AFM Minutes
All about recent meetings of the Amador Friends of Music, the parent organization for our Band and Color Guard.

General Membership Meeting, April 20, 2005

Cindy Gehl called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.

Director’s Report – Jon Grantham:

1. Concert groups: CMEA this weekend. Work and performance schedules are posted-the kids have been tremendous and flexible in meeting all of their responsibilities. The joint concert with Sierra High School, though a bit last minute, was a huge success and a great time! Wind Ensemble travels to Fresno State next Friday for the concert band invitational. Spring concert is May 19 at 7:00 p.m. Doors open at 6:45. Spring awards night for band and color guard has been moved to Monday June 6 in the MPR. Awards start at 7:00 p.m. with refreshments preceding. The wind ensemble will be recording a CD to submit for 2006 CMEA All-State Convention. Jon will work with Sherri Baldwin to order the awards.

2. Marching band: Many dates for the 2005 season are already posted on-line. October 8-Modesto; October 22-Fresno State; November 5-Clovis; November 19 (Championships)-Southern California.

3. Band camp is August 15-19 at Amador. We are gearing up for section leader interviews as well as drum major try-outs in the coming weeks. Mr. Grantham is happy to announce the hiring of John Meehan as our new music arranger and instructor. John comes with an outstanding resume, is one of the top names in his field and we are very fortunate to have him working with and writing for our students next year.

4. Auditions for Wind Ensemble are at the end of May.

President’s Report – Cindy Gehl:

1. Following is the official slate: President-Thom Kato; VP Transportation-Roland Ellingsen; Secretary-Linda Ethier; VP Fundraising-Angela Adkins; Treasurer-Paulette Callahan. Appointed positions: Winter Percussion Liaison-Jeannette Ford; Volunteer Coordinator-Vicki Price. The Board is not sure whether they will continue to have the Alumni Coordinator position, and Cindy will speak with Paulette about the possibility of a financial secretary position. This would be for someone to handle all the check writing and banking that needs to be done.

Cindy asked for nominations from the floor – there were none. Elections will take place at the next General Membership Meeting, May 18, 2005.



2. Linda Flagler is coordinating the upcoming Awards Ceremony. (No longer called a “Awards Banquet.”) We will have desserts before the ceremony.

3. The budget-planning meeting is at the end of this month and it should be ready to be presented to the General Membership at the next meeting, May 18, 2005.

4. Fall Fees (fair-share contributions) will be posted in June, and will remain at $550. The Board hopes to have an estimate at that time of what the cost for attending Championships will be. Championships are in Southern California. Those with money in their student accounts in June will have it go towards the Fall fees at that time, and others can plan ahead and budget for the amount due in the Fall.

5. The auction, overall, was a huge success; approximately $31,000 was cleared. Everyone enjoyed the Thank You notes left by the students. Planning will start much earlier next year. Cindy reports that even people who do not have any children in the band who attended are looking forward to next year’s event. As soon as Angela returns from her trip, a meeting will be held to go over what went well and what did not so that we can improve for next year.


6. Cindy announced that we are need of several volunteers for next year. Carol Ghinazzi will no longer be uniform chairperson, and has recommended that 3 people divide the job. We also need a Grubmaster, Head Road Warrior and an Escrip Coordinator (though Sherri Baldwin will continue to do the reports). Mark Voegele announced that his son would not be in the band next year so we will also need a videographer. Jerry Unger also announced that someone will need to take over coordinating student volunteer events for the following: Hula Festival, Scottish Games, Good Guys, Fair, RV and Boat Show. Cindy said that if no one steps forward to coordinate these, that these opportunities might go away. Jerry mentioned that Ron Price has agreed to handle the Pavilion jobs, but he is going to need help.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00.

Updated: April 22, 2005