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The One About Crazy Fundraising
188 Plays2 months ago
This one is about Crazy Fundraising. Stephen and the team talk crazy fundraising with Guest Clinicians Alicia Sharp and Greg Mills from Taft High School in San Antonio, Texas. Don't miss a beat - subscribe to the "On A Water Break" podcast and immerse yourself in the captivating conversations that shape the ever-evolving world of marching arts.
Meet our Hosts
Jackie Brown - @spintronixguard
Stephen McCarrick - @stephenmccarick
Cindy Barry - @leandermomma
Nicole Younger - @o2bnpjs & @thecookoutcg
Trevor Bailey - @t_pain151
Trish O’Shea - @trishdish1002
Beth Beccone - @bether7189
Chris Rutt - @wildhornbrass1
Cynthia Bernard - @cynthiabern
Ashlee Amos - @famousamossss_
Theo Harrison - @harrisontheo07
Stephanie Click - @stephanieclick
Whitney Stone - @dancerwhit
Justin Surface - @J_dex07
Ashley Tran - @itsashleytran
Jack Goudreau - @goudreau_
Bill Woodward - @remoking100
Emily Nee - @tch.makes.art
Ricardo Robinson-Shinall - @ricardorrobinson
Austin Hall - @Austin_hall10
Jose Montes - @joeymontes57
Bobbey Biddle - @bobbeyboy107
Peyton Billhart - @peytonbrillhart
Music provided by leydamusic.com Follow him @josh.leyda
Avatars provided by @tch.makes.art
Keywords: Marching arts podcast, Marching band podcast, Color guard podcast, Percussion podcast, Marching arts education, Marching arts community, drum major, flourish, tatu
Thank you also to @guardcloset
#marchingband #colorguard #dci #podcast #onawaterbreak #wgi #drumline
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Drum Corps International, DCI, Marching Music, Marching Arts, Drum Corps, Marching Band, Marching Percussion, Marching Guard, Marching Arts Podcast, Drum Corps Podcast, Marching Music Podcast, Marching Arts Community, Drum Corps Community, Marching Band Community, colorguard, dci, WGI
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Transcript
Introduction and Weekly Topics Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everyone, we are back for another week of exciting rehearsals. This week we are crazy fundraising. We'll also find out what made Ricardo say, I have seen it done with cows and with chickens. And why Joey said, I was nearly in tears when he shared his on what are we doing because um it resounded so much with what I see every day. All this and more so get out on the field and we will see you back on the sidelines for this week's episode of on a water break.
00:00:30
Speaker
Eight off the Met and Go. Welcome to On A Water
Creative Fundraising Stories
00:00:44
Speaker
time for a water break. Welcome to another episode of season two of On A Water Break. The podcast where we talk about everything you and your friends are talking about at rehearsal on a water break. I'm Steve McCarrick.
00:00:58
Speaker
And we are deep into Bantober. One of the things that is on everyone's mind nowadays is how all this creative stuff gets paid for. Well, we have an interview with Greg Mills from Taft High School, who did something kind of crazy to get his students motivated to fundraise. And it actually worked out in a huge way. That interview is coming up. But first, let's see who we got on the sidelines this week. Got Bobby. Two shows in a row, Bobby. How are you doing? Hi, everybody. How are you doing tonight? It's good to see all of you.
00:01:28
Speaker
Oh, I'm doing good. I don't think I've been on a call with you in a while, Bobby. i I feel like I usually see more in real life at different East Coast things than I do on a water break. But probably probably. Thank you. Thanks for having me. What's the ah what's the craziest fundraiser that you've ever been involved in? I was thinking about this today. I don't know that I've seen crazy fundraisers. I feel like the the crazy fundraising maybe happens in other parts of the country but one that I was surprised that worked really well that I saw and participated in was at the beginning of the summer giving all of the kids a Pringles can
00:02:10
Speaker
And they got to have the Pringles as ah as a treat. But once it was empty, they were to spend the whole summer filling the Pringles can with their spare change and all their family spare change. So when you come home, you empty your pockets, you throw your money in the Pringles can. So they come back for band camp. All of those kids and staff bring back their full Pringles cans full of spare change. I was surprised it raised a few thousand dollars and it was as easy as could be. And you got free Pringles.
00:02:40
Speaker
ah That's awesome, actually. A few thousand dollars. That goes us like so far with a couple of high schools. That's crazy. yeah I never would have thought of something honestly so simple. That's awesome. Well, we've got a lot more different ways that we're going to be fundraising throughout the show, but let's get on here to another guest clinician this week. We've got Ricardo here and you have Internet Ricardo. Thank God. It has been a month without Internet and running from hurricanes. Finally, I can sit down on my couch or lie in my bed and watch the Golden Girls to fall asleep with air conditioning and I am very happy right now. My goodness. How ah how was it? Was your house okay and like how was your neighborhood? Where where were so you? know Fortunately, I live on the spine of Pinellas County, which is St. Petersburg. um For those of you who are she ge geography savvy um but Pinellas County isn't as a peninsula on the peninsula of Florida so I'm like literally 10 minutes from the beach and 10 minutes from the bay. um During Helene the water rose a lot um but because I live on the spine of the county I'm about 34 feet up in elevation so if my house floods from from storm surge then the entire county will be wiped out anyway.
00:04:05
Speaker
Yeah, I was about to say 34 feet in Florida is insane. high It's like a mountain. I live on the mountain. It's like the Rocky Mountains. Yeah. Right. So we were fortunately fine. We we evacuated for both storms. The first storm was but because of a death in the family. So it kind of worked out. My grandmother was trying to make sure that I was safe. So she made me come home for her funeral before the storm hit.
00:04:29
Speaker
um And wow for Milton, the last few days, we left again. I had to go to a design meeting for the Academy, but my husband took the puppy dogs and went to Atlanta and I went and met him there as the storm was happening. But um everything is fine. There's just a lot of downed trees right now.
00:04:49
Speaker
I actually did not get power back until like the Tuesday before ah Milton hit so they had already rebuilt the power like kind of structure around in my neighborhood. so Didn't Milton hit on like a Wednesday? Well okay so like a week before that so like a week before Milton had just got my power back.
00:05:10
Speaker
because they went and redid the power grid in my neighborhood. Everywhere else in the county was without power except for my little neighborhood because our power grid was stronger. Not to laugh at anybody else's misfortune but um I lost all of my food in the first storm and we just decided not to buy groceries so I had a completely empty refrigerator just in case if my power went out for Milton. And when I returned home on Saturday, I had power, but no food, so. Damn. Oh, that's crazy. Never would have expected that outcome in the storm. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. It's been a crazy month. We'll talk more about that later, though. Yeah. I'm glad that you're here and you're safe and your home is safe, Ricardo. So that's good. Thanks, friend. But why don't you tell us a little bit, what's the the craziest fundraising you've been around?
