The Letter

Doing these trips is a daunting task for band directors.  It is an all consuming, tremendous responsibility that takes hours away from family time during the planning stages and typically falls during the holiday season when families are gathering together.

These are optional trips, not part of the competitive season schedule or the curriculum. They are “extras.” Directors joke: extra work, extra headaches, and extra sleep deprivation! The chaperone pay during the few days of the trip is also an extra, but no band directors who do this ever calculate the actual hourly rate based on the entire trip process, better we don’t know.

So here I am, planning on pulling next year’s trip off the table, an easy decision with the bad economy and knowing the expenses associated with being in this band to begin with. I was thinking we could simply skip a year or maybe a few years until my youngest children (2 and 4) are in full time school, or old enough to go on the trip. It is very hard for me to cut the holidays short or leave them during a break, which is why most band directors either choose not to do these big trips or have their families accompany them  With 120 family members going to Florida to be a part of this trip, it is obvious that being with our families during the break is a priority for all of us. Last year at Disneyworld, we had huge numbers as well.  Remember that big dinner show at Epcot! It is clearly no wonder that I am torn between my immediate family and my extended band family.  And then I receive this incredible letter from Joe Capozzi, one of our chaperones at the Orange Bowl. It reminded me why we do all this. No person on the earth could have worded it any better.  Please read on.

5 January 2011

Dear Mr. Patterson:

I want to thank you for including me and congratulate you on an incredibly successful trip.
The experience you provided for your band members far exceeds the fanfare of standing on a field before 80,000 fans and millions more on TV.  The memories they will hold forever transcend perfected notes, synchronic steps, and undulating candles.  It is the pride, the camaraderie, the esprit de corps, the teamwork, the mutual support, the work, the blood, the sweat, the tears, and the laughter they shared that will so profoundly impact each of them the rest of their lives.

I knew a few of your members prior to the trip from class.  It was a pleasure to view them in a different venue as well as to get to know more of the members.  To see these 68 students of varying ages, abilities, and experience blend, meld, sync, and bond was the most heart-warming aspect of the trip. To see students who are perhaps not the biggest stars in a Roslyn classroom shine in the Florida sun was a great reminder of why we do what we do, why we teach.

It is not the lessons of the classroom, but the lessons of life that are our most valuable gifts to our students.  And through your (and your co-workers) efforts, your consideration, your attention to detail, your support, your encouragement—and likewise admonishment when necessary—your tireless and sleep-deprived dedication to your members, you have provided numerous and significant gifts that will last all of your very fortunate members a lifetime.

As a parent, our children become the barometer for all of life, and I can think of no higher praise to proffer than the thought that I wish my own children could experience a similarly nurturing experience. It takes a Herculean effort to plan and implement this type of undertaking.  I applaud your efforts and dedication.  To do what you do and have your students walk away with the positive experience they do is beyond commendable—it is almost incomprehensible, especially considering 50+ hours of bus rides!

Congratulations and thank you again for including me.

Sincerely,
Joe Capozzi

Running Late

Some logistical things were sprung onto me during this trip. Due to the hotel cutting out drivers out of their rooms, the drivers had to wait to go through red tape with BGA to get their rooms back, rooms we already paid for (after they took a taxi back from the hotel to sleep).  This cut us back about an hour or so. In addition, we have had some problems finding places to eat on the way home, we stopped at a bunch of areas which resulted in longer rest stops both ways.   With finding food areas, since the kids do need to eat, and that has to be a priority, we are running late.

The good news, they will be well rested!

We instituted a “mandatory sleep time” on the busses from 12:30 to 8 am in which all the kids slept very well.  They are continuing to sleep, at any given time half the band is sleeping. We will try to squeeze in another 5 to 6 hours of sleep time for them so that we are all in good shape to go to school tomorrow.

