August Booster Meeting

The August meeting of the Southern Wells Music Boosters was held on Tuesday night, August 12th.  Those in attendance were Janetta Grover, Kelli Schriver, Donna Geisel, Peggy Haigh, Mike Haigh, and Vivian Drennan.

Called to order at 6:35 pm.

Minutes of last meeting were read.

Treasurer's report:  Booth rent paid.  Insurance premium paid.  Incentive account: No change.

Vivian Drennen inquired as to text messages about meetings and music related information.  Mr. Haigh shared the Remind program with her and the others in attendance.

Pop prices discussed.  It was decided that we should continue to be the "bargain" of the fair.  Our 24oz bottles may be a bit large for most of our dining customers, but for those looking for a bottle of pop, it is the perhaps the best deal/ounce there.

The options for a ham supplier (with the closing of Heyerly's Market) were discussed.  Vivian Drennen offered to order this year's from Ossian Meat Packing Co. in Ossian.

A discussion ensued related to the band's dress and appearance in the Street Fair Parades.  It was recognized that though the matching black polos and the requirement for students to wear khaki pants look nice.  The issue however was the group embarrassment that occurs when one or more students are allowed to break code and wear flip flops or sandals while marching.  Mr. Haigh expressed his general agreement, but short of not letting them perform it is difficult to avoid the "tacky" appearance some individuals may choose the night of the performance. Most of the time this is simply about not knowing it's NOT ok.  Upon further discussion, it was agreed that as we prepare during class, attention be paid to individuals who are tempted in the direction of inappropriate marching footwear.  Mr. Haigh noted that students should be aware now of class days that we are going outside to practice marching since the adoption of weekly lesson planning posted online on each class' webpage. They should either have the suitable footwear for that day or lose participation.  Mr. Haigh thanked the parent for bringing up the point.

Mike will send out a reminder that the Street Fair booth is coming up September 16-20th.  We will need workers, lots of them, to work shifts in the booth.  A form is available online for submitting your availability. Paper copies will be available to students during their classes.

The next meeting of the Southern Wells Music Boosters will be held at its regular standing date of the second Tuesday of the month, September 12th at 6:30 pm.

Meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.

5 down 175 to Go!

Believe me when I say that I am not counting down the days out of a desire to get the year over! I am counting the days with the feeling of "This is already day five!"  Here a couple of reflections I have as we have finished week one.

• I can only control me. 
• And,  ... Maybe one point is enough.

By changing things that I do and say, other people will change in response. So, I shouldn't try to change other people. I have enough to do working on myself.  We are all in this together and the synergy of the whole group is perfect. We were created unique and rather than deny that we should embrace it. Everyone brings something useful to a group if we are looking for it.  Even when something "negative" occurs, my faith tells me that God will make something better from it.   I want to always stay aware that.

Next, let me say thanks to those of you who have given me encouragement either privately or in class. It means more to me than you know!

Everyone in the music department, the music boosters, the school, and the community is affected by what we do. I want to always stay mindful of ripples. This past summer I spent a few, too few, days on a lake visiting friends from Kokomo including my eldest son, David, who I haven't seen a lot this past year. All three of my kids have a ripple effect on my life much like the splash that occurs in a pool when someone does a cannonball or when a ski boat pulls a tube across it's wake.  You either crash or ride it to a thrilling conclusion.  Either way it is an adventure.  I have 3 kids that God has blessed me and my awesome wife, Peggy with. But I also have many other kids that I am blessed with through school like Helke from Germany. Helke was an exchange student a couple of years ago. She has come back for a visit. She is a ripple from across the globe! You, my students, are my future ripples. How far will you stretch?  Will it be a crash or a thrilling adventure?

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Welcome Back!!

