Business

       It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  Right now, it is the neediest of times.  The Houston Band Foundation was set up with 2 purposes in mind.  I wanted to support kids graduating from Houston who had supported the band, and I wanted to raise money for special needs for the band program itself.  In about a month, the Houston Band Foundation will award its first scholarship(s) to a deserving senior member of the Houston Band.  The biggest conundrum facing me is whether or not this will be an ongoing effort.  We have certainly collected enough money to award scholarships for the immediate future.  At question is whether or not we will have enough funds to make this a long term effort.  The math is pretty simple.  Take "X" amount of funds and (if there is enough) invest that amount such that the interest it earns yearly will support the scholarship effort.  We are still a little short having enough to make "forever" work out.

       6 or 7 of you contacted me to offer to donate in the future.  If it is possible to make that future "now", that would help.  I suspect a number of you just forgot that part of the reason for these epistles is raising money.  I set up the pay button on this blog and posted a mail address (several posts back) in an effort to make this really easy to do.  So you will understand my frustration, just under 900 folks read each of these blog posts.  Just under 40 have donated to the cause.  If this happens to be your first reading of a post of mine, please forgive the nagging and rather awkward nature of this one.  You can access the other posts through the archive function located just under the pay button (hint, hint).  Guys, I don't need huge donations.  In this case, literally every little bit helps.

        In my second or third year at Houston we were having a fundraiser that involved selling.  I sent home that typical “We need you to sell X number of this by Y date” letter filled with the usual prophesy of impending doom if you did not comply.  Cheryl Brown (mom of Lauren and Sam) was a new band mom.  She sent me a letter to tell me I had ruined her daughter’s life with stress and angst over selling whatever, that I was the director equivalent of the anti-Christ, and that everybody thought I was unreasonable.  Keep in mind, Cheryl turned out to be one of my best moms but this was certainly one of her worst days.  Since it was hard to talk to everybody about my so obvious shortcomings, I decided to make a few dozen copies of the note and post it on the wall around the band room.  The resulting distress from Cheryl was unfortunate (sorry Cheryl) but the end result was no more complaining from anyone about fundraising.  Over the years, as new generations of band parents would arrive, someone who had not heard of Mrs. Brown’s public flogging would write a letter I felt to be a little over the top so I would copy and post it to the wall.  Tradition born / problem solved.  By way of full disclosure, I promised Cheryl when I told this story at a band banquet that I would not tell it again in public.  Cheryl.... I lied.

        I am not trying to crush or disappoint anyone with my talk of money.  I will love all of you whether you can help out or not.  The next installment of this blog will be some other rememberance of silliness or stupidity.  I won't be revisiting the subject of "donations" for quite a while so don't flinch the next time you see a post.  If you can give, please do.  The kids and program at Houston are worth the sacrifice.