After careful thought, planning and consideration, we have now posted our season schedule for next year at the bottom of this first page of the roslynband.com website. Please realize that we have to plug in the home games and homecoming in the middle of March when those are set.
We will be returning to the New York State Field Band Conference, the Carrier Dome for the New York State Championships, and the Long Island shows where we competed from 2002-2012. This year we were moved to class Small School 3 by the NYSFBC. This is very good news for us. We are now in a class with bands that rehearse about as much as we do. This will most likely bring us some better trophies than we have been receiving the past 8 years in the advanced class, with bands that rehearse 300-500 hours.
We will not be doing the Newsday Show or the Columbus Day Parade. These are two non-competitive events that take away from our competitive season rehearsal hours. The following are reasons why we came to this decision: We need to spend an entire rehearsal of preparation for the Newsday show which has different rules and regulations, time constraints to a 10 minute total show including pit on and off time makes us have to prepare for it. In addition, it is now at a different venue, Mitchel Field which is much colder, and it is a late school night. Performing at the Newsday show gives us a really tough week, losing the Wednesday rehearsal to Newsday prep, having to work on the massed band finale, and not getting home until 11:30 at night makes this show tough so we have decided not to do it.
The Columbus Day Parade also impacts our season taking away hours of preparation from our already very small 80 hour rehearsal schedule,and we will make that a weekend off. Again, these two events will be removed from our schedule.
There are two off weekends during the Fall, one for Rosh Hashanah and one for Columbus Day.
We will be going back to our 2002-2010 Championship Weekend format which worked very well for us with the exception of leaving after school on Friday.
We will be leaving on the Saturday, October 31st morning at 8am, driving to Syracuse for a very important rehearsal, and then checking into the hotel, and then preparing for our band Halloween Party. We will be performing at the State Championship on Sunday morning, then go back to the hotel to change, then to the famous Carousel Mall, then to the Dome to watch the finals which end around 10pm. The order of these events will be finalized as we get closer to the championship. On Monday we will travel back to Roslyn, arriving at around 3pm. We stayed for the finals for 9 years, and the staff and I strongly feel that watching the National Class has a huge impact on our growth and education with the Marching Band activity.
This year’s payments for Band Camp will be added to the Syracuse trip, since both are required to be in the marching band, I have put them together so that we have a few months off before taking money for the Florida Trip. There will be four $250 payments, checks written out to Roslyn Band Fans, due in the middle of the month on February, March, April, and May. As always, shoot for around the 15th of the month, but if you have to do it a little earlier or later, just drop me an e-mail to let me know. You can also pay it all at once, a total of $1000. If you are on the school’s free and/or reduced lunch list, you receive a different payment amount, just e-mail me and I will let you know how much. Please make sure that you are on that list, or we cannot give you that price. If you are on free or reduced it is totally confidential so please only spek to me about it. Our Band Fans Presidents will give me information about the Syracuse hotels for the parents, and I will tweet that on our twitter site.
The Florida trip will be from Saturday, February 13th, leaving at 8pm, to Saturday, February 20th, arriving home around 8pm. We will perform at Disneyworld and stay on the grounds. The cost of the trip is around $1500 total, includes food money and all costs involved with the trip. The Florida trip is not mandatory. In addition, if you want to start paying early for it you can, just let me know so that the check is for Florida, not the season, so we can keep it in a part of the band fans account. The free/reduced lunch price is also different, but you must be on the list and let me know via e-mail so I can get back to you with the price. We will also be letting all the band parents know via twitter when the flights for the February break come online so that you can get the cheapest prices if you are planning on going to Florida to see the band perform. We will also be doing our traditional Epcot Fireworks dinner as a huge group, parents, family members and students on our Epcot day of the trip, all to be set up later. I will put up a detailed itinerary a few months before the trip so that you know where we are performing. We will also be tweeting the hotel the parents are staying at. Our Band Fans group usually has a deal somewhere. Remember, for security reasons all band members MUST go both ways with the band to Syracuse and Florida. We need to know who is with us at all times and this is a steadfast rule.
This is an academic high school, one of the best in the country, with a competitive marching band. Please realize that when we compete, we get scores and trophies and need to spend some time and attention to maximizing our rehearsal hours and involvement with the activity in such a way that we can start possibly winning some awards while impacting the academic schedule of our kids as little as possible. We, the staff, look forward to your continued support and enthusiasm towards our entire marching band program especially if you are not in total agreement with the schedule as laid out above.
To get on the twitter site, just go to roslynband.com and go to the twitter directions page to learn how to get approved. I have to approve you to get access to that site.
Any questions, as always, call, text or e-mail me.
Pat Patterson
cell (text or call) 516-662-0206
