Initiation
Your First Band Parents' Meeting

Over the next several years you will spend more time at the high school band hall than at any other place. Your first trip there will be intimidating. Be forewarned! BPO officers can smell fear and exploit it. You must remain calm, at least outwardly. Avoid audible cries of dismay and overt whimpering. These will attract attention to you and you may leave the meeting as chair of several BPO Committees.

Introduction to the BPO
The BPO Officers elected at the end of the last school year will run the meeting. Their willingness to accept election is a legitimate reason to doubt their sanity. Keep an eye on them and keep your distance. This form of mental aberration is highly contagious.

The BPO President will briefly (which is a relative term) outline the BPO's structure and plans for the year. The typical BPO has more committees than the U.S. Congress and a budget sufficient for a moderately large first world nation. Its treasurer's report and fund raising activities will rival that of major multi- national corporations.

The Year's Band Schedule
The head band director, with messianic flair and three part harmony, will outline the year's schedule, a bewildering list of rehearsals, concerts, contests, auditions, competitions, due dates and special events. During band season direct hands-on band parent involvement is required about every two days except during the marching season. Then it is needed much more frequently. By the time of this first meeting you will already be at least two weeks behind. (Powerful computer scheduling programs are available that can help you manage your time during band season. Very dedicated band parents take sabbaticals from all other activities for the duration.)

It is vitally important to copy down the entire schedule. Your young band member will forget to tell you about activities. Never, never forget that however well they play their horns, however nice they look in their uniforms, however grown-up they may appear, all band members are adolescents. At best they will remember to tell you when it is much too late to do you any good.

Band Expen$e$
Running any band is expensive. Running a good band is very expensive. Running a top rank band is probably beyond the means of the merely well off.

Taxpayers being what they are it was decided long ago that schools would be funded at a level just sufficient to accomplish the basic education of talented well motivated students. For anything more you are on your own. In order that your child's band program be at least adequate there are certain band related expenses which you must pay to supplement what the school provides which typically is limited to:

Costs the band parent will pay indirectly by paying school taxes:

• directors' salaries, bus transportation, band hall upkeep.

The director will outline the various other costs associated with the band program. These include but are in no way limited to:

Costs the band parent will pay which are required by or are essential to the band program:

• band T- shirts (~$12.00 each, minimum one for band member and one for each parent and sibling), marching shoes (~$30.00), marching socks (~$5.00), uniform bags (~$20.00), water jugs (~$7.00), flip folders (~$6.00), annual trip fees (~$300.00-1700.00), assessment fees (~$80.00), uniform dry cleaning fees (~$15.00), instrument fees (~$50.00), accompanist fees (~$20.00), lunches on band trips ($6.00 per trip), etc.

Costs the band parent will pay by spending time fund raising:

• new school instruments, clinicians, arrangers, choreographers, etc.

• Typical minimum fund raising profit needed is $200.00 per band member per year.

In addition to these you may wish to pay for further enrichment of your own band member's band experience.

Costs the band parent will pay which are not actually required by the band program but are certainly encouraged by it:

• instrument and accessories (valve oil, reeds, mutes, etc., averages ~$150.00 per year), repairs (~$200.00 per year), lessons ($10.00 per week), band jacket (~$150.00), band sweatshirts (~$18.00 each, minimum one for each parent and sibling), sheet music ($100.00 per year), photo buttons (~$5.00 per parent), contest photos (~$20.00 per contest) and recordings (~$28.00 per event), etc. Not including school taxes one student being four years in a band program means an average out of pocket expense of $5800.00.

(Of course the above does not include university summer band camps ($200.00 per summer), travel/meal/lodging expenses for yourself at out-of-town performances, medical expenses for marching injuries, your own band photos and videotapes, pay you are docked for skipping work to attend band events and fund raising purchases you make from people in exchange for their buying your band stuff.)

This may seem like a lot of money. It is a lot of money. It is a whole lot of money. It is probably more than your total school tax bill for the same period. Those taxpayers knew what they were about when they decided to limit school funding for the band. You are a band parent. You will find this money somewhere.

Here are a few suggestions to help you find the money. Begin by setting aside about 2-3 month's after-tax income for band expenses each year. Reduce your lifestyle accordingly. With careful darning and patching clothes can be made to last an extra several years. There is hardly anything that can go wrong with your car that can't be fixed with a little duck tape and some old wire.

Eating is one big expense which does not lend itself to too much reduction. (Please keep any comments about the author's waistline to yourselves. Thank you.) If you are faint from malnourishment you can't do your best at band parenting. Less expensive culinary choices are available. An insightful guide to very low cost eating is "Real Cheap Cooking with Scrounged Ingredients: Swamp-Yankee Recipes of the Depression" a book which does much to explain the fondness we who grew up among the bogs of Massachusetts' south shore have for wild parsnips boiled with cranberries. Yum.

It often makes sense to move into smaller, cheaper living quarters since your band member will be home only rarely. A second job can be helpful if its schedule does not conflict with band activities. Older band members can get part time work after school if its schedule does not conflict with band activities. Now is a good time to sell off any old pieces of property that you don't really need.

These ideas may see you through. The author strongly advises parents of more than one band member to review the bankruptcy laws.

