Competition Season is Here Part 3

A Brief History of Long Island Competitive Marching Bands. I put this up each year for the new parents and to refresh everyone on our judging system.

There are approximately fifteen bands that compete on Long Island. Roslyn and Malverne are the most recent additions to this group (it's our 11th season). The others have been in this competition circuit for 30 to 40 years. Competitive bands can perform 30 to 60 forms (this year we have 40), are constantly moving, with memorized music (no lyres), and march in synchronized perfection (or as close as is possible). The other 40 plus Long Island non-competition bands perform their shows during halftime at home football games and at the Newsday Festival. They tend to perform between 3 and 15 pictures (abstract forms) and do a much less complex show.

There are several competitive circuits in our area. There is the MAC circuit, in Conncecticut and northern New England, the TOB (Tournament of Bands) circuit in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the USA Bands circuit, which encompasses the entire East Coast, and the NYSFBC (New York State Field Band Conference) which we compete in. The Long Island bands always seem to compete together. In the 80s and early 90s the Long Island bands competed in the Tournament of Bands. The Championships were usually in Scranton, PA. Then in the mid 90's the bands switched to a new circuit, the CMBC (Cadets Marching Band Circuit, Now USA BAnds) which is still run by the Cadets, one of the top Drum Corps in the world. The draw of this circuit was it's Championships at Giant's Stadium. When the Giant's put in real turf the CMBC was no longer able to use the stadium, they changed their name to YEA, and moved the championships to venues in Atlantic City, Hersheypark, and Scranton. It was about this time that the Long Island Bands started to transfer to the NYSFBC, the draw to this conference mainly being the Carrier Dome championships, which is obviously indoors, and an incredible venue, not impacted by the cold weather. The NYSFBC is also a band director driven group, which I feel is the best of the circuits in terms of it's positive outlook and emphasis on education. By the end of the 90's almost all of the Long Island Competitive bands competed in the Carrier Dome/NYSFBC. 

Each circuit has a totally different way of judging, different criteria, different judges, and different philosophies. I will now go over the NYSFBC judging system as best I can in a few paragraphs.

NYSFBC Band Classes

There are two main criteria for determining classes in the NYSFBC. There are Small School Classes (SS3, SS2, and SS1) which are determined by school size and the quality level of the program. There are the Large School Classes (LS3, LS2). Class 3 are the less advanced bands, Class 2 the more advanced bands, and Class 1 the most advanced. The top class, reserved for the best in the country is the National Class which consists of incredible bands of any school size. Since they are determined by school size, there can be tiny bands and huge bands in the same class in the NYSFBC. Some bands have only the really serious musicians and guard people in their bands, which makes them smaller and easier to make perfect. My goal as a band director has been to get as many people involved in the program as possible. In our conference, you get a bump in General Effect from being big but that's about all.

NYSFBC Judging / How We Get Judged

In the NYSFBC there are two large areas that we are judged on, Visual and Music. Each of these two areas are broken down into three segments, Field, Ensemble, and General Effect. So here are the six judges that judge us: Field Visual, Ensemble Visual, GE Visual, Field Music, Ensemble Music, and GE Music. 

Field Visual: This judge is on the field, walking around, through, and in front of the band. This judge's job is to evaluate the individuals on the field and how they march, do their guard work, and how they look as individuals.

Ensemble Visual: This judge is up in the stands and evaluates the drill, the band and the guard doing their designs and work as an ensemble, the artistic value of the show.

GE Visual: This judge sits up in the stands and judges the "General Effect" of the visual portion of the band and guard. This is usually what the audience responds to, the GE.

Field Music: This judge is on the field, walking around, through, and in front of the band. This judge's job is to evaluate the individuals musicians on how they are playing their parts.

Ensemble Music: This judge is up in the stands and evaluates how the band performs their music as an ensemble. This judge evaluates the difficulty of the show, how clean the band is playing musically, and how they sound.

GE Music: This judge sits up in the stands and judges the "General Effect" of the music. This is usually what the audience responds to, the GE.

