USARD Meeting Minutes
Corning NY
October 30, 2010 12 Noon
Attendees were: Charlie Kammer, Billy Mojica, Nick Biscotti, Steve Young Bill McGrath and Joe Gillotti. Those accounted for but could not attend were: Gary Rockwell and Gary Gillotti.
Meeting Opened at 12 Noon
Agenda Items: (as a follow up from the Rochester meeting):
1 Pick Month and Date for 2nd Annual USARD Convention
2 Discuss all impacts of all possible pending dates
3 Pick site for 2nd Annual Convention
4 Choose a dedicated person to take on more treasury related work
5 Choose a dedicated person to drive membership enhancement
6 Brainstorming the choosing of clinicians
7 Brainstorming the topics for clinics
8 Identifying and solidifying who the current member are
9 Reviewing good practices from the last convention
10 Choosing a date for the next Corning meeting
Agenda Item # 1& 2: We spoke of the possibilities of dates for the 2nd annual convention that ranged from March through April through May. We ended up centering on April 15th which seemed to have less negative impact than other dates. That date for now is still tentative.
Agenda Item #3: We once again centered on the Holiday Inn in Harrisburg …the same hotel as last year. Steve Young submitted that he was waiting for final confirmation from the hotel as to their availability. Steve stated that another event was tentatively scheduled for the Holiday Inn but that event would not have a negative impact on us. Therefore he is awaiting a final OK from the hotel to go ahead with our booking of that site.
Agenda Item # 4: After a short discussion it was determined that Charlie Kammer would take on the office of Treasurer.
Agenda Item # 5: After a short discussion it was determined that Bill Mojica and Steve Young would keep membership responsibilities crisp. The assigning of Treasurer and the Membership responsibilities would free up Joe Gillotti to focus on the Website. Joe was doing all three in the execution of the Treasury the Membership and Web-site, which became somewhat overwhelming at times. Now these tasks are more evenly distributed.
Agenda Item #6: It was determined that Bill McGrath would plan the itinerary of the convention which would include the order of appearance, and administration of clinics and demonstrations. This also determines the order of appearance of individual and ensemble performances which consists of the membership at large. This will also take into consideration more playing time for membership individuals and ensembles and massed drumming.
The possibilities for clinicians (although not a final determination) were: Thom Hannum, Jim Dinkins, John Bosworth/Jon Quigg, Fred Johnson, Tom Rarick, West Point Hell Cats, Old Guard of Fort Myers, Brendan Mason (Madison Street Project), Danny Raymond Jr., and Dominic Cuccia.
Agenda Item # 7: It was determined that the quality of the pending clinic topics would have the highest of priority as possible as driven by availability and associated cost.
It was established that Fred Johnson of CADRE is more than willing to come in and administer a clinic for us. His topic would be the development of the Three Camps and the History of Drumming on the North American continent from 1797 to 1990. He will have other interesting topics as well. Fred, as we all know, is a quality individual and as such whatever he would present would be of the highest order of excellence. Other clinicians and demonstrators would participate as well.
Agenda Item # 8: Joe Gillotti brought an updated list of the current dues paid members. This clarified where we are at this point in time.
Agenda Item # 9: We spoke of “Good Practices” from the 1st Convention and determined that if we were successful the first time around that we need to base the 2nd Convention on these Good Practices. The items discussed were:
· There was familiarity with the Holiday Inn as a convention site,
· The flow of the day went well,
· Incentivize early reservation for participants of the convention,
· We will have a cutoff date for registration of participants,
· Repeat the availability of Coffee and Tea — No Danish,
· We will try to keep the event from being fragmented between the bar and the event site,
· We will again make announcements addressing the flow of the day to curb potential complacency,
· We will section off the main ball room (dividers) when or if necessary,
· We will address lighting when or if necessary,
Roundtable:
· We need more Business Sponsorships,
· We need to make a distinction between Honorary Memberships and Complimentary Memberships,
· We need to cultivate a short list of potential Honorary Memberships
· Publicity (B. McGrath said that he would do the article for Drum Corps World again this year),
· We will continue our drive to keep the Pins and Decals and Brochures moving through Charlie Kammer, Bill Mojica and Steve Young,
· We will attempt another connection with MENC. (Bill McGrath)
· We voted unanimously to donate $100 to the Co. of Fifers and Drummers Jr. Camp 2011,
· To have an emphasis on getting younger members involved,
· We considered the possibility of having Skype for future meetings; but not doing away with face to face meetings.
· The possibilities of performing at DCA in 2011
· Steve Young wants us to keep up with and continue to stay connected to his annual Business Plan for the organization. The components are:
· Performance
· Preservation
· Promotion
· Membership
· Management
· Finance
It is certainly a good plan and will help sustain the organization on all levels.
Agenda Item # 10: The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday January 8th at Marconi’s Lodge in Corning from 12 Noon to 5PM. The snow date if the 8th were to be cancelled would be Saturday the 22nd of January. All membership and staff are welcome!
The meeting adjourned at 4PM and we drummed until 5 PM.
Respectfully Submitted: by William A. McGrath, Jr. for Gary Gillotti