00:06:04
Speaker
You ready for this? I'm ready. Hit me with it. Poop. Bingo. Oh my God. They used to do that in my neighborhood. Yeah. So it can be done. I have seen it done with cows and with chickens.
00:06:19
Speaker
Cow patty bingo or... Cow pie bingo. Yeah. um Super, super easy fundraiser to do because all you need is an animal and um fortunately I live, but I am at a school where they have lots of different animals for the FFA program. But you just grid off a field, you put some numbers down um on the field or it's just stick them in the ground.
00:06:45
Speaker
And then you have a an animal of some sort just walk around and you sell the squares and people, you know, spend five, 10, $15, $20 on it. And you give them a prize of like $100 or so out of that. And you just let the animal do its business.
00:07:05
Speaker
And, you know, you give away a hundred dollars, but you have made, you know, five or $6,000 in just that. And all it costs you is just a little bit of hay
Greg Mills' Fundraising Impact
00:07:16
Speaker
and maybe slightly a little bit of your dignity, but it's fine. This was serious business in my town growing up. I think that the squares used to go for like a hundred dollars and people would stand around watching, just waiting.
00:07:31
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's huge. And I like okay, so listeners, um I don't I know that you think of me as very cutesy and very demure. But I am from the country and I'm used to cows because I literally have cows in my yard at home. um So but I had never heard of it until I moved to Georgia. And that was the first time and this was like, like,
00:07:55
Speaker
in a nice Ritzy-ish area of Cobb County, Georgia. And they, this was their fundraiser and they were like, yeah, this is like huge. We make a ton of money on this. I'd never heard of it before that. And now it's like, I hear it all the time. It's great. That's great. I'm going to lead the charge at my high school.
00:08:17
Speaker
Giddy up. All right. Easy money. Just a little bit of poop. That's it. That ain't hurt nobody. Already I'm just, I'm preferring Pringle cans to poop. I'm on the, I'm on that belt right now. you have to think but money It's just, it's just the animals doing what an animal is going to do. I mean, yeah every, everybody and everything poops. Okay guys. Yeah. What do you got against the poop is stop sharing my business.
00:08:44
Speaker
but
00:08:48
Speaker
All right. Well, on that note, Austin, glad that you're on the show, man. ah It's been a while since ah you were on here with me at least, but you were on with Joey and Greg Mills. feels like Feels like WGI since the last time I saw you, Steven. Yeah, probably. that's That's what most people say. I go into hiding and become a recluse until the following audition season gets going. Yeah, I don't blame you there.
00:09:13
Speaker
but Did you, ah you just had a cool interview with Joey and ah Greg Mills, and we're gonna get into that in a little bit, but did you learn anything ah cool in that interview that you wanted to just like, anything you could drop on us? Yeah, Greg, I mean, greg Greg is really great. um he's running ah He's running a fantastic program over at Taft. um You'll hear more about that in a little bit. But um I mean, one thing that I was like, super about with Greg is that his his willingness for his students was like,
00:09:41
Speaker
He was like off the charts for even for even most directors. He's like, I'm willing to make money. He's like, I'm willing to make money happen, whatever it takes. um You'll learn a little bit more about that coming up. But that was one thing that I really admired from Greg. And I was like, Well, I think we could I think we could all be a little bit more like him be like, even though I know a lot of us are like really, really dedicated to our students. I know I am. I know everyone else here is, but like, the willingness to, how do I say this? I guess alter alter body parts is definitely um is that's the best way I can think of it. The willingness to alter body parts in order to make money for his students. It's not as bad as you think, I promise. Well, you've got me sold now. I'm going to have to sit and keep listening to the podcast. And then at the end of the podcast, I'm probably going to have to rate five stars and subscribe to on a water break. I will be doing that as well.
00:10:39
Speaker
Yeah, but surely I'll have to listen and hear that great interview later when we get to it down the line. But Joey, you certainly know a lot about fundraising. Wow, can you tell us what ah maybe we can expect from this interview that's coming up?
00:10:55
Speaker
um Well, the the biggest thing is, like like Austin already said, um Mr. Mills' commitment to his students is is pretty incredible. um And to to kind of put something on the line um to get an unachievable goal at the beginning, thoughts thoughts of an unachievable goal,
00:11:14
Speaker
and and and ah have that as like the the catalyst for how big of a of a um donation amount that they that they got. um I think it's so cool. and the fact i be like You'll hear in the podcast, but essentially he he ah he put ah he dangled a little carrot, as he said, and was like, I i dare you to hit this goal, and they just they just smashed it.
00:11:37
Speaker
They just smashed it, and that's so cool. um the the big thing My biggest takeaway was, and I won't spoil it for the listeners, but his um his What Are We Doing really resounds with a lot of band directors.
00:11:49
Speaker
um you know i I work with a lot of band directors across the United States and I get to sit in these bandrooms and watch band directors do more than music education ah day in and day out and spend 10, 12 hours at the school doing more than just tell teaching kids how to play their instrument.
00:12:09
Speaker
um And so ah his his on his ah what are we doing is pretty incredible and I think it's important to talk about and I'm hoping we can talk more on the podcast about about important issues like this. But like I said, I'm not going to spoil it for the listeners. that was just my i like i I was nearly in tears when he shared his ah his ah his what are we doing because um it resounded so much with what I see every day. um So wow that was my biggest takeaway.
00:12:36
Speaker
Well, it's awesome. Yeah, I'm excited to check it out then because it sounds like you guys just had like a really ah fruitful conversation, like a lot that band directors could take away from it, but also just ah a lot of cool stuff that everyone can relate to as well. um Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Well, I can't wait to get into that later. But for now, we have a guest clinician joining us tonight who is ready to talk fundraising as well. Everyone welcome back to the show, Alicia Sharp. Hi.
00:13:02
Speaker
Hello, Alicia. So I know you've done your 32 counts before, but maybe could you catch us, ah catch our listeners up with like a 16 count intro to the phrase or something like that? Yeah, it's it's been a few months um since I came on. So I'm Alicia Sharp. I'm from East Tennessee. I'm a color guard person and turned program designer slash designer.
00:13:26
Speaker
ah sorry, program coordinator slash designer and choreographer a number of groups aside from my full-time job now. Great. Yeah, that's awesome. And one thing that I see here that I'm really interested to to learn a bit more about, Jeremy has in exact quotes, you know, something about weird ass fundraising. She wants me to tell thing I'm gonna say. Ricardo's like, Oh, my gosh. I did. um I started
00:14:03
Speaker
in Wintergard marching a very, very poor independent A group when I was in middle school. And we did ah bless your heart car washes in the winter. We waited for like the coldest weekends or when there was a chance of snow to get out on like a main highway and do car washes. And the the first one we ever did, I think we only washed two cars and they were both like personal vehicles, but we made over $500 because people just pitied us and that works in the South.