Subjective Judging - Please Read

And now a little blog which I have posted before about the judging system and the marching activity. You have to go into this activity knowing what to expect. If we win great, if we don’t then maybe next year. People who live in a sports world may have a hard time with this system. In the “Cutting Edge,” a movie about a professional hockey player who loses his peripheral vision and joins forces with a famous ice skater, joining the ranks of the olympics, it is very obvious the differences when the judges make “all the calls.” The prior hockey player has trouble comprehending his new medium. The following paragraphs are to let you know what we as the marching staff deal with, live with, and try to conquer the best we can in our “quest to be the best.” I will update you after each show on our inner workings, what we are doing, and what our goals are through this blog.

Marching band judges each have a caption to judge. The judges are supposed to judge their caption without going "out of caption." They don't do this which is obvious by the fact that they almost always rank all the bands in the same exact order across all captions. This defies reason, each band is strong in different areas and realistically, each judged caption should have the bands in a different order. Now check out this scenario, hope I don’t lose you. Sometimes the visual judges only judge the guard without even looking at the band marching style, forms, posture, etc. This puts a band that marches a difficult show well at a disadvantage because they get no credit for their work. Sometimes the music judges also decide to judge the visual, which diminishes a band's music score since it isn't being judged. When a music judge does this and is not impressed with the visual aspect, a band in essence is "penalized" twice for the visual portion of the show. Actually, the band is penalized a third time since there is no credit given from that judge for the music they are doing. As staff members we try to be subjective, but still are scratching our heads as we leave some of the contests because the numbers don't even seem to line up with the audio critiques. Oh yes, each judge makes an audio critiquing the band. We get these SD cards immediately after we perform and go to the staff room to listen to the recordings and prepare for the post contest judges meeting, where we get 5 minutes with each judging group (visual and music) to get an in person evaluation from the judges. 

You need to know, when you get involved in this activity, that it is a "subjective judging" environment. I probably should repeat that last sentence a hundred times! These scores are entirely determined by the judges' evaluations using the judges sheets. The judges decide absolutely everything. It is very much like figure skating or judged olympic events. They make the call for everything. One or two judges can bury you, giving you a score so low that it moves you out of contention for winning a contest. This happens to us frequently. We may not agree with the judges, but complaining will not solve anything since we realize that this is a "subjective" environment. It comes with the territory. Those same judges could have had us up by points, giving us a large lead over all the other bands.

Sometimes the judges don’t give you credit for something amazing. For instance, in 2008 at the dome not one of the 12 judges (double slate at the dome) said one word during our drum feature, they were silent. It was probably one of the high points in the entire dome, the drum conveyor belt and the band doing the walk through box (look at it on youtube). National Class Bands did not even attempt what we mastered. Just look at our youtube site. But the judges, not one word!!!! Can’t complain, nowhere to complain to, we’ll just get them mad. We work the judges as best we can and chip away at them, selling our program in those post contest meetings and wherever else we can. Remember, patience, patience, patience. The wins will come, I went through this with Mineola (I taught there for 11 years) in our climb from last to 1st on the island. Mineola had the high long island scores in 1997 and 1998, over everyone. It took quite a bit of patience, and some very upsetting scores. wow! Many rough show scores in that climb, the same thing we have been going through the past few.

Then you have a situation like one year at the dome, when 6 of the 7 bands in our class were constantly moving, one band sat down on park benches for one third of their show. They tied for 1st place! Every student who plays an instrument sits down their whole first 5 or 6 years, the easiest way to play an instrument. The judges chose them and put them in 1st despite the fact that they sat playing. The other bands were shocked. And some bands cut the band down to their top players, having auditions and being more selective. They win with 40 or 50 total in their band. Here at Roslyn we want as many kids involved as possible so we don’t cut it down to the best, most experienced players. Touching lives is why we are here! This is why some conferences give you higher scores if you are a larger band, and put the bands in size order, total number of band members or musicians.

What the audience usually responds to is "general effect". It only accounts for about 40% of the score and that is why people don't always agree with the judges' results. 

Many marching band people say that the only way you can tell who is the best is to wait until the dome. That is where all the bands in the class perform at the same time, for the same judges, in the same environment. At the dome the judging slates are doubled, so the scores are derived from 12 judges. Anything can happen at championships.