Parade Crash Course and Info about today's parade

First of all, from Claudia, and thanks to her for getting information about the parade

Hi All,

I know that everyone is concerned about where to go tomorrow for the parade.  After much “googling” I’m suggesting meeting on the south side of Miracle Mile at Ponce De Leon Blvd, which is where the Band will turn to go west on Miracle Mile.  From that side of the street we should be able to see the Band come down the street facing directly at us.  If anyone has a better suggestion, please let me know and I will email everyone.

It is approximately 43 minutes from the Hyatt to Miracle Mile.  For those of you staying at the Hyatt, I’m suggesting that parents meet in the lobby at 12:45 to be at the parade route by 2:00PM.  Also parents can carpool if possible, since we have heard that parking can be difficult.

Please know that this only “my” recommendation. Unfortunately, we haven’t been given very much information about the parade.  See you tomorrow.  It should be a great day.

Claudia

Now my blog on this and other parades,

As you know, I usually give out all information about every aspect of every venue and event we are involved with.  You have nothing at all about today’s parade.  You have exactly the same information as I do.  Parades are fickle, unorganized, and it is amazing that any of them even get down the street.
From the Columbus Day Parade in New York, to every single parade I have ever been involved with, they all excel in one area accross the board.  Total chaos.  This parade seems to be no different.  The directors and parade committees change yearly and are competitive with each year in how each year’s parade goes so no information is usually passed down to help things run smoother. I have received three different spots to go to with the band, communications from the parade committee demanding that we report to all three spots three hours ahead of time, with the busses not allowed to stay and us not allowed to warm up.  Of course this is the way they all do it.  Any band director knows this.  They also sent an old fashioned waiver to me weeks after the deadline which they needed immediately, remember?  I had to have every single parent sign one and get it to them in one day.
Don’t expect anything today from the parade. The Hyatt parents will be meeting in the lobby at 12:45.
 
Please go to the spot Claudia has chosen, I will tweet out as much information as I can as the day proceeds so you know what is going on.  We will be doing a 2 minute stand still of our show closer, wherever the judges booth is, once again I have no idea.  I would go to Claudia’s spot to watch the show, you will get to see the band for a longer period of time from the approach through the pass by.  If the parade stops alot (it probably will) we will perform our stand still 2 minute show near there as well.  It might be possible to walk from there to the end of the parade, it may not, I have no idea how crowded it will be there.

Once again, I will tweet out everything on our twitter.

For the Orange Bowl Trip – All updates from this point on will be on our twitter site!

During the trips I use twitter for all updates, itinerary changes and trip information.  You can get these texted to your cell or simply check our twitter site from any computer or cell phone browser throughout the Orange Bowl Trip.

For directions on how to do the texts see the Twitter Instructions page on the side of this webpage.

December 23, 2010
Here are some solutions to the log on problem with the Orange Bowl site submitted to me by Marisa Kurtz and Bilal Ahmed.  Thanks!

Dear Mr. Patterson,


I was testing out different things to do on the website to try and got on and I finally figured it out. First, I went on the band website and clicked on the course credit link for orange bowl link (the first one). Then, I clicked on Parents, Students and Adults to join my trip. Once you click that you choose that you are a student and you have not registered yet for travel program. Then you fill in the Trip ID that is 55223 and the other information that it requires. You click on JOIN MY TRIP on the bottom and it signs you on.


I checked to make sure that this was the right trip and it had all of our school information on it so I think this is the right way to do it. Let me know if this works!

-Marisa Kurtz


Hey Mr. Patterson,

To log on to the website to sign up for the credits. Once you click on the link on the band website you click on the box that says parents, students and adults. From there you must select student on step one in order to receive credit. On step 2 say you are registered to travel then on step 3 fill in all the boxes. The trip ID is what is on your link and the travelers ID was emailed to everyone after we registered the first time. You will create your own user name and follow the rest of the steps. After you submit this info, it will tell you to log in with the log in you have just created. Once you’ve logged in it should give you the information. If you are unable to log on once try again I had to do it twice before it worked. Then you are logged in. After you are logged in click on the top right box that says earn high school credit. 3 courses come up and select the ones you want to register for.

