Macy's 2nd Committees/Planning Meeting Minutes

June 5th, 2003

Present: Gary Wohlafka, Beth Popplewell, Greg Crouch, Mary Hoffman, Dave & Chris Allswede,

Carole Moy, Karita Musgrave, Kari Isaacson, Beth Crain, Carol Ellison, Susan Dybvig,

Liz Notess, Wendy Vanderzee, Donna Rinckel, Kevin McCaffery, Julie Johnson, Claudia

Scott, Dan Henry, Clarence Scott, John Budnick.

IMPORTANT: TOM HAS STRESSED THE NEED FOR AS MANY

STUDENTS AS POSSIBLE TO SIGN UP TO MARCH IN THE JULY 4TH

PARADE. WE NEED VERY MUCH TO SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE

COMMUNITY IN THIS PARADE IF WE EXPECT TO HAVE A POSITIVE

AND ENTHUSIASTIC RESPONSE TO OUR FUNDRAISING AND

ADVERTISING EFFORTS. PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT FOR

YOUR MARCHING BAND STUDENT TO TURN OUT FOR PRACTICES.

(We are considering giving each student who participates a free "official" Macy's T-shirt if we do

end up going with such shirts described below)

We convened the meeting at 6:00 PM in the teacher's lounge. Agenda items were outlined by

John as:

Organizing structure & overload prevention

Student sign-ups so far

Publicity/Promotions

Chaperones

Itinerary

Fan Bus

Fundraising

Other

1.) Organizing structure & overload prevention

John outlined the draft organizational structure, which was updated by the end of the meeting (see

last page). He emphasized the general autonomy of committees to work and hold their own

meetings as needed (provided too much linkage/decision-making isn't required with the larger

group and/or Janis/Tom) to accomplish goals outlined in the larger general meetings. He also

reinforced that if anyone is becoming overloaded with tasks to be sure and "send up a signal" so

that help could be brought in. We made a first call for someone to take the Fundraising chair but

there were no takers.

In response to a question as to how often we should meet, John B. replied he felt these more

frequent start-up meetings could be gradually spread out as this progresses, from every 3 weeks

or so to perhaps every 6 weeks. But it is still evolving.

Some discussion followed on establishing a Logistics committee to handle more structural/nuts-and-bolts issues such as the truck, possible instrument issues, and such. Gary Wohlafka provided

an excellent summary of where the truck trailer is, mechanically. Some brake work is needed as

well as the annual inspection. Tires were deemed fine, having been replaced last year. As to

repainting, he stated past estimates have been in the $3-5K range. In the past Hoosier Hills

Vocational has done this, but we have lost that opportunity what with school being out now. As

well, we do not yet have major donors lined up and logos ready, if we would choose to add such

extra painting. Certainly if there is a decision by Janis or Tom to have the trailer repainted then

this needs done before the fall MB season starts. There was also discussion about improving

shelving inside, with ideas of improving it ourselves or having perhaps Schulte donate shelving to

improve it.

We tried to pin down a little finer just what commitment we need from a driver. The first

rehearsal in NYC is on Wednesday (afternoon?) so certainly the driver would need to leave no

later than Tuesday morning. Some felt this was cutting it a little close, and a better choice would

be Monday some time, in case there are truck problems en route. If the driver leaves as soon as

Thanksgiving dinner is over he would be back perhaps late Friday (ICC regulations on continuous

driving hours??). We discussed asking Star of Indiana if they would donate a driver and a

tractor/trailer rig (saving wear and tear on our trailer) but finally settled on a compromise of

asking Star to donate a tractor and driver but using our trailer. Carole Moy agreed to contact

Star and make inquiries. Gary Wohlafka agreed to take chair of Logistics.

2.) Student sign-ups so far

We have 105 students signed on for sure, and Tom is working on the remaining 35-40 students to

finalize head counts. John reemphasized the availability of a few limited scholarships if cost is an

issue with any remaining students.

3.) Publicity/Promotions

Coco Cradick reported that some stories were being worked on but that a first fundraiser date is

needed before contacting various media. Several people have agreed to help her. She was also

trying to get a total dollar figure from Janis or Tom so this could be included in the stories. Coco

stated she would contact Maggi to see if a separate bank account is needed for Macy's.

