The students, directors, staff, parents/guardians and volunteers. These include residents of the City of Leander Texas as well as The City of Cedar Park Texas with a combined population around 160,000.

Leander High School is a highly rated, public school located in Leander, TX. It has 2,125 students in grades 9-12 with a student-teacher ratio of 15 to 1. According to state test scores, 80% of students are at least proficient in math and 74% in reading.

https://www.niche.com/k12/leander-high-school-leander-tx/

Starting with the elections of our new board members in April, we transition the incoming with the outgoing officers to ensure a smooth transition to the start our calendar year on June 1st. The new and past board members go over the budget for the coming year, review any events, discuss the pros and cons of said events and areas to improve upon moving forward.

The new board meets in May and June to discuss open positions, volunteer, staff, and program needs for the coming Marching Band season.

Before Band Camp, we host a night where parents/guardians can gain information about the different ways they can become involved in the program. We have over nine different areas of focus that volunteers can be part of. Each of these groups serves the purpose of supporting the overall mission of the band – The Leander Band is a team whose success, through goal achievement is attributed to its unconditional pride and devotion to the program.

We have chairperson leads for each of our core teams; these leads are in charge of maintaining communication with their team of volunteers, materials needed for the team, and any financial requests for the Band Booster Board. We are fortunate that many of our volunteers are seasoned pros and help train volunteers in their positions – this makes our events run smoothly with few problems. Each of these groups becomes close-knit families in the greater community that we call the Leander High School Band.

Our volunteers are the heart of our program – without them, we could not accomplish all of the things that we do.

We have volunteers that take time on the weekends to go and build props, using their creative minds and ingenuity to come up with many of our show props that you see on the fields each year.

Volunteers, that ensures that all of our students and staff are hydrated through each performance, every band camp, and every practice. They scoop ice, fill coolers with ice and water bottles, and one of our volunteers even created a portable station for everyone to fill up their water bottles called the camel.

An amazing first aid team that are medically trained to support our program with any medical need, weather it is a band-aid, some ibuprofen, or some ice on a twisted ankle our first aid team is there when we need them.

Our Chaperones, that are with the student as we travel, from the band hall to the busses, on the field and off, these people are our eyes and ears to the students, keeping them in order and on time to performances.

Our hospitality group that ensures that everyone is well fed each season. Keeping track of over 300 meals, dietary restrictions, and more. This group is at every competition, every performance, feeding everyone so they can perform at their very best.

Our sew team, this group measures, sews and cleans our uniforms so that our students look their very best for every performance. This wonderful team spends hours doing alterations and pressings so that we look sharp on the field all season.

Fruit ninjas, our volunteer group that prepares and serves fruit to the students every day of summer band camp.

Pit Crew, this group is our powerhouse, they load and unload all of our props, and percussion instruments off the trucks and on to the fields, and then do it all again once the performance is over.

Photography Team, they are on the fields, in the stands, on the blacktop, capturing the moments of our program. Each year we put these images in a scrapbook for parents and students to keep and enjoy.

Last but not least, our band booster board. This group of individuals is the backbone to it all. Countless hours of meetings, planning, execution to make all of this come together to become the community that we are.

Leadership is not about being the best; it is about making everyone else better.

Attached a copy of the last presented budget for May 2019.

Running a band program is no easy feat; we are constantly reevaluating our processes on what was successful and what simply did not work for the program. In the past year, we have opened up several avenues for parents/guardians and volunteers to offer feedback to the board and staff; at our monthly meetings, in our private social media group, or one on one with a board member(s) in person or via email.

With a band of this capacity, with over 300 students, there are always challenges and changes that occur in the program. This is where having our volunteers trained and prepared becomes crucial to fixing problems at any scale and get the team back to where we need to be for things to run smoothly.

If a problem arises at a performance, we do our best to fix the issue so the band can perform to the best of their ability. After the performance is over the band booster board will discuss what happened with the chairperson lead and jointly come up with a plan to not only fix the issue but also possibly prevent or be prepared for the potential for that occurrence in the future. Communication is key to keeping things running smoothly.

For each of our events, we have an online volunteer sign up form. In years past this form would not fill completely requiring us to either cut back certain areas or spread the volunteers we did have thinner.

Starting last year, we leaned on social media and the weekly directors emails more to call attention to the needs of the program and this helped increase the awareness of our needs. Our volunteer lists are filling up more than ever before! We, in turn, have greater turn out at our monthly meetings, more parents willing to jump in and help no matter the size of the commitment. When parents clearly know and understand what the program needs they are more willing to give their time.

Start off simple; do not get fancy, fancy leads to complications and frustration. Look to your current team and have open discussions on what your overall vision is, what direction you would like to see your program go and take small steps to slowly implement those ideas.

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