tony
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Posts: 153
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Post by tony on Jul 20, 2021 6:02:30 GMT -5
It’s not a priority 🤷🏾‍♂️ Bingo! Give that man a cigar! Until the Administration views the BGMM a priority, it will continue to be underfunded and undersized! I refuse to accept this. You're right about the underfunded part - Dr. Martin has made that clear, and our own efforts aren't growing fast enough to make the change we want - but there's no reason we have to be undersized. I fully appreciate your efforts to raise money for the band, but our inability to see beyond that is hindering the band we all care about. Money is NOT THE ONLY way to grow a bigger band. It wasn't necessary to grow Cold Steel, or Golden Delight, and isn't the only way to grow the band either. Middle school bands aren't small because of lack of funding - at least in my part of NC. Or a lack of interest. They're a pretty good size, they're just not very good. Same thing in high school. By the time kids graduate, they've had seven years of training that band is lame, not fun, not good, and only the most dedicated remain. Only a tiny recruiting pool left with 8 other schools fighting for it. Money is one way to get those that are on the fence. A better experience is another. But we keep ignoring the thing we're in a decent position to change - yes we do have a School of Music, that's tasked with producing middle and high school directors, but we want to wait on billionaires to bail us out. For 40 years. Seriously? When we lost 19 football games in a row it wasn't because of a lack of funding. When the Small Band with the Big Sound was destroying bands three times their size it wasn't because we had money. We found a way - sound concept - to do it back then. We have a different concept that needs more numbers now. But if we keep stopping at the first reason to not grow those numbers we'll never have them.
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Post by ohsixrain on Jul 20, 2021 7:41:04 GMT -5
Bingo! Give that man a cigar! Until the Administration views the BGMM a priority, it will continue to be underfunded and undersized! I refuse to accept this. You're right about the underfunded part - Dr. Martin has made that clear, and our own efforts aren't growing fast enough to make the change we want - but there's no reason we have to be undersized. I fully appreciate your efforts to raise money for the band, but our inability to see beyond that is hindering the band we all care about. Money is NOT THE ONLY way to grow a bigger band. It wasn't necessary to grow Cold Steel, or Golden Delight, and isn't the only way to grow the band either. Middle school bands aren't small because of lack of funding - at least in my part of NC. Or a lack of interest. They're a pretty good size, they're just not very good. Same thing in high school. By the time kids graduate, they've had seven years of training that band is lame, not fun, not good, and only the most dedicated remain. Only a tiny recruiting pool left with 8 other schools fighting for it. Money is one way to get those that are on the fence. A better experience is another. But we keep ignoring the thing we're in a decent position to change - yes we do have a School of Music, that's tasked with producing middle and high school directors, but we want to wait on billionaires to bail us out. For 40 years. Seriously? When we lost 19 football games in a row it wasn't because of a lack of funding. When the Small Band with the Big Sound was destroying bands three times their size it wasn't because we had money. We found a way - sound concept - to do it back then. We have a different concept that needs more numbers now. But if we keep stopping at the first reason to not grow those numbers we'll never have them. I hear ya...but, what I think you aren't giving importance to is the fact that it's a different type of student nowadays. We live in an entitlement era and unfortunately we cannot turn our backs on those students. Students want some type of incentive or monetary stipend to march in the band. There is absolutely no way around that issue. Because, the way I see it, if we were to train these students up beginning in their 6th grade year up through 12th and they become really good players, you would see other programs coming to those areas to recruit. Local at the Atlanta area for instance, all the heavyweight bands stay in that area to recruit band students because, they know that area is saturated with good band students. Similarly as the state Texas and Florida as it relates to football. And if you are telling me that we have $800K band, then I will tell you we are underachieving. But, I don't believe that to be the case.
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Post by ohsixrain on Jul 20, 2021 7:42:48 GMT -5
I was confused at his response....I guess its an issue that keeps coming up. We already have one of the worst collegiate band rooms along with the smallest budget..But hey #AggiesDo He is confused too, he fields questions from alums about the band but those questions don’t turn into donations for the band. If it’s such an issue why aren’t people donating You know people love to throw out "donate" and that will cure what ails...did you ever think that folk cannot give what they do not have?