00:14:31
Speaker
Did they say, oh, oh, bless your heart. Oh, bless your heart. Exactly. Oh, the weather. Exactly. And we had to say, like oh, we're trying to raise money to go to World Championships. And it works in the South. Oh, bless your heart, Sue. All of the money and none of the labor? Pretty much. And we had up costumes. i don't I don't remember how or where they came from, but we had someone that like dressed up as a giant smoothie on the side of the road and spun a flag.
00:15:01
Speaker
anything And only two people stopped for the smoothie? Yeah. No, only two cars were washed. Only two cars. We had plenty of people to stop, but no one wanted to wash. You know, i I never considered good old fashioned guilt as a fundraiser. That is. gets here that is yeah yeah So but now we've done some really cool, successful fundraisers that just weren't normal that we didn't think would do well. We host a car show every year that we make like $6,000 in one day. We just do it at our school and and people pay, I think like $25 to bring their car in. and
00:15:39
Speaker
and We've done a pop-up axe throwing that was really successful. I don't know how much I trust high school kids with axe throwing. on know They a like tractor trailer and like you go, that's the lanes to throw are inside the tractor trailer. That's been cool.
00:15:59
Speaker
and then um I don't know. You guys know like a bunch of programs do the mattress sales. Now we're super successful with that. And we also sell sheets at the same time. And those like people ask year round, when are you selling sheets again? When are you selling sheets again? So those are some of ours like outside the box that have been really good. Yeah, those are really outside the box. But like, that's awesome that that works. And it's a testament to like how creative you could get with these ideas. Like, yeah.
00:16:28
Speaker
literally anything a lot of people will be willing to contribute because it's like going to a good cause at the end of the day. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. I'll have to ah make sure I get in there with the ah ah shoot. I was the first one you let off with there, though. The bless your heart carwash. Yeah, the bless your heart carwash, I think could maybe work in South Jersey to South Jersey likes to pretend it's the south when it's
Community Support for Marching Bands
00:16:52
Speaker
not. Oh, yeah.
00:16:53
Speaker
flip All right. Well, before we toss it to Joey and Austin for this amazing interview that they cooked up with Greg Mills, let's get into the news here.
00:17:17
Speaker
All right, Joey, what do you got for us this week? Oh, right. So I've actually got ah kind of a close ish connection. Princess Anne High School from Virginia Beach, Virginia recorded a song um for the piece by piece movie with Pharrell Williams. And they appeared on the Today show earlier this week.
00:17:36
Speaker
um Something really important to know about Princess Anne is, A, ah my personal connection as I judged them earlier this season, not knowing at all that that we're also connected ah by, it's a, they're a color guard, or they're a color, oh my goodness, sorry, they're a guard closet consigner as well. way yeah Yeah, it's pretty cool that they were on ah the the Today show and um just giving some East Coast pride.
00:18:01
Speaker
um but Yeah, pretty pretty neat to have a marching band on ah on the national stage and in front of millions of people. Yeah, like shout out to that band director. How did you line up that gig? ah Yeah, it's apparently ah reading the article for Rael Williams just reached out to them personally. I was like, and just watching their shows, they do kind of like a hip hop vibe of show um year in, year out anyway. So I think it it all kind of just mixed together. Yeah. Wow.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's really cool. I'm going to have to check out their show then because that's like ah something that I wish existed more in like WGI percussion. I feel like there's like plenty of orchestral stuff, maybe some people trying to get a little poppy with it. Uh, but I would like to see some more hip-hop inspired stuff. Oh yeah. Straight up Alicia Keys ballot. It was beautiful. Oh yeah. All right. Yeah. That's actually something I've i've thought for a while, man. I wish people did just more modern music in their shows, like ever 2025. Y'all better be ready. Oh, man. I'll be there. I'll see it. I'll be there. All right. Let's ah let's check this out. Bobby, what do you got for us this week? Well, it was duly noted at a homecoming in North Texas that a mother, father and daughter duo had all and were currently drum majors at Dunbar High School.
00:19:25
Speaker
So we all know that there's so many family connections with our activity, but um what I'm reading is that um mom, LaMelvia Hall was graduated in 2006. Dad, Jacques Harmon graduated in 2008 and their daughter, Sanaya Harmon is a class of 2024 and they were all drum majors at Dunbar High School in North Texas. So we love to see it. That's awesome. That's like a,
00:19:55
Speaker
Following in the family tradition, I know I've thought for a while, like, oh, I'm going to have some kid and I'm going to raise him to be the most like perfect snare drummer. But it's different when like, uh, you and your, your spouse are both like, we're both going ham on the the same exact thing. Uh, no, Jeremy, not a bass drummer. Cause if I was starting to kid early, I would, I would get them all the way there. He wouldn't get hung up where I got held up.
00:20:22
Speaker
What I love, I love here in the article, too, it says that that there are two little sisters waiting in the wing. So I i think we've only heard just the beginning of this story. Yes. It's a dynasty.
00:20:36
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, ah we'll have another news story for sure in a couple of years here. We will have to check back in. But Austin, what do you got for us this week? Alright, so um Coachella Valley. Yes, the one in California. Yes, the one where Sabrina Carpenter and every large pop star has played at has a high school Coachella Valley High School. They had $25,000 worth of instruments stolen from them.
00:21:05
Speaker
and a local rock band stepped in. They heard the news. They were like, all right, we're fixing this. Here we go. um they said or The rock band is called Avenida Music. They held a benefit concert for them on October 12th.
00:21:20
Speaker
Um So it was like a super it was like a super big thing. They're like, all right, cool. This is a this is a massive fundraiser We're taking no profits. We're not doing anything every single cent that we make from this going straight to Coachella Valley So they can keep making music and it's just a local band. They partner with the local high school it was such a great it's such a great story and and one of my favorite things in here is um,
00:21:44
Speaker
there was a the band director, he was like, I told the kids, we got two choices, we can run from it and let those people did what they did have power over us, or we can move forward. My kids, they worked hard all summer, they wanted to move forward. And honestly, kind of a testament to that band program. And local rock band stepped in and they said, hey, let's fix it. Let's go get these kids some new instruments. And they did just that. I don't know the results of the fundraiser.
00:22:09
Speaker
Um, but I assume that it was great because it was just a couple, it was just a couple of days ago. So, um, hoping that we can bring the result up on a very, very near future podcast.
DCI Rules and Drum Corps Strategy
00:22:20
Speaker
that Yeah. We'll have to keep our eyes on this story. I've been very surprised recently to hear that there's been a string of.