Competition Season is Here! Part 2

Balancing it all on the head of a pin. That’s what I call it, making a rehearsal schedule for a competitive marching band in an academic high school. How much to rehearse, how many shows to do, how we rehearse, and how to handle attendance are key parts of running this marching band which I deal with every day. Balancing the schedule of a competition marching band is a delicate endeavor. Meeting the needs of the students is the priority however we do "compete" so we need to maximize our rehearsal time, and get as much done as is possible so that we can be competitive. We need to utilize every minute without hurting the quality of our group. The balance is as tricky as balancing something on the head of a pin. I have been asked many questions from parents and students about how I schedule rehearsals and competitions so in the spirit of communication I have posted my philosophy of rehearsals, competitions, and how we have built our schedule.

How Many Hours to Rehearse

I have had some parents ask me why we rehearse so much. I have had even more parents ask me why we don’t rehearse more. Well, when starting the competitive marching band here at Roslyn, they rehearsed 2 nights a week and Saturdays, and did a show every weekend. They even added some rehearsals if the band needed it. Coming here in 2003, I decided that we would go with a 1 night rehearsal format, very few Saturday rehearsals, and try to add an hour or two of rehearsing on show days, before we leave the high school. This is the least that I felt we could practice and still be competitive. By having great communication among the staff, proper planning, and efficient rehearsals, I felt we could build a dynasty with this structure. Hicksville HS in the 90’s had the highest scores on Long Island and had this exact schedule. I observed them frequently and they were efficient, there wasn’t a minute of wasted time in their rehearsals. It amazed me that they could have the highest of scores and rehearse so much less than the bands they were scoring above. I used them as a model when I came here to Roslyn.  Remember, every band we compete against rehearses two to three times more than us.  Go to their websites and look at their rehearsal schedules.  

Why No Shows on Columbus Day Weekend?

I always schedule a break weekend in the middle of the season to recharge our collective batteries. I copied this from some of the upstate bands. Playing the same music over and over can be daunting and create a malaise among band members. By taking a weekend off to visit colleges, or just spend time with our families, we can create another peak for our band, hopefully at the dome. I feel that this avoids us getting into a plateau where we stagnate.

Back to Backs

Why not do two shows in a weekend like all the other bands in our area? We don’t do “back to backs,” a Saturday and Sunday show weekend, and here is my reason. I have always, throughout my 29 years of doing marching band, avoided doing two shows on a weekend. Many bands do this and feel that it helps them keep the momentum going. I feel it becomes too taxing. In my formative years, I had a famous band director upstate tell me “never do back to backs.” I asked why, he said “look at your kids on Sunday night after doing a back to back and that will answer your question.” Two years ago, not sticking with that advice, we did a “back to back” for the first time, the New York Championship at Griffin Field the day after the Denton Avenue Show. I looked at our kids after the Sunday performance and now I totally agree; I feel one show a weekend is definitely enough. As a side note on this issue, the upstate bands do Saturday night shows, and nothing else on Sunday and those bands are amazing. Rarely do you see one of the top upstate National Bands double up shows on a weekend.

Formulating the Schedule

I build the schedule in April, put it up online, finalize it in mid August, tweak it and add times in September and stick to it. I do not schedule anything on the “off weekend." I will not add anything after school starts because I feel it is unfair to the band members to require them to be at everything and then add something. We get many requests to perform at various events in and out of our district with only a few weeks notice. My policy is clear, we will perform if given the dates prior to band camp. Requiring perfect attendance, which we must do since we have a drill where every person is of the utmost importance and our lack of rehearsals, creates this policy where we don’t add performances after the schedule is finalized.

Rehearse Less? Rehearse More? 

For the parents that say we need to rehearse less, I submit that it would greatly hinder us to even take a few hours out of this schedule. We are at a bare minimum in terms of being a competing band. Any less would mean going to a “home game and Newsday band” format, where we only perform at the home games and Newsday Festival, which is what most bands on Long Island do. Any more rehearsing, and we would burn out, not be fresh with the show, and it would hinder our academics and not leave time for jobs, other activities, etc. Personally, I feel that a competition band teaches so much more about music and life. I feel that the schedule we have is perfect for our school, students, parents, and community.