The woman my mom spoke to suggested not registering for the courses until after the trip because she said that the students would have to answer questions depending on what they register for that we can only answer after the trip. Again, this is according the a woman my mom spoke to.

Hope this helped.
-Bilal

Band Camp Update - Camp Taconic

After a long search over the past 3 months we have reached a decision. Camp Taconic in the Berkshires is the new camp we have chosen to go to.  The price for camp will still be $615. The dates are August 15th through August 21st. A special thanks to Saul Waxman, Jed Schlacter, and Jim Downey as well as many other parents for helping me with the search. I will be proposing the band camp for approval by our Board of Education at the January 20th BOE meeting. Please remember, this is all subject to BOE approval.

Camp Taconic is state of the art, incredibly clean and new everywhere — great facilities for outdoor and indoor rain practices, delicious meal selections, wifi and full cell service for all carriers.  The Berkshires are traditionally cooler than upstate New York, the mountains offer a scenic background to the beautiful lake that surrounds three sides of the camp. The price will be the same and all amenities will be what we are used to and MORE! The Berkshires offer a lot for our parents to see as well.  Tanglewood, arts centers, museums, restaurants, shopping, and many of the nicest tourist areas in the country will make some great day trips for parents who are helping us to chaperone.  Taconic will be taking care of the afternoon fruit snacks and all water so parent chaperones can avail themselves of some time to explore the area during the day. Travel is a bit longer, about 3 hours away from home however, there are multiple ways of getting home from there. We will have a variety of routes in order to avoid the traffic snarls that we experienced in past years. You only have to cross over one bridge to get back to Long Island. Overall this is a great choice for us.  Just look at the two links below and you will see for yourself.

Check out Camp Taconic
Hit link below for the Camp Taconic Map.  There are slides of each area, just click around the map.

http://www.camptaconic.com/Content/VirtualMap/VirtualMap.asp

Hit link below for the Camp Taconic video.  It is their camp promotional video which shows just about all of the areas of the camp.
http://www.camptaconic.com/Content/Staff/Staff.asp?Link=Video

Band Camp 2011

Our band has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 7 years.  With that in mind, I have decided to take our band in another direction with our band camp venue.

For the past three months Saul Waxman, Jed Schlacter, Jim Downey, and myself have been looking for camps.  I made two trips to three camps who have our dates available and we are now about to finalize our plans.  In a few days, this Friday or Saturday, I will post a full update on where we plan on having band camp in 2011.

I will also be deciding on next year’s trip, either the Outback Bowl or a Disneyworld Trip.  We will probably vote on it to see if there is enough interest.

Orange Bowl Plans Unveiled

Hot off the press! Ok, here we go!  I have just received all the instructions from the Orange Bowl about the game, exactly what and when we are performing.  This is very exciting.  The Orange Bowl started this tradition of having a major artist perform at their game, many years before the Super Bowl copied their format which is now famous.  Being a part of this game is a true honor, it is a top Bowl Game and we will be nationally televised. They could not formalize any of this until the teams were decided, which took place last night.  The two teams are Stanford and Virginia Tech.

First let’s start with the parade on Sunday, January 2nd.  This is the Junior Orange Bowl Parade, the official parade, which replaced the Miami Orange Bowl Parade which was stopped after 9/11.  This is a huge parade in the town of Coral Gables and is part of the Orange Bowl Festivities.
For the Jr. Orange Bowl Parade on Sunday we will do the two new parade tunes “On Broadway and “Rocky” with the drum majors in their drum major uniforms, the guard with flags and the dancers with the yellow streamers.  All the band members will play instruments with the exception of Keith Shapiro and Lindsay Wolfson who will hold the banner in front of the band.  See what your assigned instruments are on the “Orange Bowl Info” page of the website. The captains will choreograph a simple routine and we will learn them during the three rehearsals before the trip (Wednesday December 15th, Monday December 20, and Wednesday December 22, with uniform and instrument and uniform check-in for the trip that last night).  All band members must check in their instruments and uniforms on that night, we will lock them all in the bandroom for the trip.

