July 2008

THE QUARTER NOTE

The Board of PTB held its regular quarterly meeting on June 24.  We continue to have a budget shortfall for this year, so our financial condition remains as before.  It was suggested that we increase the size of our concert programs to include advertising by persons or companies that might be willing to sponsor the band.  This idea will be further debated after seeing the final balance from our June concert.  The cost of that concert was under $2000 including the rent and management of the auditorium; the moving company for percussion, stands and other equipment; the lemonade and cookies for our audience.

We really appreciate the work of many people who have volunteered to help with concerts, especially Dick Cousineau from the Band Aides, who is always there to greet people, sell CDs, and pass out donation envelopes, Vicki Kennedy, who decorates the stage for every concert, Jackie Parker, who took charge of the lemonade and cookies, and last, but not least, Lou Dartanner, who helps all of the above in their efforts and finds all kinds of other projects that she works on for the band. These four are just the outstanding volunteers that I noticed. All of you must have also noticed that  Lorraine VanderArk was still doing all kinds of chores to help PTB and Mary MacDonald continues to do wonderful things with our website.  It is hard to recognize everyone who works on projects for the band because there are so many of you, so each of you please consider yourself a valuable member for all that you do!

As for the website:  After some concern has been expressed by members of the band, the biographies of members of the band are being completely removed from the website to protect everyone from their being used as a means to identity theft. 

The Nick Rail Summer Band Camp began this week, under our sponsorship and with a grant from the Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation for which we applied for them.  Nick reported that the numbers are larger than last year, and we wish increasing success for the Camp.

The Pops Band will have performed five concerts during 2008;  the larger band will have performed two formal concerts and two more informal concerts at Stow House and the Women’s Club.  We look forward to the July 4 parade with PTB members playing patriotic tunes from the trolley.  This means that the PTB will have performed every month of 2008 except January and November.  Please note the calendar you have had emailed to you, showing the dates for the next two big PTB concerts to be scheduled for December 14, 2008 and June 14, 2009.