A letter from the President
of the SCBDA, Michael Foxworth.

Other Letters

"Greetings!"

Greetings to everyone and welcome back to a new school year. Whether you are a veteran of many years, or a first year teacher, I hope that your year begins smoothly and continues to be musically prosperous and fun for you and your students.

I first want to say that being President of the South Carolina Band Directors Association is both humbling and challenging. During my term, I assure you that I will do my best to fulfill the needs of the directors and students of our association. I challenge all of you to be actively involved in the decisions of our state. YOU are the association---------certainly not just our executive board.

For some reason, many directors have perceived, and maybe rightfully so, that our executive board meets and plans covert activities at their discretion. However, I can assure you that meetings are public, even though they are often behind closed doors so that we can concentrate on the issues without interruption. Our discussions at meetings are about how to better our association rather than control it. More importantly, I feel you should understand that no one person on the board can control any outcome alone because each member gets only one vote. Just as in our general meetings, the results of board decisions only come after much discussion and then approval by a general consensus of the board members. These decisions are for YOU.

Many questions have been raised in the past about policies and finances; I have appointed committees to revisit our association's bylaws and to evaluate our direction pertaining to each events committee becoming self-sufficient. You will be hearing from each committee chair at the fall SCBDA meeting and then again at the February SCMEA In-Service meeting. If you have suggestions, please feel free to contact these committees and share your ideas with them.

Since some committees were not generating enough money to fully fund their events, the executive board also made a decision to raise registration fees. This did not happen without serious discussion within the executive board. The SCBDA cannot continue using the marching event profits to fund our other events. If we continue to accept this as the norm, we will one day be in serious financial trouble when we have a rainy day on either of the last two Saturdays in October. We also had to address the issue of paying our adjudicators and clinicians more like the states surrounding us, if we want to continue getting quality judges. These were the two major issues that we had to deal with in making the registration increases in marching, concert, and jazz. Personally, I would rather see the SCBDA use the extra money from marching be used to commission works for our All-State bands and to award student music scholarships.

As you continue in your preparations for marching season, please keep in mind that our association needs your input to remain strong. The desired focus of each event cannot be achieved without your active participation in our association. Please make plans to attend the SCBDA Fall meeting on September 10 at Ridgeview High School.

Thank you so much for all you have done and will do in the coming years for the SCBDA. Good luck and have a wonderful school year.

Michael Foxworth
President
South Carolina Band Directors Association