Is Our Schedule Working?

I feel that our schedule is clearly working. We are very successful, being one of the most talked about bands, getting exponentially better each year. Our competitors, virtually every one of them, rehearse two to three times as much as us. We are certainly among the top 3 or 4 bands on Long Island, regardless of the scores, so this schedule works for us.

Constantly Learning and Tweaking

As a band director I am constantly learning about maximizing rehearsal time, meeting with the staff regularly, and tweaking our schedule year to year. I welcome parental and student input and have used it regularly. Right now, I feel we are on the right track with our schedule. Our kids are excited, fresh, and love the marching band, which is the top priority!

Competition Season is here! Part 1

I will be posting three pretty lengthy blogs, today, tomorrow and Sunday.  It explains just about everything about the marching band.  It is a good idea for everyone to read these sometime before we perform on Sunday.

These are recycled blogs from years past.  I have changed and added some things to them.  Both old and new parents should read these posts.  

As the season starts I will start posting about our up and coming competition season. This year’s show is based on “Wicked” on Broadway.  We have a crowd pleaser here and hopefully a “judge pleaser” as well.

This year I will be posting the weekly detailed schedule on the last page of the website roslynband.com.  You can reach it directly at roslynrehearsal.com.  I will do this every single week.  I will also blog after each show so you can come right here if you want to know what is going on.

Twitter - I give twitter updates.  You can have every one sent to your cell phone as a text, or simply bookmark our twitter site to see what is going on throughout the season.  I will be tweeting more on competition days this year so put your phone on vibrate.  This year I will not tweet out the score from the back judges room if I know before it is announced.  I did this last year and it got mixed reviews.  Some loved it, some didn’t, so I am not doing it this year.

As a director I am tremendously proud of how far the Marching Bulldogs have come in terms of their development. The students have worked so hard, from the first step at band camp through the night rehearsals and the competitions.  As most of you know, I treat band as a leadership training, character development, and goal setting class in addition to the marching and music instruction.

Many bands choose not to compete. They choose to perform a less involved and simpler show at only the Newsday festival and their home games. We, the “Roslyn Marching Bulldogs” compete. We are better for it and will accomplish great things by being a competitive band.  Short and long term goals are an important part of life and through this great activity, we will “shoot for the stars.” 

I will be posting the weekly seedings in our class which are based on the scores throughout the state that weekend.  There are 7 bands in our class.  If we are in 1st or 7th, throughout the season remember that at the dome “ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.”  When we received 2nd out of 12 we were ranked dead last all season in the competitions in 2006.  The dome brings in the best judges and doubles the slate to minimize the impact one judge can have.  Judges from outside our area are more likely to make the call and lead the local judges to do the right thing when we are at the dome.

The local judges have obviously boxed us into the lower part of the class.  This is not controversial that I am stating this, it is a fact.  It is even more obvious when an out of state judge puts us up high in a caption while the local New York judges bury us year in and year out.  Remain patient, stay positive, and don’t complain.  Those same judges will come around, see our program’s development and reward us, hopefully sooner rather than later.  There is no way to complain about this, it is part of the program and built into any subjective, judged activity.  It is a learning process for everyone and teaches us about life as well.  We are constantly judged throughout life and much of it is subjective.

And now a paragraph about all the band shifts this season. We are in Small School 2, which is a higher class than Small School 3 or Large School 3.  We get an automatic bump up for being in that class, or at least that’s what should happen.......    The Field Band Conference did a spreadsheet of average scores over the past 5 years and adjusted, moving some bands into our class, some bands up a class, and some bands up a class.  Mineola got moved up to Small School 1 and Malverne got moved to Small School 2, our class.  Copiague moved out of the National Class last year and competed in Large School 2, then this year petitioned again and was moved down to Large School 3.  So yes, a National Class band in two short years moved to Large School 3, go figure. Jordan Eldbridge got moved to Small School 2 so that they could score higher, they were scoring low in Small School 1.  They are currently seeded at the top of our class along with Malverne, who won both classes at the dome the past 2 years.  We usually go on later in the local shows because of our more prestigious Small School 2 class.  We go on after all Small School 3 and Large School 3 bands, which is most of the bands who compete on Long Island.  That should pop our score a bit.  Should.....

