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

General Membership Meeting, January 24, 2006

Thom Kato called the meeting to order at 7:03.

1. Acknowledgements:
a. Thom thanked Pam Sangiacomo for collecting the band uniforms.
b. Thom reported that AFM had received two recent donations:
i. Ms. Jennifer Cash, who was visiting from out of state, gave a generous donation after attending her grandson’s winter concert with her daughter, Dawn Giammona.
ii. Boston Scientific made a generous donation after Jon Knight chose AFM as his preferred recipient.

2. Director’s Report – Mr. Grantham:

• Concert band
-CMEA State Convention is March 9 in Sacramento: family is invited to attend free. Also in need of someone with graphic design experience to help me with the program (it is well under way and about 70% complete, so not a big job)
-Harvest Park concert is March 27 (Wind Ensemble and Wind Symphony)
-CMEA Band Festival is April 28
-Spring concert is May 23
-Honors bands congratulations to Robyn Lee, Erica Miranda and John Palowitch (All-State); Robyn Lee, John Palowitch, Sarah Andersson, Karissa Finn and Ned Kovach (All-Northern)

• Jazz:
-Folsom Jazz Festival is January 28 (itinerary online; report time is 7:37 a.m. with an approximate return of 9:00 p.m.)
-Reno Jazz Festival is April 29-30.

• Guard: Congratulations to both Harvest Park and Amador for turning in outstanding performances on Saturday. The middle school guard came away with second place honors at Gilroy. The high school took first place in the Scholastic AA division, beating their nearest competitor by 6 points. Amador home show is Saturday February 4th.

• Percussion: Are practicing hard but have not had a competition yet! Look for updates as they become available.


• Marching Band: Staff meeting this past Sunday; Alcatraz will be our theme for next year with original music by John Meehan and drill by Jay Murphy (this is our design team from last year); several fall '06 dates are already posted on the calendar (camp is the weekend and week before school) and practices will be moved to Tuesday nights (Wednesday collaboration schedule helps)


3. Second Semester Budget and Fees – Thom Kato:

Thom handed out a budget worksheet and spent quite a bit of time going over the layout and content of the fall budget and proposed spring budget. In addition, he gave an update of the proposed spring semester fees:

a. Concert Band Fees will be $100.00 per student.
This includes fees for instructors for the entire band and a trip to Sacramento for the Wind Ensemble.

b. Jazz Band Fees will be $350.00 per student.
This includes a trip to Reno and to the Folsom Jazz Festival.

c. Winter Guard Fees will be $1,500.00 per student.
This includes a trip to the WGI Championships in Dayton, Ohio in April.

d. Winter Percussion Fees will be $500.00 per student
This includes several California based competitions.
(The Winter Percussion trip to Dayton has been postponed.)

Fees will be due March 1st – Winter Guard will have the option of paying their fees in four installments.

After discussion, Linda Ethier moved to approve the spring budget as proposed, Chris Peterson seconded. The motion was voted on and approved.


4. Announcements/Board Member Reports:

a. Reimbursements Deadline - Feb. 1st – Thom Kato
Thom reminded AFM members that we need to close the books on our expenditures for the fall. If you made a purchase for the fall band season for which you need to be reimbursed by AFM, please complete an expense voucher (downloadable from the band website) and submit it no later that Feb. 1st to: AFM Treasurer at P.O. Box 602, Pleasanton, CA 94566. If an expense voucher is not received by Feb. 1st, 2006, the expenditure will be considered a donation.

b. Campana Jazz Festival – Ellen McMahon
1. The Campana Jazz Festival will be held on February 11th.

2. Ellen announced that Carl and Marilyn Palowitch will be working with her on the Campana Jazz Festival this year to learn the ropes in order take over for next year!
3. She also announced that both parent and student volunteers are needed to make the festival a success. Sign up sheets are available and detailed information will be sent out via the weekly AFM Newsletter. Please contact her at 484-5202 or ellenmcmom@mindspring.com if you are able to help out.

c. Winter Percussion Update – Roland Ellingsen

Roland announced that a commitment letter has been sent home with the winter percussion students. If you did not receive the letter, you will find it in this week’s newsletter. Please have the forms returned by Feb. 15th.

d. Amador Valley Winterguard Show – Chris Smith

1. Chris reminded the group that the Winterguard show will take place at Amador on February 4th.

2. Most of the student volunteer positions are filled, but parent positions are still needed. Ticket takers and door monitors are needed and should have a good view of the show! Please contact the coordinators with any questions:
Chris Smith 426-9459/200-3498, mcjksmith@comcast.net or
Ginnelle Dowdy 462-0793/577-1119, rgdowdy@sbcglobal.net

3. Baked potatoes and baked goods are still needed for the concessions. Please contact Toni Shook at allshookupp@sbcglobal.net if you can help.

e. Magic of Music – Angela Adkins

1. Angela reminded the group that the Magic Of Music fundraiser will be held on April 8th, 2006 at the Hilton.

2. Angela spent some time going over the different types of volunteer positions available. Many of the chair people from last year have agreed to return in their same positions for this year’s event. One need that we still have at this point is someone to be a facilitator for the decorating committee on the evening of the event. Last year’s chair people are returning and will still chair the committee, but cannot be present on the evening of the event.

Unscheduled announcements:

1. The Student Band Council has taken over the “Go Green” effort on campus. There are recycle bins in all classrooms, which the band members collect and recycle. 75% of the monies go to the student band council. Send your recycling in any time!

2. AFM needs someone to take over the recycling of the printer/toner cartridges. They simply need to be collected periodically and sent in in the box provided.

3. AFM will be seeking a three man nominating committee to select next year’s board members.

4. The Senior Project Graduation Requirement will be before the school board on January 31st. Please attend and let your opinion be counted.



Meeting adjourned at 8:35.

Updated: January 26, 2006