     I am more excited than words can express about the opportunity to work with our music students this year! The personnel realignment has re-energized my enthusiasm for teaching  This site will provide essential information and links to resources we will use in our daily classes in Room 201.  The first row of tabs along the top labeled with class period and short course name are for the communication of class related information including weekly plans for each class period as well as Syllabus information, special event calendar, etc.
     The second row of tabs is helpful links to other information about the music department in general.  Rm 201 is the main page where this post and others will appear and on occasion student created posts may appear hear as well.  CALENDAR is the music department calendar and lists all SW music department events of public interest such as concerts, fundraisers, etc.  BOOSTERS is a link to a page all devoted to our parent organization, the SW Music Boosters.  THEORY is a tab devoted to links for learning music theory concepts.  Many of these will be also linked in the weekly lesson plan table on the class pages.  But students may want to work on theory skills not often assigned in the class in which they are enrolled.  They can be found here.  Most of these are powered by musictheory.net. SWCS (Official) is a link to the official site of Southern Wells Community Schools.  SOCIAL is a page devoted to the many social media accounts that the music department has registered.  Some live feeds from twitter and pinterest are found there.  (sorry, but at this time, perhaps ever, you will not be able to view these from school for obvious reasons -self discipline, mine!  Finally, SMARTMUSIC is a tab for a link to the SmartMusic website.  SmartMusic is a program I am using extensively with our students here this year and beyond to assist me in the explanations of musical concepts and modeling sound samples.  It also provides a really cool mechanism for practicing music learned in class and recording oneself for self-evaluation.  It also has an assessment tool that will be implemented down the road as becomes appropriate.  Practice tools include a visual pitch tuner, a metronome, and as mentioned before a recording feature.  There is the basic overview of the SWHS Room 201 tabs.
     While viewing any of the pages described above, the column along the right will be displayed.  As you can see while reading this post, there are Quick Links to frequently used documents and forms.  These are provided there for the quickest access to that information wherever you currently are on the site.  You can scroll down to see additional posts to this blog and to find other information in the sidebar to the right.  I hope you understand that this site is a living document and is alway under construction and improvement.  Suggestions for how to make it easier to navigate are welcome and should be directed to Mr. Haigh.

Music Booster Meeting Minutes

SOUTHERN WELLS MUSIC BOOSTERS

Minutes of the special meeting held on July 29, 2014

Our second meeting of the summer #smrmtg2 occurred on Tues, July 29th. The meeting was called to order at 6:32 by president, Kelli Schriver. Those persons in attendance included director, Mike Haigh,  Janetta Grover, Peggy Haigh, and Kendra Todd.  Jean Hughes was unable to attend because of vacation.

Reading of the last meeting's minutes were referenced by temporary secretary, Mike Haigh via the blog post.

Treasurer Report*:

It was reported that the Music Boosters have balances in checking and savings accounts.  It was noted that reserve funds were adequate to cover Student Incentive Accounts with sufficient start up money available for this year's Bluffton Street Fair Booth.

More Items on the Agenda

Bluffton Street Fair Booth Discussion

A discussion was led by president, Kelli Schriver related to plans to run our annual food concession at the Bluffton Street Fair.  Mike Haigh presented the volunteer sign up sheet via the classroom smartboard.  He has offered to head up the staffing portion of this fundraising event.  It was noted that he is the most logical choice for this task due to his advantageous position with students and their parents.  We discussed the day shift and the profitability of having the booth open from 11:00 am given the challenge to find staff to man the booth during the daytime hours.  It was believed to be "worth it" by those who have worked that shift in the past.  Next, the issue of the late shift was raised by Mr. Haigh.  He believes that the late shift is the most difficult to staff due to the late hour in town.  By the time you leave at 10:00, walk to your car, and make the trip home, it's 11:00. Most parents (and teachers) don't want their students at the fair that late, so they don't sign up for that shift.  After further discussion is was decided to end the late shift at 9:00 pm.  This would allow time for cleanup and would get most people home sooner.  Food service would likely stop about 8:15-8:30 to allow for this.  Friday and Saturday the booth hours would remain later due to it being a non-school night.

Old Business

Mr. Haigh reported that the preliminary form for approval of hosting "Raider Classic" has been submitted. As soon as he gets the approval, more serious steps will be taken related to the planning of the event.  Mike also reported that he has interest from someone he met at a conference this summer to judge one of our Captions.

He also reported that the rough draft calendar of events presented at the last meeting has been filled in with specific dates and can now be viewed on the SW Music Department Google Calendar by anyone with a swraiders.com domain email.  See swraidermusic.blogspot.com to link to that calendar.

From the floor

A discussion was brought up related to showchoir.  Mr. Haigh was made aware that there are some choir members who would like for him to consider re-forming the showchoir.  He expressed the intent to get his feet wet with being "choir director" for awhile before committing the resources of time and personnel to the endeavor.  But, he is not opposed to talking further with interested parties.  Mike also feels that the choir class should devote full time and attention to the singing aspects of choir (not choreography).  Those students who have the desire to sing, but not dance, have in the past been left out.  It was generally agreed that showchoir can be a very beneficial activity for students.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted by

Mike Haigh, Music Booster Secretary (temporary)

*Treasurer submitted report via phone.

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