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Post by aggie2039 on Jul 20, 2021 7:54:28 GMT -5
He is confused too, he fields questions from alums about the band but those questions don’t turn into donations for the band. If it’s such an issue why aren’t people donating You know people love to throw out "donate" and that will cure what ails...did you ever think that folk cannot give what they do not have? People have it they just choose not to donate, I have friends that make $190k as an individual that do not donate back to A&T. They will come to homecoming, get a hotel, party and not buy a game ticket…Aggies have money. These same people go take trips to Mexico every year. Most Aggies should be able to afford $120 a year. Lastly if you looked at the board of trustees notes you would see that A&T alums donated a lot but like the chancellor stated people did not donate to the band. Facts are, donating to the band isn’t a priority for many A&T alums. We donate for academic scholarships and a little to AAF.
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tony
Full Member
Posts: 153
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Post by tony on Jul 20, 2021 11:32:46 GMT -5
I refuse to accept this. You're right about the underfunded part - Dr. Martin has made that clear, and our own efforts aren't growing fast enough to make the change we want - but there's no reason we have to be undersized. I fully appreciate your efforts to raise money for the band, but our inability to see beyond that is hindering the band we all care about. Money is NOT THE ONLY way to grow a bigger band. It wasn't necessary to grow Cold Steel, or Golden Delight, and isn't the only way to grow the band either. Middle school bands aren't small because of lack of funding - at least in my part of NC. Or a lack of interest. They're a pretty good size, they're just not very good. Same thing in high school. By the time kids graduate, they've had seven years of training that band is lame, not fun, not good, and only the most dedicated remain. Only a tiny recruiting pool left with 8 other schools fighting for it. Money is one way to get those that are on the fence. A better experience is another. But we keep ignoring the thing we're in a decent position to change - yes we do have a School of Music, that's tasked with producing middle and high school directors, but we want to wait on billionaires to bail us out. For 40 years. Seriously? When we lost 19 football games in a row it wasn't because of a lack of funding. When the Small Band with the Big Sound was destroying bands three times their size it wasn't because we had money. We found a way - sound concept - to do it back then. We have a different concept that needs more numbers now. But if we keep stopping at the first reason to not grow those numbers we'll never have them. I hear ya...but, what I think you aren't giving importance to is the fact that it's a different type of student nowadays. We live in an entitlement era and unfortunately we cannot turn our backs on those students. Students want some type of incentive or monetary stipend to march in the band. There is absolutely no way around that issue. Because, the way I see it, if we were to train these students up beginning in their 6th grade year up through 12th and they become really good players, you would see other programs coming to those areas to recruit. Local at the Atlanta area for instance, all the heavyweight bands stay in that area to recruit band students because, they know that area is saturated with good band students. Similarly as the state Texas and Florida as it relates to football. And if you are telling me that we have $800K band, then I will tell you we are underachieving. But, I don't believe that to be the case. Era and entitlement has nothing to do with it. In the Hodge era before students were so "entitled", we were lucky to march 150. We hit 180 maybe once. Dr. Ruff is routinely getting 200 - 220 of these so called entitle kids to march for free. Credit to him and his staff for better recruiting. Other programs have been coming to the area to recruit forever - they know what's here. When I was in high school FAMU offered ME a full ride - Dr. Hodge offered me book money lol. Talladega just got 5 of our Sousaphones. I personally know of NSU, JSU, and BCU recruits from the Greensboro area. Why do you think BCU rearranges Central's stadium every other year lol. The difference is, if our local schools were producing 120 decent grads instead of 40 each year, other schools could take half of them and we'd still have a great incoming class. Yes, we need to keep pushing donations. If we got 9000 people to donate $100 every year, our scholarship issue would be solved. While we continue to work on that, can we also build a better pipeline?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2021 14:33:21 GMT -5
I hear ya...but, what I think you aren't giving importance to is the fact that it's a different type of student nowadays. We live in an entitlement era and unfortunately we cannot turn our backs on those students. Students want some type of incentive or monetary stipend to march in the band. There is absolutely no way around that issue. Because, the way I see it, if we were to train these students up beginning in their 6th grade year up through 12th and they become really good players, you would see other programs coming to those areas to recruit. Local at the Atlanta area for instance, all the heavyweight bands stay in that area to recruit band students because, they know that area is saturated with good band students. Similarly as the state Texas and Florida as it relates to football. And if you are telling me that we have $800K band, then I will tell you we are underachieving. But, I don't believe that to be the case. Era and entitlement has nothing to do with it. In the Hodge era before students were so "entitled", we were lucky to march 150. We hit 180 maybe once. Dr. Ruff is routinely getting 200 - 220 of these so called entitle kids to march for free. Credit to him and his staff for better recruiting. Other programs have been coming to the area to recruit forever - they know what's here. When I was in high school FAMU offered ME a full ride - Dr. Hodge offered me book money lol. Talladega just got 5 of our Sousaphones. I personally know of NSU, JSU, and BCU recruits from the Greensboro area. Why do you think BCU rearranges Central's stadium every other year lol. The difference is, if our local schools were producing 120 decent grads instead of 40 each year, other schools could take half of them and we'd still have a great incoming class. Yes, we need to keep pushing donations. If we got 9000 people to donate $100 every year, our scholarship issue would be solved. While we continue to work on that, can we also build a better pipeline? Why not look at building pipelines into Georgia and South Carolina for musicians. Not every band head in Dekalb County wants to play for BCU, FAMU, or SWAC schools.