00:22:30
Speaker
breaking into band trailers and band rooms. I think something similar happened to our own Whitney's Round Rock High School this past year. um And I guess it was explained that people know that music like programs in schools have money, you know, so they can resell these items. It's just shack shocking and really sad, but and this is a great moment. It's very awful. heart It's horrible. You're stealing from children.
00:22:55
Speaker
who already are struggling to be able to do something. I think it's awful. That falls in the line for me of throw them underneath the jail.
00:23:06
Speaker
Something I do is I take ah one of those carvers, those metal carvers, and I carve the school's name into a lot of the instruments and a lot of the like, even the electronics, I'll carve into the plastic. So if it ever does get to a pawn shop, they can they know exactly who to call.
00:23:22
Speaker
um And yeah it it happens all the time and it's pretty unfortunate But um that's something that I've used as ah as a tool to get some of the stuff back if it ever gets to a pawn shop Yeah, I guess a little engraver would go a long way with a lot of your bands instruments In a worst-case scenario seven bucks at Harbor Freight Wow well, that's a life pro tip. I wish I never had to give but I I'm glad we gave it. um Alicia, maybe I hope that ah you have a story here that ends a little happier for us. ah Yeah, mine's a little more heartwarming. I think we all know we've had a lot of tragedy lately with Hurricane Helene and and Milton and ah the Western North Carolina area was particularly ah devastated.
00:24:12
Speaker
And um you know I think when this stuff happens, people figure out how they can contribute. And Boone High School Marching Band in Iowa decided that their you know contribution to Wachuga High School in Boone, North Carolina was to learn their fight song and record it for them. um I guess just for you know inspiration or to say, hey, we're here for you. And ah the band director reached out and and sent them the the video just to try to give them a little ray of sunshine and in the midst of everything they were dealing with. So um the videos out there online to watch it is 100% a tearjerker. But yeah, it was a really cool thing for them to do, I think.
00:24:54
Speaker
Yeah, it is really cool the way that like ah communities will come together to try to rally the troops when these sorts of natural disasters will will really wreck ah an area. It's so cool to see like ah the other school come out and kind of recognize that the other guys can use a ah helping hand right now. Yeah, for sure. Well, that is nice. That's very heartwarming. I love to see that. Wish we had had less hurricanes though, ah though I probably am not one to talk on that lately.
00:25:26
Speaker
Ricardo, maybe you're one more to talk on those issues or tell us about a new DCI rule. I will definitely talk about a new DCI rule. And so we all know that last year the DCI brand expanded to encompass what used to formally be DCA, um but is now DCI all age. And next year in 2025 or this year, this coming up season,
00:25:55
Speaker
They are changing the format in which they compete at DCI World Championships. So, this past summer in 2024, we only had one day of championships for our all-age cores, and that was on the Saturday morning. This next year, um DCI all-age cores will compete on Friday night and The top 12 scoring cores from Friday night, regardless of their classification, will advance to the DCI All-Age Championship finals on Saturday, where an overall All-Age... Yep. Uh-huh. Where an overall All-Age champion will be crowned. So cores that do not advance will be invited to perform as a part of the All-Age Division of the SoundSport Music and Food Festival presented by jazz wealth also on Saturday.
00:26:50
Speaker
So this is really cool. Another part of the rule is is that there used to be a minimum of 26 members, but because drum corps and particularly all age corps, because they have a little bit less time commitment, um is experiencing a growth. So now all all age corps will be required to compete with at least 40 members. With the new minimum, corps between 40 and 60 members will fall into the all age A class.
00:27:19
Speaker
61 and 85 members will fall into the all age open class and 86 to 128 members will fall into the all age world class. So this is a big step. Just one year into this being a part of the the DCI family, we're seeing that growth happen with our all age course. Yeah, absolutely.
00:27:42
Speaker
And I feel like it makes so much sense because now like DCA is so much more legitimized, in my eyes, by like going to DCI and putting its finals in the same venue as DCI, same weekend. like It really, really was like heartwarming to me to see Bucks, Bush, Caballeros, Fusion, like all these groups actually out there in Indy.
00:28:06
Speaker
The one reservation that all my friends who did it had was they hated that it was a one one and done performance, just like Saturday morning. So this is huge for DCI all age. You know, anytime we have this kind of growth in the activity and we get to see things expand and it becomes more and more, you know, it's a win for the performers. It's a win for those people who have put in their time and money and effort and blood and sweat and tears.
00:28:33
Speaker
to be able to do this thing that we all love, and I'm just happy to see it grow. And I hope it grows even more so that it turns into, a you know, three days worth of competition. I don't know how that would fall on the DCI calendar with quarterfinals and all of that, but the more opportunities for those people to perform and do the thing that we all love, you know, that's a win for all of us, especially the fans who get to watch all of this amazing drug court happen, all in one place in an amazing venue.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah. And it's really huge too. Just thinking like literally twice as many runs in Lucas oil stadium. Now, if you're a DCI all age person, just snap of a finger, snap of anger. That's awesome. Well, with a little bit more than a snap of a finger, I think that my news story came together. Um, the Boston crusaders just announced to maybe today, if not today, then certainly this week that they're doing a California tour next summer.
00:29:34
Speaker
I think next summer, maybe it's in 2026, but. Yeah, it's 2025. We actually talked about it in our design meeting this past week at the Academy. Whoa, that's awesome. Yeah. We're going to start in California. The Academy had to scoot ahead of time? Do you guys have an intelligence agency? You know, the directors all meet. And so there's like a whole, there's conversation that happens way before news makes it out into the world. So listen, sometimes you get inside scoot because of all of us people who are in the know.
00:30:03
Speaker
We know news before you get to know news. Another reason to listen to the show for our thinly veiled... ah Exactly. and So, for for someone who's not as entrenched in drum corps or DCI necessarily, I love it and I'm a fan, what's the significance of the announcement that they're going on a California tour?
00:30:28
Speaker
I'd say it's like twofold. One is like the, the surface level of it. It's cool that for all those members, they're going to go to California. They're going to track through like a lot more interesting tour than they ever would on an East coast only tour. But also the like a more behind baseball or whatever version that I would give is that like by them going out there and competing with BD early, they're trying to place themselves in more of a ah competitive landscape to win.
00:30:56
Speaker
ah rather than getting boxed out of competing with Cali groups until it might be too late. Yeah, so traditionally, usually the East Coast Corps don't get to see the West Coast Corps until San Antonio. And spoiler alert, and it'll be a news story later, but there's going to be a little bit of changes to how San Antonio happens this year. Yep, I can't talk any more than that. I've said more than I should say, and I'm probably going to have the DCI mafia after me later.
00:31:26
Speaker
i still vi almo do marcardo
00:31:32
Speaker
I'm not putting anything out there in the world that's going to jeopardize me being hunted down by the DCI mafia. So I've already said too much. I'll call you later.