Julie Johnson agreed to connect with Arts Fair on the Square as far as more publicity there. She

suggested a table and perhaps having band students sell cold mineral water, which would be a

mini-fundraiser as well.

Carole Moy said she would contact Hoosier Outdoor Advertising in regards to donating unused

billboard space to get more publicity out around town. The suggestion was also put out for fast-food outlets to occasionally put our message up on their marquees. This was tied in with Arby's

specifically, as Chris Allswede stated that all 3 area Arby's have agreed to let us do car washes,

and they routinely put public service items on their marquees. Coca-Cola apparently will do free

banners and since they have the Arby's and MCCSC contracts this seems pretty much a freebie in

terms of streetside advertising.

John Budnick suggested bus advertising and said he would check into this.

John also brought samples of the "We're going to Macy*s, Wanna help?" design he worked up

for T-shirts and buttons. Several people commented that the design seemed nice and that this did

appear to be a simple way to both build community during fundraising (especially during student

activities such as car washes) as well as provide simple continuous "maintenance marketing" while

out in the community or at work. We had further discussion of a 2nd type of T-shirts/sweatshirts

which would be a more substantial design, probably incorporating the official Macy's logo, and

which would be for sale both to students/Boosters as well as the general community (such as was

done for the Rose Bowl). Tom is waiting on the director's manual before we have any firm info

on logos and allowed usage. A great suggestion was to also include major sponsors'/donors'

logos on the back of such shirts. John agreed to work with Coco on making some first inquiries

with T-shirt printers as to prices for various products and designs. Wendy Vanderzee stated that

she had a sister who was a graphics designer and could possibly help with the design, and

suggested Abracadabra, Inc. as a printer (they were one of our Souvenir Program donors). For

now, the simple "We're going to Macy*s, Wanna help?" design would be posted to the BHSN

Macy's website so people could download and do their own fundraising shirts with computer iron-on paper, or make buttons on their own.

Their was no report regarding lawn signs and John Budnick stated he would get in touch with

Jane Weiser and see what she might know about this.

It was stated that B97 would do public service announcements if they had something on

letterhead.

Mass-mailing was discussed, and the Chamber of Commerce suggested as a possible source of

ready-to-go mailing lists for local businesses. We did discuss the typical "cold-calling" return rate for mass mailings, which is typically in the range of 1-3%, and agreed if such a thing were done that a followup phone call would be needed to greatly boost returns. No immediate action was taken on this.

Finally, the idea of a simple float for the 4th of July was suggested, using a theme which would

tie-in with Macy's (perhaps a turkey design or something). No further action was taken on this.

4.) Chaperones

John Budnick stated that the chaperone selection has been made and chaperones were being

notified. A total of 13 were selected, a larger than normal number, and at a somewhat reduced

subsidy of $125 each. This plus the 5 band directors would give 18 total, enough to allow split

shifts and every other night "off" for parents to enjoy NYC. A first get-together meeting has been

discussed but no date has been set.

5.) Itinerary

It was reported that a hotel on the New Jersey side of the city has been chosen, with better views

and better pricing that central NYC hotels. There was no update yet from Tom or Janis regarding

final selection of the Broadway shows.

6.) Fan Bus

John B. stated we have had 33 firm respondents so far who want a fan bus, so this is pretty much

a given. A last-minute email from MTC indicates they still need to discuss this and related items

with Janis (probably next week), but they stated that such a bus would be no more than the

student trip cost. The bus will be accessible. We had hoped to get advertising going on this and

have payments due July 1st, but this will likely be delayed somewhat. The question of what is

meant by a "parallel itinerary" was asked by Mark at MTC. John's interpretation of this concept

is that the people on the fan bus would follow a similar itinerary as the students, but be juggled

around in sequence so that the fan bus interweaves or crosses paths with the students only at a

few sites. This would reduce the students' inevitable concern that they are being followed around

by mom, dad, and little sister/brother, but still allow for a few "check-in" points between parents

and students throughout the week, if they want such contact.