The Dome order within classes is done by a draw upstate.  This year, for instance, we are first in Small School 2 at the dome, last year we were last.  Some bands compete in their home show.  If they are scheduled with their class they compete. If they are at the end, then they are just doing an exhibition.  Brentwood didn’t compete at their show last week, Malverne just decided that they are not competiting at their show, so we will win our class at the show next week in Malverne.

You need to be competitive but remember, this is totally subjective, like figure skating.  I always tell the kids that in figure skating they even throw out the high and low scores, which is fully acknowledging that it is somewhat unfair.  People who are sports people and are new to our idiom may have some trouble with this.  You may see our band, hear the score and wonder what happened.  Yes, the judges TOTALLY make the call, in fact, they decide everything, total subjectivity.  

Remember, we are great, look at how far we have come and everybody in the Marching Band community, judges, other band directors, audiences, and the public fully knows Roslyn as a “powerhouse” marching band.  We are proud as ever and I as director feel truly privileged to run such a great group of kids and great parents.  We had parents who bring out our equipment, parents helping to run our band camp, and the largest contingent of spectators go to the dome from Roslyn each year.  Our parents even cheer for our neighbor competitor when they win the class over us!  We are the greatest people anywhere!  Total team players.  The kids are perfect!  They give up part of themselves for the team every single day! Hard working, fun, smart, bubbly, and love band!  What more could I ask as a director?  A fair read from the judges?  YES, I want it all!  I want our kids to get the score they deserve!  I am very positive, a “glass half full” kind of guy!  It will happen, at some point, and you will know when my post simply says “YES, HERE WE GO.” It may be this year, next year, or 10 years from now, but it will happen.  It is inevitable. We are on the right track!

Marching Band Attendance

As always with our marching band, there are severe ramifications to missing anything on our schedule.  In a band like ours, attendance is just about 100%.  Missing one rehearsal in our band is the equivalent of missing a week of rehearsals with any of our competitors.  It would assure removal from any of their groups.  Please fully realize that missing any event or rehearsal - anything on this band schedule - will just about guarantee you not receiving any leadership position in the marching band.  People with one or more misses over their years in the band aren't even considered for these positions.  Any band members who are excused told me in April that they had a major attendance problem and I worked the program around them and excused them or told them not to be in the band.  Major family issues are pretty cut and dry as to what we consider an excusable absence.  Weddings, Bar mitzvahs and Bat mitvahs, Communions, Baptisms (all of immediate family members) are usually told to me right after the schedule goes up since these are set up years in advance.  Obviously, deaths in the family are excusable.  Concert tickets, other concerts, tickets to sporting events, SAT prep classes, studying, etc are considered unexcused absences.  This is like being in an RCP or Spotlight show.  It is your job to stay healthy, get plenty of sleep, and be there for everything on the schedule. People are depending upon you. It is also your job to do your academic work around our one weekly rehearsal each week. Anyone who is in this band already knows this. We have band members who work family events around our schedule.  We have about 20 people who are not in the band because they were unable to come to one of our events. This is a very special group where every single person has a very important position.  We only have 12 events and need every person at every one.  Here is it directly from our band booklet.

Marching Band Rehearsal Attendance

During the fall season, rehearsals are held on Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, and on competition days for an hour or two prior to leaving for the competitions.  Attendance at rehearsals and performances is MANDATORY. Students who have a conflict with any rehearsal MUST SUBMIT a parental note at least TWO WEEKS in advance.   Students with ONE ABSENCE will be given a WARNING from the band director.  Any additional absences will result in removal from the Marching Band.

Marching Band Competition Attendance

Band members must attend all competitions and shows. As in a school musical, each position is crucial to the success of the entire unit.  The show is custom written for the exact number of people in the band, and even one hole effects each member’s drill, which must be modified at the competition, which is not acceptable.  Anyone who has a conflict with one of the shows may not be a part of the marching band. In a competitive marching band, every person has a leading role.  