00:31:46
Speaker
And let the record reflect that Ricardo did not talk to us after the call and he hangs up, he leaves, he doesn't like us, he doesn't like us has't talk to us. I've never talked to him in my life. um robin and chanal I have no idea who that is. Yeah, you don't know me. ah But yeah, so then coming to the West Coast, because let me i this was my first year doing the California and West Coast tour.
00:32:12
Speaker
and It is fun. Like California and that whole thing, like first of all, the scenery, the stadiums, it's just beautiful. So this is an amazing opportunity for those Boston performers to get to be and see that part of the country um and really get to go toe to toe. I mean, you on the West Coast tour, you got ah Blue Devils, you've got Santa Clara Vanguard, you've got the Blue Knights, you've got the Academy, you have Troopers. like So it just puts them in a different realm of competition so they're not competing against the same cores that they're used to competing with early in the summer, you know, for the whole summer. And it also can just like set a dynamic. Like I think a lot of time, I know at least I think the cadets when they've done West Coast tour, they've won. howier found it too And they win when they do it. Like there's a ah pretty high incidence of doing it. Cause I bet if you get out there and you can actually be the like lead core in California,
00:33:11
Speaker
and you're not BD or SCV, then like you're a real, real, real force to be reckoned with when you come meet up with what the blue coats, like, uh, the rest of the everyone, but it's, it sets tour off to a great start. If you can just come out hot and you're on a California tour. Absolutely. So my takeaway from all of that is that Boston's going to be out for blood this year. Yes. Yeah. I think they're going to win right now. They'd be my betting favorite to win.
00:33:41
Speaker
Can we put that on some puk bingo squares that they're going to win?
Greg Mills' $41,000 Fundraiser Story
00:33:45
Speaker
that steve I would bet on it. I'll make a drum corps sportsbook, and we can all place our bets on it. Oh my god. Can we do like a drum corps fantasy league? That would be so much fun. Somebody did one this summer. Did they? One of my friends did one this summer. Yeah, it was actually really legit. there was It was pretty tied up. ah We're all getting in this. I'm going to text right now. We're doing this. Do it.
00:34:10
Speaker
on a water break Trump for fantasy. I'm so down. this We can make this a reality. I do a ah separate mini pod about my fantasy team. like Oh my gosh, Johnny in the trumpet section really screwed this up today with the misstep off. No. I would love that. All right. Well, it's time for us to work these changes for the closer again. So we will be right back as we dive a little bit deeper into fundraising.
00:34:48
Speaker
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00:35:03
Speaker
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00:35:33
Speaker
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00:36:00
Speaker
All right, listeners, we're back. So it's Austin and I here on the sidelines. I want to kick off a discussion about fundraising. Austin, what's the most unique fundraising you've ever you've ever kind of put together or done?
00:36:13
Speaker
Oh, um, see, I am never really in an administration role when it comes to like band things. So I never put them together, but I like to participate in them. um One of the most unique to one, I'll tell you about one that I have done and one that I'm about to do. um One thing that the my high my high school did when I was in high school was a car show.
00:36:34
Speaker
o um that was a super That was a super fun idea. One of the band parents was like a super, super car super car guy. And he was like, let's put together this car show and just make it a fundrais make it a booster fundraiser. That's awesome. And it worked great. like People from outside the community showed up. It was a great time. And we and there were spenders, all that good stuff. But the one that we're about to do is a golf tournament. One of my hobbies outside of band is golf. So I'm going to go play in a golf tournament for a fundraiser. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa.
00:37:04
Speaker
all is fun excuse you
00:37:08
Speaker
ia i I think that's so cool. ah what how do you So how do you make money on that? like how do they but Do you pay to play? Is it you know paying to watch? How does how does that work?
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah, pay to play. Um, it's usually or typically a lot of corporations do them. And we just decided to put it together with a, um, with like a local golf course and they were like, yeah, let's do it. And so they're just going to like, and we'll put together a bunch of bunch of people from, um, kind of all over, they sign up to play, they pay a certain fee. Um, the golf course just runs at cost and then any profits go straight to the band. So.
00:37:45
Speaker
That's at least my knowledge of it. um it makes ah It makes a lot of money. um I want to say probably, I think last year, I want to say they made like 15 grand or something like that.
00:37:57
Speaker
That's that's incredible. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I I've ah um' I've been a pretty big, a big fundraising guy. When I started writing drill, people would be like, you know, I don' want I want fifteen hundred dollars to write this drill because Pyware is a just a terrible ah like it's just so hard to get into it. And once you're in it, it's fine. But like the learning curve is pretty steep. ah You know, let me write your drill fifteen hundred dollars. Oh, we can't afford it. Like, oh, well, if you do these fundraisers,
00:38:23
Speaker
You can afford the drill and and you just keep the fundraisers after you write the drill and just say, you know, after I write the drill, keep, keep working, keep working. and You have all this money. I've been pretty passionate about fundraising from the beginning of my career. I actually did a presentation at WGI con. Uh, when it was in New Orleans, it was called banding on a budget and it was a.
00:38:40
Speaker
Essentially, like how how to make this affordable for small town groups and how to scale that up as you continue to succeed. All right. You know, someone who has ah who's taken a huge interest in creating incentives for the students to raise money is our guest of the week. I'll let him introduce himself and tell his whole story. He's from Taft High School in San Antonio, Texas. It's Greg Mills. How's it going, Greg? Good. How are you?
00:39:05
Speaker
Oh, man, I'm I'm living life. i'm I'm really excited to get into this interview. um Like like I've said already, I really love fundraising and it's kind of become a huge passion of mine. And so i'm I'm really excited to hear from you. Can we start our interaction off right now with the 32 count life story? You ready? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Here we go. Thirty two counts off the cuff. Let's hit it.
00:39:32
Speaker
All right, so I am an Arizona born saxophonist. I went to Arizona State University. I was a drum major for three years and then one of my teachers out there got me hooked out ah hooked up with a couple of people out here in San Antonio. So I got a job at Taft High School 12 years ago and been there ever since. This is my one job that I've been at for my whole career so far. Six years as an assistant, now this is my sixth year as a head director.
00:40:00
Speaker
Wow. That's incredible. And you beat the time, my guy. boom boom moon Awesome. We're off to a great start. That's so cool. um Six years as ah as ah an assistant and this is your first as as the head. How's it going? How do you feel about it?
00:40:15
Speaker
Good. This is my sixth year as as the head. pat Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. i no All good. so yeah so I started 12 years ago. um I moved to Texas here. Didn't know anyone. and My closest family member lives a thousand miles away. so Just kind of picked up and and moved everything here for band. ah I know what that's like. That's awesome. Dude, that's so cool. um how you How have you enjoyed, I mean, 12 years in Texas, you're obviously loving it and things are going well. um can we Can we talk about the the the the word around the water break? $41,000. Talk to us about it. Tell me the story. Tell me what the kids are excited about. Let's hear it.