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tony
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Post by tony on Jul 20, 2021 15:04:07 GMT -5
Era and entitlement has nothing to do with it. In the Hodge era before students were so "entitled", we were lucky to march 150. We hit 180 maybe once. Dr. Ruff is routinely getting 200 - 220 of these so called entitle kids to march for free. Credit to him and his staff for better recruiting. Other programs have been coming to the area to recruit forever - they know what's here. When I was in high school FAMU offered ME a full ride - Dr. Hodge offered me book money lol. Talladega just got 5 of our Sousaphones. I personally know of NSU, JSU, and BCU recruits from the Greensboro area. Why do you think BCU rearranges Central's stadium every other year lol. The difference is, if our local schools were producing 120 decent grads instead of 40 each year, other schools could take half of them and we'd still have a great incoming class. Yes, we need to keep pushing donations. If we got 9000 people to donate $100 every year, our scholarship issue would be solved. While we continue to work on that, can we also build a better pipeline? Why not look at building pipelines into Georgia and South Carolina for musicians. Not every band head in Dekalb County wants to play for BCU, FAMU, or SWAC schools. I'm a little out of the loop but last I heard we're doing as well as can be expected there. They'd been doing appearances - performances, practices, and recruiting trips - at local schools, letting kids know who we are. The scholarship issue is harder - tuition is 14k higher for out of state. But we still get the kids who dont want the other schools, and the ones we can sell on our academic and band programs. And we're on an even footing with the ones that can get academic scholarships. Money is money. We tend to forget recruiting is better than it used to be. But there's still more we could do.
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Post by marchingband1969 on Jul 20, 2021 19:36:58 GMT -5
You know people love to throw out "donate" and that will cure what ails...did you ever think that folk cannot give what they do not have? People have it they just choose not to donate, I have friends that make $190k as an individual that do not donate back to A&T. They will come to homecoming, get a hotel, party and not buy a game ticket…Aggies have money. These same people go take trips to Mexico every year. Most Aggies should be able to afford $120 a year. Lastly if you looked at the board of trustees notes you would see that A&T alums donated a lot but like the chancellor stated people did not donate to the band. Facts are, donating to the band isn’t a priority for many A&T alums. We donate for academic scholarships and a little to AAF. I've begged folks to give to the A&T Band for decades and here's what I've discovered... 1. People want to give to fund student scholarships 2. You've got to be clear that their donation will be used for band students scholarships only. 3. You've got to ask for an appropriate donation (don't ask for too much and embarrass them) 4. Make it super easy to make a donation 5 it's better to get them to donate a small amount each month initially than ask for a large lump sum. 6. Within a few days of their donation, send them a personal thank you note 7. Periodically send contributors some insider information. 8. Have a band student on scholarships call every contributor annual to see if they would like to increase their monthly scholarship donation. 9. At the beginning of the school year publish a financial report outlining how much money was donate the previous band season, how many band students received scholarships and how much donations are now needed.
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919aggie
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Posts: 2,499
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Post by 919aggie on Jul 20, 2021 21:46:03 GMT -5
You know people love to throw out "donate" and that will cure what ails...did you ever think that folk cannot give what they do not have? People have it they just choose not to donate, I have friends that make $190k as an individual that do not donate back to A&T. They will come to homecoming, get a hotel, party and not buy a game ticket…Aggies have money. These same people go take trips to Mexico every year. Most Aggies should be able to afford $120 a year. Lastly if you looked at the board of trustees notes you would see that A&T alums donated a lot but like the chancellor stated people did not donate to the band. Facts are, donating to the band isn’t a priority for many A&T alums. We donate for academic scholarships and a little to AAF. I don't think its fair that the band should have to rely on donations to thrive...Would you be ok with anything else at A&T doing that?