Important - Items being taken from Rehearsals

Last year, for the first time since I have been at Roslyn, we lost two phones during the season.  One phone was taken from the hallway where we stored our equipment during an indoor rehearsal.  We changed that practice and a few weeks later another phone was taken from the bandroom during an outdoor rehearsal.  We went on to change our behaviors to keep all items with us, somewhere near where we are practicing at all times.

Then this year, we lost three items during the first two rehearsals.  We lost a backpack with a phone in it last week.  The whole backpack has still not been found.  Then last night, we lost a backpack in the bleachers with a computer in it and an Iphone which was taken from inside a case placed on the track with all the other band cases (the car keys were left in the case).  Obviously, this is a problem which is very serious and we are addressing immediately.  

I am not sure if these are band members who are taking the phones and am looking at any school camera tapes that are available in the next few days to determine who took these items.  As you know, there is almost nowhere you can go without some kind of security camera monitoring the area.  When we can see who took these items we will act.

And most importantly, if these items are returned to the bandroom today or tomorrow there will be no questions asked.

Obviously, if these items that were "lost" in the past two rehearsals are not returned, we will have to totally restructure the entire season in terms of bus lists, itinerary, and everything we do.  Our lives are totally open whenever we travel and the freedoms that we currently have will be monitored at a much different level in order to keep everyone's items from becoming stolen.  Having something stolen from you is a terrible feeling, not to mention the loss of data on the phone.  Nobody should have to walk around watching their backs and having to consume precious time worrying about their belongings being ransacked and taken from them.

THINGS YOU CAN DO

If you have a smartphone with a gps or tracking ability, activate it so that you can find the phone and know where it is after it is lost.  I know that you can do this with Iphones, I found my wife's phone in my daughter's school by using the Find Iphone program.

Everyone, keep your phone with you at all times.  Figure out a way that you can hold the phone and car/house keys with you.  Make sure that you wear pants with pockets, or some kind of holder with your phone in it, or a sweatshirt with pockets.

NEW REHEARSAL PROCEDURE

We will pick a spot to put all of our items during rehearsal, backpacks, phones, bags, etc, by section, right in front of the field so that we can totally monitor where everything is throughout the rehearsal.  Take everything  with you to our rehearsal area.

Back up everything on your phone regularly, contacts, calendar if you use it, everything.

I will put further updates here on this blog.

Still 71 No Responses to Peach Bowl Question

Yesterday I sent a text out to everyone in the band asking that they let me know if they were interested in going to the Peach Bowl during the break in December.  All the details are on the website.  48 band members responded and 71 did not.  I really need to get an idea if this will happen as soon as possible.  By committing on September 1st we are getting a cheaper price, $1300 all inclusive.  I also need to make sure that Seniors can list this as a pending accomplishment on their college applications.  Right now we have 15 yes, 17 maybe and 16 no.  I only need to get an idea of if we have the interest here.  So, to those other 71 people who may be away, please text me as soon as you can if Peach Bowl yes, Peach Bowl maybe or Peach Bowl no. I will be tweeting and sending out a text to those who didn't respond sometime today.  You can see the list of who is and isn't going on the front page of the website as well as the Chick Fil-A Bowl page.

Peach Bowl and Band Camp

Hi everyone!  First of all, be sure to download and print the Band Camp packing list.  You need to have these items for camp.  Don't pack too much!  Now on to the Peach Bowl.

I received numerous requests to do a bowl game trip this coming year.  After researching the various bowl games available I have decided that the Peach Bowl, now named the Chick Fil-A Bowl, would be the best game to go to.  We did this Bowl Game in 2006 and it was great.  The company which runs this bowl is “child centered” and they give a very reasonable price for what they set up. They have about 20 bands participate in this Bowl game each year.  Our trip would include some great tours including CNN, the Atlanta Aquarium, the Coke Museum, and the Martin Luther King Jr museum.  In addition, there is a banquet with all the bands which the parents can go to.  Another great reason I like this Bowl is the fact that the parents and families can stay downtown and not have to rent a car to get around.  All the performances, the parade, Bowl Game, CNN, Aquarium and Fan Fest are all within walking distance for the parents and families that choose to go.  Once this trip is a go, the Band Fans will set up a package for the parents and families.

