A letter from the President
of the SCBDA, Martin Dickey.

Other Letters

June 1, 2008

"State of the SCBDA - Spring 2008" 

Dear Colleagues,

I hope this letter finds you preparing for or already enjoying the summer break and recharging your batteries for another exciting year in band rooms across our state.  Enjoy this time to travel, spend time with family, visit friends and renew and refresh yourself for the new school year.  My first year as your President has been exciting and rewarding as I have gained a greater amount of respect for the job that each of you do to promote music education to all band students in South Carolina.  I knew that there were many great band directors in our state, but the professionalism of our membership is absolutely phenomenal. 

The SCBDA Board just completed our spring work session and the finance committee examined our five year history and forecast for the next five years.  Business leaders recommend this type of examination for all organizations that don’t want to fall behind, sacrifice their mission, or allow the quality to diminish.  Our event chairs have cut expenses to the minimum and decreased their bottom lines while still trying to provide the highest quality music education events our association can offer. 

I and the rest of the board are responsible for making sure that the SCBDA provides quality events for our members, our students, and our schools.  I never realized many of the financial aspects within our association until I became a member of the board.  This year alone we have purchased computers so our region and all-state events could be managed.  We are beginning to look at digital recorders for all of our events and the devices and hardware/software needs are not free.  Travel costs for our adjudicators continue to rise with no end in sight.  You are receiving this letter via our website and not through the US Postal Service.  Our Official Handbook, registration forms and directory can be printed from our website.  This is being done to drastically cut our expenses. 

Do you realize that the SCBDA is one hurricane away from not being able to fully fund all of our events?  If for some reason we were not able to present a weekend of the state marching festival or championships, we would not have the money to sustain our other events.  With this dilemma facing us and our duty to make sure that our association events do not suffer, it was decided that we must be proactive in handling the SCBDA financial future.  The finance committee determined it essential to establish a “rainy day account” to cover expenses in case of an emergency, help members with rising fuel costs, and keep pace with judge’s travel. 

The board understands that the current situation with transportation is felt by everyone so we voted to increase the mileage reimbursement for SCBDA members
from $ .20 per mile to $ .37 per mile.  Hopefully this will help you as you work events for the SCBDA across the state.  The board also raised the stipend for the All-State Jazz Band Clinicians to make them commensurate to the All-State Band Clinicians.  To fund this and to create the “rainy day account”, the board did not add any fees, but raised some fees to provide financial stability to our events.  The audition fee for region band was raised to $10.00 per student, registration fees for marching festival and concert festival were raised to $225.00 per band, and the participation fee for all-state band was raised to $15.00 per seated student and $10.00 per attending alternate.  The all-state participation fee has not been charged the past few years while the event continues to get more expensive. 

The finance committee will review the fee structure each year and monitor our financial situation to make sure that we continue to provide high quality events.  Once we have established a “rainy day account” to cover expenses in case of an emergency, the board will make adjustments.  Our fees remain below the other divisions of SCMEA and we should be thankful that our marching events help keep our costs lower than our neighboring states. 

I consider it a privilege and honor to serve as your president of the SCBDA.  I believe that South Carolina has the finest professionals in our business.  The South Carolina Band Directors Association has long and proud history and we should take pride in what we have accomplished.  Our future is bright and we will continue to work hard at making our music programs the strongest in the country.  “Music IS instrumental to success” and we must be proactive in promoting this to every person we come in contact with.  Have a fabulous summer and enjoy the quick break. 

Sincerely,

Martin Dickey
SCBDA President