00:40:58
Speaker
Okay. So, I mean, it's really interesting. I was listening to you before and you were saying how how passionate you are about fundraising. I could not be less passionate about fundraising. Like fundraising is my least favorite thing to do. like for For a musician, I want to talk about phrasing, shaping, all that kind of stuff. The business of money is not what I got in this thing to do. ah So we're always trying to find what is the best way to to make money from our community and beyond. And and even what's ethical to make? like how How much money from our immediate community should we constantly be tapping into?
00:41:38
Speaker
And so I do try to be pretty sensitive about that. And so a couple of years ago, we kind of switched to the crowdsource fundraiser, the the thing that everybody seems to be really hip and happening on. Some people call it a March-a-thon kind of deal. um But really, I mean, sometimes people don't want cookie dough. They don't want the this. the They just hear some money. Please stop asking me for money. I don't want your pasta plate. I don't want your this. And and so everything applies to different people.
00:42:08
Speaker
especially for those people that are connected to our community, but not in our backyard. ah Alumni that no longer live in San Antonio that want to support.
00:42:20
Speaker
but just can't physically come to that performance that it's a that's ticketed or something like that. yeah so We started our first crowdsource fundraiser a couple of years ago and we made a modest amount on it. ah We had never done it before and then kind of each year it started ramping up. so I think this is our fourth or fifth year. I've lost track doing it. but The whole thing kind of started last year where I stole an idea from someone else that I saw on social media where if they hit a certain goal, the director would spend a night out on the tower. And I was like, I grew up camping. That that that sounds fun. i I don't have back problems yet. and so
00:42:57
Speaker
So I thought, hey, this will be a great idea. um Which surprisingly, its I got so much less sleep than I thought I was going to get in that the road right next to Taft High School is so much louder at 3 a.m. than I could have possibly imagined.
00:43:13
Speaker
the kids The kids were really great about it though. um I got deliveries of food and all that kind of stuff. they were it was It was a spectacle. and and and i even I did some live streaming on Instagram through our our band Instagram, so kids were asking me questions. and and I was getting texts from other band directors asking, like are you are you on your tower right now? What what are you actually doing?
00:43:35
Speaker
And so I think that interaction then brought more attention to our fundraiser this year. And of course, the question is, what are the stakes? So we we took the same goal of if we reached, I think it was 30,000 this year, which was our goal last year.
00:43:51
Speaker
which I did the towers like, cool, I'll do the tower if you get the same thing. But what's the next carrot on the end of a stick? um And so as a child, I i had buzz cuts growing up. i am I'm not scared of a haircut. yeah So I did offer to completely shave my head bald. If we had $41,000.
00:44:15
Speaker
To be clear, I definitely thought that this was an unattainable goal, but just something something to keep us reaching past to to to have the amount. I know we needed to hit 30K to hit the budget goal, but it's always nice to have some extra on the side there. Yeah. So what's what's under the hat? I got to ask. Has it happened?
00:44:37
Speaker
A full head of hair so far. okay okay In 24 hours, that will be a different story. It's it's going down tomorrow right after school. Oh my goodness. um Who's doing it? Do you get to do it? No. So the the top five kids that had donations in their name get to be the five kids that take it all off.
00:44:55
Speaker
so So those five kids have already gotten together. They have a plan of like, okay, we're going to give them this hairdo first and then this hairdo, and then then we'll end with this. So so they they have a process through it that they that they ah they're they're ready for it. And so we even have a cosmetology department who has lent us the the shears and the the cape, the apron around, everything like that. It's The school is into it. I hear things from the counselors in the front office staff. It's been fun. That's pretty cool. I got a couple questions for you. One, you're streaming this live, right? Yes. We're going to stream it live at our Instagram and our Facebook. Thank you. Nice. I will be looking out for that tomorrow for sure. What time is that going down? 4.45 here in Texas time.
00:45:50
Speaker
pi Gotcha. Cool. Yeah. Looking for. I mean, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it. By the time this airs, it'll already be done, unfortunately. But I know I'll be watching 45 Texas time. Look in Taft Taft bands, Facebook, Instagram. Yeah, we can go. I'm sure we could probably get the replays out for you guys. so Yeah, we' sure we'll we'll post it up. that Yeah, that is such a that's such a crazy insane goal. And you know when you put, when like you said, the carrot in front of the kids, um and they they achieve, that's that's always like, it's like, oh, what do I have to do next? like That's so crazy. Oh, but it's a completely unsustainable process. like this is not like This is not a good long-term idea.
00:46:34
Speaker
But you know you say like the carrot in front of the kids, and you're not wrong about that, but the band parents are more into this. like They're the ones sending the memes. They're the ones that are more excited about this. I think they understand that as an adult, this is something that could socially affect me. The kids think it's something fun. But i mean anytime we're dealing with fundraising, it's not our kids' money we're trying to take. we're We're trying to reach into the community. And the parents are really the gateway into that. And so when we start talking about fundraising,
00:47:04
Speaker
The kids are great. We want to support the kids, but the parents are the gateway towards those sense those sources of funding. Yeah, absolutely. That's so smart. that i've been like ah I think i think this this episode is yeah this episode is going to be so great because this is such an important topic. you know it it is It is kind of scary. it's It's hard to ask people for money. It's hard to know how much enough is enough. It's kind of like you've already said. you know And at some point, you feel like you start to tap like tap you tap out your resources and your community. you know At what point is enough enough? but
00:47:40
Speaker
You know, if if if your community cares enough to create moments like this for the students, like maybe enough is never enough and they'll keep making it happen because they appreciate the work you've put in. I'm sure the the community appreciates the what the band does for the community.
Challenges for Band Directors
00:47:55
Speaker
um So, I mean, I think this is this is all based on work you've put in as a band and ah and as a band director and and what the band offers the community. I think that's so cool. Austin, you got something?
00:48:08
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so, I mean, we're, right you've raised the bar once. Are you going to raise it? Are we already thinking about next year? How are you going to raise a bar? I honestly have no idea. So before I agreed to do this, like obviously I talked to my wife first and I i made sure I had the okay at home. um Again, like I said, this is a completely unsustainable practice. um And so I definitely makes me makes me worried for the future of what what is out there. But also, I got this idea from watching other people on social media. And I don't mind people stealing from me. But yeah, it
00:48:43
Speaker
Like it's hard to keep up with the Joneses down the street on this. Like we see this in marching arts all the time. Yep. We do. I, I I've done the pie, get the, get pied in the face a lot. Like if you do this, you can, you can pie me in the face, you know, but cutting the hair. I mean, um you look great. You look great with the, uh, with the shave. Maybe, maybe you grow a full beard for a year. If, uh, if they hit a next, a next space, shave the eyebrows, I'm not kidding.