7.) Fundraising

With the large number of events we are looking at tackling, John inquired if there was a central

site where we could schedule events once we get into the busy fall festival/sports season. One

suggestion was on the web at the Bloomington Convention & Visitors Bureau, and John agreed

to look into this to help with our scheduling for what runs over beyond the summer.

Also, it was stated that Joanne Clune is assisting Maggi with student accounts, so there is more

help available as we get into fundraisers where there is student participation and crediting to

students' trip accounts.

Several people confirmed for on-the-spot donations that for tax deductions the donors need a

receipt on letterhead. John Budnick agreed to work up simple receipt forms and procedures in

conjunction with other board people.

A sizeable kickoff contribution effort was reported by John B. to be in the works, and we are

awaiting confirmation of details if this materializes.

We made a second call for someone to consider chairing Fundraising but had no takers. This role

was described more as coordinating than anything else. Each event has it's own chair who

handles the nuts and bolts of that event, so the Fundraising chair is responsible more for the

overall flow and avoiding overlaps, double-calling of businesses, etc.

We then proceeded to discuss each event in detail.

A.) Dinner/auction John B. read Donna Rinckel's excellent summary on the Habitat for

Humanity version of this, which cleared $15,000. This was held on a Wednesday evening at the

City Grille and was near-capacity (190 tickets sold). We agreed last meeting to hold this in the

fall on a weeknight so as to avoid MB interference on a Saturday. We had no taker to chair this

effort and so tabled it for consideration at later meetings.

B.) Bloomington Weekend. Carole Moy has come up with this concept from a similar

successful Binford-Rogers fundraiser. Raffle tickets are sold by Boosters and students for a fun-filled weekend in and around Bloomington. She has already made numerous contacts with

businesses for an airplane flight around the area (maximum 3 individuals), a 2-night stay at the

Marriot/Courtyard, a limousine ride, dinner at a nice restaurant, a basket of items from Oliver

Winery, and similar donations. She is in need of letterhead to request donations from large

corporate chains such as Circuit City. Her concept is that the grand prize would include items as

in the above list, and then perhaps a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize of items such as a GE refrigerator, a

TV or DVD from Circuit City, etc. We discussed and worked out an arrangement to avoid any

alcohol issues regarding the Oliver Winery basket. The winner would receive in the basket a

general-purpose redeemable coupon for use in the Winery store, which they could then choose to

use for alcohol if they wanted. The consensus was that this should avoid any MCCSC legal issues

regarding alcohol. There were some further suggestions to include theater tickets.

Raffle tickets would be $1 each, or 12 for $10, with 50 cents going to the Boosters and 50 cents

to the students’ travel accounts. Students/Boosters would be responsible for checking out sheets

of tickets (which would be simple tear-off tickets perhaps 12 to a page). Receipts are not needed

for tax purposes because raffles are not tax-deductible.

There was a lot of support for this well-developed idea and we agreed to make this our first major

fundraiser with Carole as chair. John reported on Susan Dybvig's excellent efforts detailing the

legal issues regarding raffles. John will contact Kendra Gjerdingen (who chaired the Rose Bowl

and similar raffle) after the 10th (she is out of town) to get going on the legal forms which we

need filed with the state. The license should be no more than $100 (perhaps as little as $25) and

may take a couple weeks to get, so we are still on hold advertising a start date. We hope to get

the license so we can have kids selling tickets during the 4th of July parade.

We agreed that we would wrap up this event by the first home football game after school starts.

The winner would be announced at halftime at the game.

There was a suggestion that this event perhaps be combined with the Dinner/Auction in some

way.

C.) Group garage sale in school lot. Terri Taylor agreed to chair this along with her friend

Debbie Satterfield. Her concept is that we would charge perhaps a $10 fee for families to set up

in a space on the parking lot. This fee would go directly to the Boosters. Whatever income each

family's sale produced would go to the student's trip account. She also suggested concessions as

an additional money maker, which we agreed was the ideal thing to add. We would need to

contact one of the local Porta-Potty outfits to have at least one restroom available, since the

school would be locked on the weekend. We did not set a date, though it would likely be late in

the summer.