The band performs at the Peach Bowl Parade, the pre-game of the Chick Fil-A Bowl and the Halftime show all with about 20 other bands.  All rehearsals and the actual Bowl Game is in the Atlanta Dome which is indoors which is another great reason for doing this game.

Right now the main goal is to get the trip set up by September 1st so that all of the Seniors going can put the Bowl Game on their college applications.  If we hit 70 band members we will be a go.  If we fall short of this number we will not do a major trip this year.

I need all band members to text or e-mail me “Peach Bowl Going,”  “Peach bowl not going” or “Peach Bowl maybe.”

The trip will be $1300, including food money, and less if we get more than 70 students to go.  The price goes down as we divide up the bus costs.

I am working with a deadline of September 1st to make a decision on this trip.

Thanks and I will see you all in a few weeks.

Tweets, E-mail, and the Website

The new methods of communication are changing daily.  And with these changes I have come to the conclusion that the best, most reliable and efficient way for Roslyn Band members, parents, and fans to find out what is going on is through our website roslynband.com.  I update it daily, keep the newest information under the first page "New Bulletins" and can tell you from there which page you should go to to get more details.

I don't send e-mails.  I also tell the "Band Fans" to not send e-mails.  I am not in control of the band fans, this is just my opinion and I will now explain why.  When the "Band Fans" or "the band director" send out e-mails, people stop checking the website, depend upon the e-mails, and if they miss an e-mail or delete it by mistake, they can miss very important information.  People also end up putting them in spam by mistake, do not get them and/or they have multiple e-mails which they do or don't check frequently.  In addition. E-mails are often misspelled by the sender (due to the lengthy names) they change frequently, servers are down, and people don't like to be bothered a lot so they eventually end up ignoring them.

Tweets, the newest thing.  We started sending out tweets just during trips.  Then the parents in charge of events or things want me to tweet frequently.  Once again, too many tweets brings about people not opting to get the tweets sent as texts to their cell phone, then they don't get the tweets.  Then the tweets are simply going to the twitter site, with nobody looking at it. So from now on, I will only send tweets like today's tweet, maybe once or twice a week during the season, once a month during the off season, just for very important information.

The off season, yes, there is one here.  We mainly rock from mid-August through November 1st.  This cannot be a year round activity.  I know many of us are excited about marching band however, things need to be relaxed during the off season.  If you are bored or miss the band, simply go to our website roslynband.com or our youtube site to reminisce .

All of us must check the roslynband.com website frequently.  I have everything up there, wheat checks are in, what forms are in, band camp packets, sign ups, you name it.  Everything is there.  Let all the new parents know that the website is the hub of everything, all info is on there, fresh information, hot off the press.  We get an average of 300 hits a day, so please check it frequently.

Optional Spring Trip Update

After careful consideration of various factors involved with our program I have decided not to do the optional spring trip for 2013. Many bands in the United States do trips in May which is not possible due to the heavy AP and academic load in our school.  Other bands do their trips during the Bowl season which runs December 26 through January 2nd.  I am sensitive that this is the holiday season for many, a family time for all of us, parents, chaperones and myself.   And finally, as band director,   I am very aware of  the economy and the fact that the optional trip increases the cost of being in the band by an additional $1300.  


Planning ahead, we will do a major Disney trip, every other year, continuing in 2014. Don’t forget all that the band does throughout the competitive season. We compete at 4 shows, perform at the televised Newsday Show at Hofstra, Homecoming Parade and halftime shows, a great week long band camp culminating with the NYS Championships in Syracuse at the Carrier Dome. This year  we wiil be adding one day to the trip, October 29th, to see the National Class.

Report at 7:30 tomorrow

We are now reporting at 7:30 on Friday night, trying to depart as soon as possible, around 7:45.  There is a basketball playoff game at 6:30pm and we want to get going prior to the end of the game.  All the uniforms and instruments are in the bandroom.  We will be boarding the busses, everyone is responsible for getting their own instruments and uniform on their bus.