VBODA District XII Meeting Minutes
Oakton High School
February 2, 2008

Call to Order:  10:00 AM
Those in attendance:  Grayson Fore, Charles Schmidt, Dustin Wright, Katrina Davilis, Aaron Mynes, Kyle Steffens, Sharon Bonneau, Jim Kirchenbauer, Richard Bergman, Jordanna Bergman, Richard Sanger, Chris Weise, Brad Zimmerman, Lawrence Walker, Ben Williams, Randy Glasner, Carl Holmquist, Paul J. Norris, Catrina Tangchittsumran, Denny d’Alelio, Eric Raecke, Alex Robinson, Matt Rinker, Drew Ross, Michael Hackbarth

Announcements: 

All State February 23, 2008.
It is your responsibility to attend All-State and judge.  Our District XII representation as judges has not been good over the last few years.

Manual Fees should be paid already. The website link is here: http://www.vboda.org/ManualFees/paid.htm

Blue Ribbon Award.  You must declare before you go to festival.  The website link is here: http://www.vmea.com/awardsblueribbon.htm

Any music that needs to be graded by the first Monday in February.  Personal contact (phone, in person) tends to work better. 

District 12 Website!  Please visit the site and look for updates and information.

Date for submission of VMEA performance is due early June.  This will be discussed again at the next meeting. 

The conference hotel registration started February 1.  The forms are available at www.vmea.com

General Business

All-Virginia Band – Michael Hackbarth

Students received the All-state commitment form.  All-VA Audition music should be up in the next day or two.

 All District Band Auditions – Jim Kirchenbauer         
+  The $5 fee was discussed.  This year there is a rather large surplus from auditions, and there is a potential for a rebate for all schools.
                        +  Tabulation – teachers used only for data entry
                        +  Having a prepared piece in the judge’s packet would help
                        +  Having the room number on packets
                        +  Provide scrap paper for judges
+  Should students collect score sheets?  Jim does not feel that this was a problem and students fill this role in many events we attend.
+  Cover TV screens to prevent reflected image to judge
+  Inform judges that they cannot decide to begin a Block early
+  The fee for judges was $125 this year.  Should there be some consideration for raising the fee?  $150 is better. 

Jim Kirchenbauer motions to move the payment for adjudicators from $125 to $150
Second:  Denny d’Alelio
Motion passed

+  Non-show fee for directors must be adjusted accordingly

Motion:  Sharon Bonneau motions to make the band director absence fee the same as the cost of the judges for the event.

Second:  Brad Zimmerman
Motion passed

+  Sight-reading should be brought by multiple sources; District XII Band Directors should not pick standard repertoire for sight-reading.  Keeping sight-reading materials should be done in a secure fashion.
+  Writing your own sight-reading is a great option and you can set up a rotation. 
+  Potential for a set of six sight-reading etudes we can get into a rotation.  
+  Choose an excerpt from the prepared piece that is somewhere in the middle of the piece.  Further clarification of this information is necessary.
+  The prepared selection should be between 45 seconds and 1 minute. 
+ Decision on mallets waiting in the room, or should students bring their own mallets/sticks
+  Community mallets cannot be left in the audition rooms.  The schools and not the runners/percussion coordinators should maintain school-related issues. 

Reports from the District Band Guest Conductors

Wind Ensemble – Paula Crider

Paula Crider says that she really looked forward to coming here because she always knows it will be a great group of motivated students.

She suggested populating the flute section a bit more.  Right now there are six very good trumpets and one first flute.  If you added 2-3 more flutes it might strengthen the ensemble.

Senior Band - Denny Stokes

The students are doing well and he is enjoying his time at District Band this year. 

District Festival –

Make sure that you are on time with all of your forms.  Joel Woodson is in charge of Kenmore MS site.

High School District Festival – Forms due by Friday, February 7.  Programs will be turned around sooner than usual.  If you need a piano please let us know ASAP. 

The Timpani should have gauges and have uniformed pedals at the District site.

The school hosts will clarify the percussion equipment and make sure there are music stands in the warm up rooms.

Solo Festival – Katrina Davilis

March 10 – Solo and Ensemble due date.  Please have your registration forms in on time. 

District Events

Need to look at rotations with appropriate auditoriums for the upcoming years.  Feedback should be given to the guest conductors about programming. 

Michael Hackbarth suggested that the lists of adjudicators and guest conductors should be reviewed by a committee and looked at prior to the May 12 meeting with suggestions add a column to the list with comments for reasons. 

Individual schools will not have any band rehearsals or functions in direct conflict with a VBODA event. 

Motion presented by Richard Bergman:  For any school that has participating students there should be no individual school band events in conflict with the VBODA All-District Band event. 
Second:  Grayson Fore
Motion passes to be sent to the “legal team”. 

Mr. Bergman hopes for it to be clearly stated in the handbook that guest conductors commit to the Thursday night and attend the rehearsals.

District Orchestra

District Orchestra level does a lot of the same repertoire as many of the school groups.

Orchestra hopes to “sell” the district orchestra as a full orchestra (brass/winds/percussion) to help with the overall experience.  This is an exciting idea for the students, but don’t have any plans to do it for at least two years.

Many band directors feel that with what we already do with limited time and money really can’t do another event. 

Meeting adjourned at 11:56 AM.