August 1, 2007

Welcome back Band Family!

We are gearing up for a wonderful Band Season kicked off by our excellent Marching Minutemen Band. For details about our Marching Band Show and Band Camp, click here: Marching Band Details (right click if the Link does not work).

Budget: The Cocoa Beach Jr/Sr High School Band (CBHS) has a Band Budget to fund this year in the amount of $45,400. This is the cost to run our Band program over and above that which is funded by the school system and fees collected.

Part of our budget covers professional specialized Instructors not paid by the school but most of the budget supports our Special Programs. Our Special Programs can be summarized by a quote from a student in her senior speech at our Band Banquet last May. "I transferred to CBHS from another school for my Senior year and I never had such a wonderful band experience as I had with the CBHS Band. My last Band Director never took us anywhere other than school required football games. He did not want to spend his personal time to participate in events or incur the cost. Since I have been at CBHS, Mr. Brooker has taken us to competitions and events that I would have never experienced if I had not joined the CBHS Band".

A Band Director may choose to offer only the required curriculum or the Band Director can offer a highly rewarding extracurricular band program. Luckily for CBHS, Chuck Brooker provides the latter. Events and other band program costs include entry fees, travel costs such as bus transportation, award costs, office support, scholarships, sheet music, benevolent fund, props, instruments, uniforms, etc.

How is this amount raised? Fundraisers and Donations from our band families. Lot's of hard volunteer work from our Band family members. The Food Concession is our largest fundraiser (net income $15,000 last year) --but this amount is only part of the what we need to generate this coming year. My next Treasurer Report will include more infomation about our Fundraisers.

What is Fair Share? You may hear this term frequently. If you divide the Budget by the amount of band students you can get a basic idea how much the Band program costs per student. We do not want to invoice our band students for this amount -- instead we ask that everyone participates with our fundraisers and volunteer needs such as working in the Concession. Please volunteer when asked. We need your help to cover our band program costs. By clicking here you can see a copy of our 07/08 Budget which spells our our anticipated band expenses and income. (right click if the Link does not work).

Please become familiar with our Fundraisers. We are relying on Fundraisers and Donations to fund our Budget.