Music Boosters October 16, 2007
7 PM High School

Minutes

Participants: Mark Borden, Nancy Middleton, Kim Brienzi, Mary McNamara, Ken Goold, Betsy O’Flynn, Pat O’Kelly, John Farrell

1. Corrections / Questions re: minutes from 9.25.07
 Correct spelling of strings, correct name to Beth Henderson, not Beth Hoffman

2. Addition to Agenda
 None

3. Treasurer’s Report
Checking:  $4448.76, ($3200 is outstanding checks)
Savings: $7711.33

Approved payments and purchases:
• Oct. 5, 2007 - $384.88 for microphones and stands for Lima and Manor School requests. 

• A 501C3 was discussed.  A member of Sports Boosters shared it cost their group about $1000 – 1500 to complete the process. Due to the expense, an organization’s funds should be over $20,000 a year. Nancy Middleton affirmed that Music Booster does handle over $20,000 annually.
The consensus of the group was to continue to research this classification. 
Kim Brienzi will follow up on contacting an account. If anyone has an accountant that they would recommend, please contact Mark Borden. This process will stay a priority on the agenda for the entire year.

4. QED Update
• Nancy Middleton and Carol Forstrom will serve as the parent/community reps on the K-12 Music DIU this year.  The training will be held on Oct. 18. in the BOE room.  Mark thanked Nancy and Carol for volunteering to participate in the process.

• Mark shared that the operational plan has a new simplified format this year.  Next, Mark reviewed past goals and their results.  Two long-term goals were addressed in the last budget.  First, Ken Goold shared his impressions about the new voice lesson program that was implemented in the High School this fall.  He shared an overview of the program and the student work.  Ken felt that he knows his students as musicians much sooner than before.  The feedback from students has been very positive. In addition, lesson attendance is over 80%.  The ensembles sound great and the classroom management of these large groups has been very positive. Ken attributes this to the time that he can now spend in the small group lesson setting.   Second, the long-term need for accompanists at the high school has been addressed. Currently, Marlene Beckman, the new teacher at the Middle School, and Mary Beth Rice (an HFL graduate) are helping in this capacity. 

• Mary McNamara summarized key points about Monroe County’s decision to adopt a sales tax intercept plan that will cut sales tax revenues to suburban school districts by 50%.  The F.A.I.R. plan will translate into a loss of approximately $320,000 in anticipated revenues for our district for the current budget year.  A lawsuit has been filed by school districts affected by this County decision.  However, it is not anticipated that the legal process will be completed before the May 2008 budget vote.  Therefore, HFL can anticipate having $640,000 less revenue available for planning the 2008-09 budget. Decisions about how the loss of revenues will be addressed for this year will be forthcoming from the Superintendent and BOE.

5. Poinsettia Sale
• Mark shared a memo from Lisa Fisher about the price lists from florists.  Due to a number of concerns with last year’s company, a new florist will be selected.  Lisa stated that one of the three florists was not interested in supplying the poinsettias to us.   Prices were given for both Lucas Greenhouse and Chases Greenhouse. Lucas Greenhouse’s price is $.75 cheaper for the 6” plants and same for the 10”basket. Lucas Greenhouse was selected as the supplier.  Lisa will send the flyers out to each building so it will be included the newsletters. Teachers will also distribute flyers to their students.

• No one has volunteered to chair this committee for next year. Kim Brienzi sent a personal email to five parents asking if they would be interested in volunteering for leadership roles.  She has not received any responses to-date.  Kim will send out notice to the entire group of 4th and 5th grade parents.

6. Skedi Dinner -  Friday, February 8, 2008
• Mark led a discussion of concerns and questions about the event.  Last year, Boosters earned $535 profit form the event.  As a means to cut expenses, a number of areas were examined. 
- Last year, Boosters paid $135 for caller.  The group felt the dancing is very popular.  Other entertainment options had been tried in the past, but attendees shared that they were disappointed that they could not dance. 
- It was recommended that one of the volunteers should be assigned to keeping a count of dinners served for a more accurate count of the number of participants.
- It was recommended that we increase contacts to local companies to solicit more donations to help defray expenses.  Nancy Middleton will bring list of donated items to aid in exploring ways to increase the donations.  Paper products should be the focus of the donations.  About 90% of the music band students do donate sauce and pasta. Collecting a dollar from each student is not as successful.
-   Andy Vetter will be asked to contact the caller about the date.
• Discussion of Skedi Dinner will continue at the November meeting.

7. Capital Planning
• Mark reported that Dave Fisher, Dan McCarthy, Brian Coughlin, and Milt Mashner  are on the committee and will keep us informed of the process.

8. Open Forum
• No items

9. Next meeting:  Wednesday. November 14, 2007