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919aggie
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Post by 919aggie on Jul 20, 2021 21:50:09 GMT -5
Why not look at building pipelines into Georgia and South Carolina for musicians. Not every band head in Dekalb County wants to play for BCU, FAMU, or SWAC schools. I'm a little out of the loop but last I heard we're doing as well as can be expected there. They'd been doing appearances - performances, practices, and recruiting trips - at local schools, letting kids know who we are. The scholarship issue is harder - tuition is 14k higher for out of state. But we still get the kids who dont want the other schools, and the ones we can sell on our academic and band programs. And we're on an even footing with the ones that can get academic scholarships. Money is money. We tend to forget recruiting is better than it used to be. But there's still more we could do. Eliminating the out of state fees would also help imo. Is that a practice for any other program?
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Post by aggie2039 on Jul 20, 2021 22:09:07 GMT -5
People have it they just choose not to donate, I have friends that make $190k as an individual that do not donate back to A&T. They will come to homecoming, get a hotel, party and not buy a game ticket…Aggies have money. These same people go take trips to Mexico every year. Most Aggies should be able to afford $120 a year. Lastly if you looked at the board of trustees notes you would see that A&T alums donated a lot but like the chancellor stated people did not donate to the band. Facts are, donating to the band isn’t a priority for many A&T alums. We donate for academic scholarships and a little to AAF. I don't think its fair that the band should have to rely on donations to thrive...Would you be ok with anything else at A&T doing that? they currently dont rely on donations thrive is relative
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Post by ohsixrain on Jul 20, 2021 23:12:21 GMT -5
I'll say this it's easy to say this since we are moving to a conference where the band will probably be bigger than the opponents. I just wonder what would be everyone's opinion had we moved to the SWAC where our band would be the smallest in the conference but yet, the largest school. I have a feeling that wouldn't sit well with a lot of folks in Greensboro. I just don't like the satisficing attitude as it relates to the band. In the Big South I can pretty much presume nothing will change. But, you should never settle no matter how small.
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Maxell
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Post by Maxell on Jul 21, 2021 1:22:26 GMT -5
I'll say this it's easy to say this since we are moving to a conference where the band will probably be bigger than the opponents. I just wonder what would be everyone's opinion had we moved to the SWAC where our band would be the smallest in the conference but yet, the largest school. I have a feeling that wouldn't sit well with a lot of folks in Greensboro. I just don't like the satisficing attitude as it relates to the band. In the Big South I can pretty much presume nothing will change. But, you should never settle no matter how small. We still play Hampton, NCCU, SCSU and Kennesaw State is formidable (size and musicality) if the band goes to Atlanta.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 21, 2021 7:05:37 GMT -5
I'll say this it's easy to say this since we are moving to a conference where the band will probably be bigger than the opponents. I just wonder what would be everyone's opinion had we moved to the SWAC where our band would be the smallest in the conference but yet, the largest school. I have a feeling that wouldn't sit well with a lot of folks in Greensboro. I just don't like the satisficing attitude as it relates to the band. In the Big South I can pretty much presume nothing will change. But, you should never settle no matter how small. We still play Hampton, NCCU, SCSU and Kennesaw State is formidable (size and musicality) if the band goes to Atlanta. I really hope Kennesaw State doesn’t go full show-style with a dance routine the weekend we play them.
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Post by ohsixrain on Jul 21, 2021 9:26:56 GMT -5
I'll say this it's easy to say this since we are moving to a conference where the band will probably be bigger than the opponents. I just wonder what would be everyone's opinion had we moved to the SWAC where our band would be the smallest in the conference but yet, the largest school. I have a feeling that wouldn't sit well with a lot of folks in Greensboro. I just don't like the satisficing attitude as it relates to the band. In the Big South I can pretty much presume nothing will change. But, you should never settle no matter how small. We still play Hampton, NCCU, SCSU and Kennesaw State is formidable (size and musicality) if the band goes to Atlanta. That's all the more reason why we shouldn't just settle with what we have as a band program, especially when we all know there is more that can be done.
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