you ask a question in chat:
  - Go back to previous posts and make sure the information was not already posted and check the weekly bulletin.
  - We are a huge family. Somebody else might have an answer. So, before messaging everybody or sending us an e-mail, check with a friend. They might have the answer.
  - Mr. Frank tries to set the limits on timing of posts. Sometimes he will need to send something out at 6:30 am to let students know, but typically there are no posts after 9:00 pm out of respect for your time. He just wants to be respectful that we’re not sending things so your phones are going off late at night.
  - We’re trying to use it for pertinent information just to make sure everybody stays in the loop.
- Goals:
  - We always have goals.
    - Our first goal is music education – giving your kids the best education we possibly can.
    - We’re going to Florida this year.
    - A big focus is on London 2026. We’re starting that process now because we have to be ready to put students on an international stage.
    - All of that great stuff is for the program, but our number one goal right now is taking care of your kids. Taking care of their mental health, taking care of them as people, and making sure that they are coming into a positive environment every day. Not every rehearsal’s going to be fun, but even through those tough, tough rehearsals, we still want to make sure that everybody experiences this. If you have any concerns or if your child has any needs, please let us know. Your child, their safety, their time here, is more important than any concert or any football game that could ever happen.

New Business:

Lottery Calendars:
If you want to participate, we ask that you don’t take more than two to start. If you want more you can contact one of us and get more. They all have individual numbers and a matching cover sheet so they can’t just be copied at home.
Volunteering:
It takes a village. We’d love to have your help. If you aren’t sure what you want to do or you have more questions, please reach out to one of us. We will be happy to direct you to whoever can help you with that.
Community Partner: Julie Bailey
Julie Bailey is one of our community partners. We also have George Wacker, who’s not here tonight. Julie comes to us with a lot of experience in fundraising. We are investing in GiveButter, which is a fundraising platform. In addition to everything that we’re trying to do for fundraising we’re going after sponsorships, specifically for businesses. We have a very ambitious goal of raising $75,000 in sponsorships. Julie is working with the band directors right now to create a package. If you own a business or work at a business that loves to do sponsorship, please email Julie at grenadiergiving@lhsgbopc.org. With the band turning 100 in 2026, there’s going to be a big push and part of it is reconnecting with who the alumni are and creating that alumni roster. There will be tiers/levels of sponsorship from $20,000 down to $1. We are working on compiling a packet. GiveButter also will allow the donor to choose the designation of their donation (greatest need, Florida trip, instruments, London trip).
Mr. Harris, the Director of the Athletic Department, is 100% on board and behind us. He is trying to help us to find ways to find $50,000.
Florida Tag Along Trip:
Sue Testa is our liaison for the Tag Along trip. A link has been sent out. As of today, there are 23 people signed up. The deadline is September 30th. There are two options: the full trip option (which includes airfare) and the land only (which you are responsible for your own airfare and transportation in Orlando to the first site where we would meet up). Transportation to the airport is not included for the Tag Along, but it is included for the students. Please reach out if you have any questions.
Florida Trip
There will be a Florida Trip meeting. A question that is already coming in is when is my child’s flight. First we have to do the room sign ups before Gateway will assign the groups. We travel on four different planes. They are all early flights that are leaving out of Philly and Newark. So there will be different meeting times here (at the school) based on the flight group that your child is in, but all groups will be in Florida by around 11:30 am.
Uniforms, instruments, and luggage goes on a truck and will go down a couple of days early. The only thing your child will fly with is a carry on bag.
Football passes will roll out tomorrow. The stadium is cashless this year for entry. Mr. Frank will have a stack of the plastic family passes to sell.

A motion to close the meeting was made by Sue Testa. Second by Christine D’Annibale. Overall approval by the full organization.