Now the Game on Monday night.  For the Pre-Game, all band members from the two High School Bands will unfurl and hold a 50 yard wide American Flag for the National Anthem, this will most likely be nationally televised on ESPN. This is one of those huge flags.  We will practice this very involved unfolding at the rehearsals in Miami as well.

Now onto the halftime extravaganza. When the half time starts, a DJ will call the two bands out and have us play the 2 minute fanfare to begin the festivities while the stage is being set up, we will then be doing an additional special effect after our fanfare to introduce the GooGoo Dolls.  We will practice this at the two Massed Band Rehearsals as well.

We will then stay near the tunnel after our segment to watch the GooGoo Dolls show from the field level and then move back up into the stands to watch the second half of the game.

There will be no pit or drum majors in the half time show, I have assigned everyone to instruments.  Guard and Dancers will have flags and will learn their routine together with the other guard at the Miami Massed Band Rehearsals. They will all do a flag routine with the band during the fanfare.
All music is up on the 2nd page of the website entitled “Orange Bowl Info.”  There are music links to download your parts to practice as well as audio links to listen to the music.  Please learn everything and learn the part you are assigned to.

Keep looking to this blog for more information and an update on band camp which I will post this Thursday or Friday.

New Service Point Rules - Why we started the service points

This year I am getting barraged by calls and e-mails about people not getting their points.  Last year, not one call.  Michelle and I watch everything, write it down and that is how we do this.  If we didn’t see it, then it is not getting points.

Also, if this is WHY you are helping out, please don’t.

The intent of the points is to reward people who are helping out, not to get more people to help out.
We always had those altruistic and hard working kids who never got noticed, now they are, through this simple point list. That is the ONLY reason I made it, so that those people get some recognition.
Last year I didn’t receive any e-mails about “you missed my points.”  This year it is out of control.  And most of these people are already in the top 20! So here is a new rule, if you e-mail me for more points, I will simply reply “please don’t help out if you are doing it for points. You should be helping out because you love the band and want to contribute to the program.”

A great band person told me last year “If I get some points, great, if I don’t, that’s great too, I just love that feeling of being a part of this and helping out.” That person is one of our leaders now!
In addition, part of life is for the important people to see you do that extra stuff, you need to build those skills as well. The officers you want to be seen by are the President, CEOs, Vice Presidents, and Managers. You should know who they are.  Do not ask them about your points, just make sure one of those people, or I see you.  In the workplace it is a major skill to get the credit for what you do in a passive and intelligent way.  Yes, you could tell your boss “hey, did you see me do that” but it would probably be more effective to “just do it” and be seen doing the work in a modest, hard working fashion. I am the one who ultimately picks the officers and this is the kind of person I am looking for.
We need help at certain times. It is pretty obvious when those times are. The 9 of us are taking notes and watching at those exact times in those places. Those are the times that we need you and that’s where you will get noticed.  And know what else? You should be an altruist and do it for no reward!
From this time on there will be no more point adjustments after the date. You should be doing this for the “love of program.”  Points are only to give SOME recognition to those who work very hard to keep us going! If you are the type of person who won’t do it without points, don’t. We have plenty of people who will help just because they want to.  Those are the kind of people that I am looking for to be our future leaders, hard working, band loving, altruists.

From the Best we go to the Largest!

Yes, Newsday made the call.  At the end of the third hour of their television telecast, they announced the phrase “from the best we go to the largest” to segue from us to Northport, the last band in this year’s tv show.  They showed our closer along with Sam Hoffman being interviewed from the sideline after our show.  Saving us for the end, along with making that statement surely shows that the Newsday and MSG people feel we were the best band. Our band is truly one of the top bands on the Island, you can see an hear it if you watch the entire show.  Compare us to any bands the entire three nights and you will come to this conclusion as well.

I will be posting a pretty comprehensive few paragraphs about where we are going to band camp in the next few days.  For vatious reasons which are pretty obvious, we are looking for a switch.  I have been researching for weeks and will be posting my findings very soon.