00:49:11
Speaker
Oh, no, no, no, that that one's too far. That's too close to home.
00:49:17
Speaker
That's awesome. Well, ah so yet you did the craft source and do you do any other fundraisers is this or is this like the big one that you guys do? So this is the primary one that we do for the year. that That's the big, I guess, cash cow. um We definitely do other fundraisers. In terms of the full program, we try and do three a year. So this is the first one. ah In November, we'll do an Italian dinner. That's ah a big annual thing where it's like the kid's final marching event of the year where we do a standstill performance of the show. We serve food. There's a silent auction. It's all live music. And it's also an appreciation event.
00:49:52
Speaker
for our community that they're always the one pushing the props and and helping us get on the field and being chaperones and serving meals. This is our opportunity to perform for them without any any of that stuff where they actually get to hear and enjoy and see their kids up close without a shake go on.
00:50:08
Speaker
um And then in the in the spring, we'll do a chicken barbecue, which is kind of like ah a drive-through template where our our parents will cook out all day. And we marry that with a car show. I know you guys were talking that about that before. That's a great community event. Again, trying to find ways to financially tap into our community without tapping into our band families is a really key thing to do. And then we've we've got a couple of things here and there. We host a jazz festival. we um Yeah, that that one is is really well attended. We do some percussion. um
00:50:43
Speaker
We do some percussion, 12 drummers of Christmas kind of thing, like some, some drama grounds during Christmas where they'll get in a bus and if you pay us a certain amount of money, we'll go to your house during the Christmas season. We'll, we'll play outside your house. It's kind of fun stuff like that. Yeah. like at christmas I've done that. I've done that too. Like when I was in high school, I did it too. is it It was so fun. We just, we just get in a caravan of cars. We can drive around the community and just pop up in front of people's doors and be a little small ensemble. It's a great time.
00:51:12
Speaker
Now make some noise. Absolutely. that's no Everybody else's neighbors who paid for it or who didn't pay for it. That's awesome. Well, ah you know i again, I think this is this is so cool and it deserves to to to get attention ah the attention that you're getting. I'm sure there's there's people that are just so hyped. ah That's such a ah big amount of money for any ensemble and the fact that it's it's all for the students. and ah you know that's That's what we do all of this for is the students. i think I think it's just all in the right place. so
00:51:43
Speaker
Whatever whatever the next ah the next level is that you take it to, you know i think I think the world knows that you're doing it for your students. And so you know if you lose those eyebrows, if you lose a finger maybe, you know we'll know.
00:51:58
Speaker
We'll know who it's for. I'll legally change my name or something. I don't know. like hey Hey, he said it on a podcast, guys. Let's go. we can you know Maybe you another way is you'll you'll switch the name to like ah like a like a business name. like Now you're ah your truest ah your your truest mills and and you'll get it tattooed on your forehead or something. I'm trying to give your students ideas that are going to be hard for you to break away from. like butever a bad ideal face idea here writing a great face i like that yeah Let's do it well as always ah You know, I appreciate this and this is I think ah it's important to take to get ah to give recognition where it's due You've done a great job with this and again, it's great that you're making this happen for your students. We do something on
00:52:44
Speaker
on On a water break, it's called What Are We Doing? And i well we're going to do it with you if you're OK with it. We'll even play the sound effect. So essentially, what are we doing? ah it's kind of you know It's a little tongue in cheek. It's what are we doing, you know not making time for ourselves. What are we doing, not you know checking levels before a band competition? what do we you know whatever Whatever it is, do you got one? Do you want to do one with us?
00:53:07
Speaker
Oh, gosh. Yeah. Yeah, I've got one. OK, cool. and Yeah. work Yeah, let's do it. We're going to we're going to play out. We're going to play a little thing for you and we're we're we're going off. Here we go. What are we doing?
00:53:24
Speaker
What are we doing? By the way, all of our sounds are custom made for the podcast. So that they're really, really cool. All right. Nice. So Mr. Mills, what are we doing?
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah, so let's talk about college music education right now, like getting educated to be a band director in college. Oh my gosh, to be a successful band director in 2024, somehow magically you have to have these skills of like a woodwind pedagogue, but also with drum core experience, but also You know how to read EQ levels and make ah audio adjustments. And somehow you did a semester or two of indoor color guard and you've got to have all these skills. I don't know how college programs are expected to keep up with the increasing demanding skills that our profession keeps asking us.
00:54:17
Speaker
yeah like No more can you just be a really great musician and be able to be a good pedagogue of the instruments. You've got to be a businessman. You've got to be a designer. You've got to be ah a people pleaser. There is so much demand on our profession right now that college cannot prepare us for it. It's completely impossible.
00:54:39
Speaker
Yeah. i i i i Wow. Yeah. um it is It is something that i I get to work with groups all across the US and I get to sit in band rooms and I watch ah just the defeat on some of these band directors. It's their plan period. They should be planning for the future of their program, but instead they're ah they're looking to acquire buses for Saturday.
00:55:04
Speaker
They're oh yeah raising $41,000 for their program. They're dealing with this administrative things. they're dealing with And it's like, what were what classes did you take in college that prepped you for this? you know And I asked, like you know what you you're good at this. like How'd you get good at this? And some of these band directors say, well, I've been doing it for 20 years. And I've just realized that no one else is going to do the work. And my kids deserve the best. So I have to do it. And it's like, man.
00:55:32
Speaker
It's so hard I like the they the the fact that you guys don't get home until 7 8 at night because you've you got to be there at 7 in the morning you
Reflective Discussions on Band Practices
00:55:40
Speaker
got all the band classes your planet your plan period is is spent looking for buses and designers and design meetings and all the stuff and then you got band practice afterward and then you got to get home and you got to eat and you got to do prep for the next day like sure you guys do a lot and it is ah it it is truly a is truly the the work of saints that y'all do and you know i as a designer get to come in do the easy thing i get to i get to keep the kids riled up for vis block and then i say okay cool go learn music and and i you know
00:56:13
Speaker
I get to sit on the sidelines as y'all do the real the real work and it's it's much appreciated. As a designer of 30 groups in the fall and 15 in the winter, I want to say that I ah truly appreciate the work that y'all do and it it doesn't it doesn't go unseen um by by those that that truly care. yeah why i know even like I'm really blessed. One of the reasons why I moved to Texas is this idea that, of of course, a 6A program needs at least three full-time directors and and and I work with some of the best like our director team. I would put our director team up against any in our area that like I think I work with the best musicians in my district by far. um People who are so much better than myself at what they do um but I've told them before I could sit at my desk never teach a single note all day just do administrative work and have a really good weekly email
00:57:05
Speaker
and i And I would be content. I think I could be happy doing that. Or I could only teach music. I could only be on the podium o all day and that would be happy. But this duality is is such a difficult thing to be able to straddle.