You may dwell momentarily on the high cost in money and time of band parenting. Put such thoughts aside. Money and time are small sacrifices for the good of the band program and the good the band program will do for your band member. In any case they are nothing compared to the enormous physical and mental stress to which you will be subjected while band parenting.

Poem Link- "WE REACH FOR OUR WALLETS AGAIN!"

The Marching Show
The Director will describe the year's marching contest show. Your interest will increase as you realize that you will see it in whole or in part over 67 times during the next five months.

If you have not seen a marching show recently prepare yourself to be amazed, astounded, affected, absorbed, agitated, amused, agog, anabatic and just generally describable by adjectives beginning with the letter "A". Thirty years ago bands just marched down the field and then played a couple of standard marches while standing at attention. Modern marching shows are esthetically significant works of art.

A good marching show rivals Ringling Bros. in spectacle, the Olympics in athletic prowess, a symphony concert in musical quality and grand opera in intellectual depth. Instead of marches high school bands now commission original music by Pulitzer Prize winning composers. Instead of military style parade marching bands use Broadway quality choreography by Tony winning choreographers. Instead of drill teams 200 member dance companies complement the performance with routines derived in ballet and jazz styles by their own staff of dancing masters.

One can not overstate the importance of marching bands in our national artistic life. Recently, Sir Peter Thrall resigned a life appointment as director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London and refused a peerage to become full time artistic assistant to the East Sprongdale (Indiana) High School Marching Band. Sir Peter stated, "The most vital expression in the performing arts today is on the marching fields of America.".

The Marching Band Officers
Finally the director will introduce the marching band officers. Marching or Field Officers are not elected. They are appointed by the directors following auditions.

Officers are role models to other band members. They are required to put in the extra effort to achieve superior scores at solo contests, high grade point averages in classwork and be exemplary school citizens in every way. They must work many many extra hours on band activities in addition to all the time which must be spent on band anyway. This includes summer vacation, weekends and many late evenings. Most of this work is menial and mind-numbingly tedious. Needless to say competition to become an officer is intense.

The Head Drum Major
Dressed in wrinkled jeans and T-shirt yet radiating the confidence and authority of General George S. Patton the Head Drum Major is the student conductor of the marching show. Usually a senior, All-Area (or even All-State), a National Merit Finalist, etc. the Head Drum Major's driving will to succeed can seem overwhelming in a small room like a band hall. The great heroes and heroines of history must have been like this in youth.

The Assistant Drum Major(s)
A marching field is so wide that communication with the whole of a large band requires additional student conductors spaced along the sidelines. The first and second runners-up for Drum Major (who were usually only a fraction of a point behind) are the Assistant Drum Majors. In addition to their field duties they serve the task of keeping the pressure on the Head Drum Major.

The Field Officers:

Keyboard Captain
Responsible for coordinating and rehearsing the Pit players. Since most of the directors' attention must focus on marchers Keyboard Captains must whip the Pit into shape to a considerable extent on their own. Savvy Loading and Pit Crew band parents understand this semi- independence and establish a strong direct working relationship with the Keyboard Captain.

Percussion Captain
Responsible for the marching drums and cymbals. Drummers are never shy personalities. Percussion Captains are often completely over-the-top. On their arrival the band hall noise level increases 5 dB before they get anywhere near a drum. A strong percussion clinician is needed to channel the Percussion Captain's energy.

Section Field Officers
Each section has one or more field officers who help to prepare and rehearse the show, insure that uniforms are complete, help maintain order on the band buses and just generally keep the fish in line both literally and figuratively. They are also a valuable source of information for band parents with questions.

Poem Link-"Band Field Officers"

The Band Hall
A well regulated band hall is a place where music, youth, pedagogy, dedication, fellowship, success, failure, apprehension, boredom and excitement blend into something which resembles chaos but isn't so well organized. Take a few minutes before or after the band parents' meeting to explore the band hall.

Just being in that tuba-sized acoustic space is comforting to the soul. Trophies of past triumphs and failures ("Participant") festoon walls crowded by photographs formal and funny, hand lettered posters proffering wise counsel, sign-up sheets/schedules portending a busy semester, scholarship audition announcements offering hope, scrawled examples of student wit and on the floor (despite a valiant late afternoon clean up effort) littered examples of student neatness.

Seeing a band hall on Band Parents' night is mere archeology. Afternoons band halls are cacophonous with practicing, lessons, prop making, goofing off, sectionals, meetings and students curled up in corners doing homework (math if they are lucky) oblivious to the noise or perhaps comfortable in it. It is a place of being and belonging, banal in its familiarity, cluttered for convenience, architecturally undistinguished, acoustically questionable, overdue for renovation, unappreciated by its occupants, cursed for its temperature, suspected for its costliness and important beyond knowing.

After the Meeting
After the formal meeting you can talk with other band parents and refresh yourself with cola and cookies. More importantly you can sign up for various BPO committees. As you might imagine there are myrad opportunities for band parents to help the band. There will be a mad dash to sign up for those committees that seem to promise little work, require a minimum of specialized training or be very interesting. It is a good idea to wear high quality running shoes and perhaps light body armor to give yourself every advantage in the race for desirable assignments.

Copyright 1996 by George Yenetchi

Copyright 1994. 1995, 1996 , 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006 by George Yenetchi