D.) Cartridge/Toner recycling This is an established idea which raises money elsewhere

and was brought up by Jane Weiser in an email. However, the board has considered this and

decided to reserve it as a general fundraiser throughout the year.

E.) Car washes John Budnick had inquired at WalMart (which matches donations) and

they had only 1 slot left the last weekend of September, which doesn't work for us. Beth

Popplewell had indicated Lowe's also lets groups do car washes, supplies hoses, and is easy to

work with (her husband is a supervisor and can help us set up things like this and the Weiner

wagon up [described below]). Chris Allswede brought to our attention that Arby's would let us

do car washes at all 3 Arby's (we supply hoses). Chris, Terri Taylor, and John Budnick all agreed

to act as a co-chairs for this, and envision perhaps 3 washes going on at once all over town. This

might be a nice tie-in with the B97 publicity noted above. We may well do several car washes this

summer given the low setup time and cost. Chris agreed to do an email advertising and soliciting

kids once we pick a first date.

F.) Lowe's Weiner Wagon. Beth Popplewell and John Budnick worked together last

week to nail down one of the last 2 open slots, so we will be doing the wiener wagon August 9th

and 10th. We will need signs, and John B. can do these on the large format printer at work, as

worked for the marching band season roadside signs (these are weatherproof). Several people

thought a small jazz ensemble would help the "pull", perhaps an intermittent showing of a few

students improv'ing on and off over the weekend. Running time would be from 10AM to at least

5PM, perhaps as late as 8. Students and at least one adult per shift would work perhaps 4 hour

shifts. Lowe's sets up and handles the Coke products and water, and sells them to us at cost,

eliminating another logistics hurdle. Lowe's also supplies gas grills if we want something jazzier

than boiled hot dogs from crock pots, and we are free to sell side items such as chips, etc. We

agreed from past experience there would be no set price for items, leaving people to donate what

they feel they can afford. Beth will chair this fundraiser

G. Money cans in the community Karita Musgrave agreed to chair an effort to get out

donation cans in the community (typically seen at business cash registers). John talked with Beth

Crain afterwards and they agreed to work together to design the can wrapper and make up

several dozens cans for Karita to place and periodically empty around town.

H. Table & presence during Monroe County fair This was another on-the-spot fundraising

idea which popped up. Suggested was a table in the commercial building manned by students and

perhaps a Booster at all times. With good signage, T-shirts, etc. this should both raise awareness

and funds. A small TV/VCR running a continuous showing of marching band in performance

(Return to the Dome?) would also draw awareness. This was a last-minute suggestion and we do

not yet have a chair but is too simple not to include.

I. March-a-thon This idea also came up at the last minute, and would mimic the Drum-a-thon. Suggestion was to have students march around the courthouse 24/7 in short shifts (2-4

hours) to add up to the total mileage to NYC from Bloomington. A back-of-the-envelope

calculation showed it would take 16 days for students to accumulate this mileage. It would

certainly be a great media "pull", and if people sponsored students at so much per mile could

bring in a lot of money. We did not develop any further details.

J. Catering Chris Allswede reported she has a caterer friend (Dianne Wilson?) who would

be glad to pay students to help with special events catering. She has 2 such events set up already.

This came late in the meeting and we did not develop further but I believe Chris may agree to

chair this?

8.) Other

Kent Dybvig has proposed keeping all minutes, agendas, etc. on the band website for easy

reference, and John B. agreed this is a good idea.

Individual corporate sponsors for students was suggested, but not developed further.

John B. again reminded people to feel free to contact committee chairs directly if they want to

help.

Terri Taylor said if there were any events needing food support she would be glad to help.

Someone mentioned that past policy regarding purchases was to always let Maggi Schuman know

beforehand that you would be bringing receipts to her for reimbursement, and that any purchase

above a $$ threshold (amount not stated) needs to be approved before any money is spent.

We closed by agreeing to meet Monday evening June 30th from 7-8:30 PM. This would give us

time to clean up any details in regards to 4th of July and nail things down before people take the

long weekend and get into vacation mode for the summer. The meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.

Submitted,

John Budnick