April 12th, 2022

Traverse City Music Boosters Meeting

April 12, 2022

In Attendance

Jill Jenkins

Wendee Wolf-Schlarf

Thomas Hoxsie

Heather Hoxsie

Krissy Kernan

Eileen Mikulski

Jodi Simpson

Alline Beutler

Music Director’s Report

State festivals went well for all TCAPS music students. TCAPS was well represented with high ratings. Several students and ensembles were selected for all state opportunities.

The music calendars are being prepared for next school year. Elementary students are not having traditional spring performances this year. Everyone is looking forward to more normal programming next year.

Nancy Will is retiring, and Kim Teachout is changing career paths, so there will be some transitions in the music department going into the 2022-2023 school year.

Treasurer’s Report

Scholarship pay outs, an Amazon Smile contribution, flower sales from the TCW musical, and the Shop Your Community Day donation have been the financial transactions over the past few months.

TCC and TCW Organization Updates

West Choir Parents- The spring banquet is coming up soon. Cabaret is scheduled for June 1 and 2. Other than that the year is winding down. End of year housekeeping and uniform collection will be the final focus for the year. Additional scholarships have been approved including two designated for incoming freshmen. Fundraising for the musical did very well this year.

Central Choir Parents- Musical is coming up the last weekend in April, first weekend in May. The ad book production is wrapping up.

Central Band Parents- There is consideration for bringing back the Disney trip in the future.

New Business

Scholarships- After the TC Music Boosters participated in Swingshift and the Stars, the number of scholarships offered was increased. For the past few years, the trend has been that less students are auditioning. Eileen recommended that we consider reducing the number of scholarships from 24 to 18 and raise the amount of each scholarship from $350 to $400. With the increased cost of private lessons this will allow students to have more opportunities available to them when they are awarded a scholarship.

Krissy made the motion to offer 18 $400 scholarships for the 2022-2023 school year. Heather seconded the motion. The motion passed.

Benefit Concert- The concert is scheduled at CHS on May 26 at 7:00pm. Emerick Dee has purchased sound equipment over the past few years that can be used for the concert. It is possible that we won’t need to rent equipment at all, or possibly just supplemental rental equipment will be needed. This could be a significant savings to the cost of putting on the concert.

Once again, we will set up tables near both doors to collect credit card donations from concert patrons. The logistics are still being worked out, but possibly a QR code will be included on signs for people to access the donation payment processor. There will also be buckets near the doors for people to contribute cash and check donations on their way in or out of the concert.

We decided to put the idea of including a raffle during the benefit concert on hold for this year but will consider it as an option for future benefit concerts.

Open Forum

Alline mentioned that the donor list we’ve used for fundraising letters in the past couple of years is not turning out to be a very strong list. It is made up mainly of people who donated during Swingshift and the Stars several years ago and we know that many donated because of their connection to our star dancers and not necessarily because they have an affinity for the Music Boosters. It was suggested that we create an online form to use with the credit card donations that would collect names, mailing addresses, and emails from each donor. We could use this data to cultivate a better list that could be used to promote future benefit concerts and other fundraising and awareness building opportunities.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:21pm.

The next Music Boosters Board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 14 at 6:30 at the Boardman Administration Building.

Respectfully submitted by Alline Beutler