00:57:19
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. I, and so I, you know, I really, that's cool that you've got a great team. The team, teamwork makes the dream work. I, you know, we continue to say that, you know, in the marching band realm, it's all about, I mean, unity is on the sheets so much in the BOA space um that like, if the team isn't working together, there's no way that, you know, we get a ah great product. So that's awesome. That's awesome. um Great job, everyone. Set your equipment down. Gush and go.
00:57:50
Speaker
All right. So another thing that we do here, Greg, is called gushing goes. It's your time to gush and go about anything ah to do with the marching arts. It could be what you got going on this weekend, where you're competing. It could be what you're worried about, what you're happy about for the the winter. Anything marching arts. Do you have a gush and go for us?
00:58:06
Speaker
Sure, um I guess we've got here in Texas. We have the UIL system that kind of governs band and I didn't understand UIL before I i moved to Texas and even then it took me a couple years to really understand the institution that is UIL l ah So we are now out of our phase of our marching season where we are we've done some US bands contest We've done some other invitationals around the area, but now we're in UIL mode and this is the This is band-band. like it's It's not as much about GE. it's Let's have a great concert band sound on a field and excite the audience at the same time, like how to blend the old and the new.
00:58:43
Speaker
I am incredibly proud of the Taft Band Program we've we've been building for several years. And especially in our area, um we are in and such a competitive UIL area, Area H, where we see some of the best bands in the state of Texas. We've got bands that we're going to be up against that have won 6A UIL State over the last decade.
00:59:05
Speaker
um And so to be able to expose my students to that competitive level is something I'm so excited about. And my kids are energized. They want to hold their own. like they They know what our goals are. For Taft High School is to be a part of the Taft High School story as we've developed. I would say four years ago we weren't even making area finals.
00:59:26
Speaker
And now that is a consistent thing for us. And so my kids have really embraced a slow burn as we've moved our way ah for consistency and like we're competing against ourselves, not other people. And it's been rewarding as a director to see that culture take place. So our culture is healthy and tapped.
00:59:44
Speaker
Heck yeah. Culture's where it's at, man. I mean, there's no there's no champion without a championship culture. So ah kudos to you. That's fantastic. um let's Let's wrap this up. where Where can the people find you? And where can we get? or what's the What's the Instagram that we can watch the live and see this hair go away?
01:00:02
Speaker
Yeah, follow us at ah at the Raider band at the raidar Band or you can just search Facebook for a Taft Raider Band. You'll see it it'll be pretty easy to find up on Facebook or Instagram. Yeah, follow us. but ah Following you yeah do you, do you care to to share where we can find you and and follow the things that you're doing as ah as a professional?
01:00:23
Speaker
Uh, yeah. So, uh, one of the things about me is I realize I think what's healthy and not healthy for me. Although I do keep an eye on our band, social media, you're not going to find me on social media. And I'm delightfully ignorant of all that stuff. There's, there's only so many hours of the day. I don't want to spend it looking at my phone. That's awesome. Well, we'll make sure to, to, to check out the Raider band, uh, everyone go back, uh, for a few more chunks and, uh, and then we're going to hit the full run. What are we doing on a water break?
01:01:02
Speaker
Hey everyone, it's Jeremy, your producer from On A Water Break, and here are your announcements coming from the box. While you're enjoying this amazing episode, don't forget our other episodes, including the one about Peggy Twiggs, the one where we go behind the scenes of the Olympics and the marching arts.
01:01:18
Speaker
We check out the first female drummers from Crossman. We also have amazing special features, including at Step Off with Jack Goudreau, Lost in Translation with Cynthia Bernard, and Behind the Lens with Chris Marr and Russell Tanakaya. Don't forget our other bonus feature, On a Water Break With, where we explore individuals or small groups. We talk to people like Eric Carr, Forte Athletics, and comedian Tony Deo.
01:01:44
Speaker
If you know of a story, or you know of someone that would make a great story, email us at onawaterbreakpodcastatgmail.com. Okay, field staff, take it away.
01:02:00
Speaker
All right, we are back and it is time for what are we doing? what are we doing
01:02:16
Speaker
What are we doing? All right, Alicia, do you want to kick us off this time? Absolutely. And I'm probably beating a dead horse. I've probably complained about this on here before. What are we doing buying costumes for our Color Guard kids from these dance websites and then not supplying or teaching or requiring them to have the proper undergarments underneath them? I am judging.
01:02:45
Speaker
Right now in the middle, you know, we're in the middle of the season I'm judging on the weekends and the number of times I'm talking to a group on the field and I see a minor out here with her little dance solo and I can see all I can see everything I can see the bra she turns around I can see the back I can see that like I don't need to see that first of all illegal second of all protect your kids But just make smart decisions. No one needs to be seeing these children's undergarments.
01:03:10
Speaker
As a boy, can someone please talk to the boys about a dance belt? And also the bands that are putting their kids in more like Color Guard-esque costumes. Put them boys in the dance belt. Don't nobody want to see that. That is nasty. It's nasty. Don't nobody want to see it. Compression shorts do not do the same thing as a dance belt. did you They do not.
01:03:36
Speaker
Oh, I've been a fender for that one during my marching days for sure. Steven, this is a PG-rated podcast. Can you please not? I'm simply saying I've worn compression shorts. I would say we it is the adults in the room that are responsible for these things. but Absolutely. The adults being band directors, color guard directors, staff, even parents. I know, we lost them. If my child went on the field looking like what you're describing, I would be having a conversation with somebody about that.
01:04:10
Speaker
yeah I have not been a stranger to getting to the end of my tape and saying, okay, staff, I want you to turn the tape off. Don't let your students listen past this point. And then saying what I need to say about how inappropriate it is and how we need to fix it.
01:04:27
Speaker
I have a fun story, and I know this is not about me right now, but i this is a fun story. Years ago, I had a principal who happened to have been a color guard person before she like became a principal and eventually a school district superintendent. but we were sitting around and we were talking about the color guard costumes and all this stuff and I was like scrolling through my phone and there were pictures of like undergarments and she was like looking at my phone and she said to me she goes you know if you weren't a color guard person I would be really offended by the fact that I'm scrolling you're scrolling through pictures on your phone and there's pictures of like undergarments on there
01:05:03
Speaker
She said, but as a color guard person, I'm very proud to know that you actually think about these things and that you have talked to these children about like what they need to wear underneath their costumes. Yeah. For each. It's how it should be.
01:05:20
Speaker
It's hard conversations, but we're we're getting away from hard conversations, right? We're saying it's a crucial conversation. And yeah you got to have them because it's it's just it's just we don't need that. we We don't need to be paying attention to that. We need to be paying attention to the way they spend, the way they play, the way they dance, the way they do all those things. We don't need to be looking at other stuff. I appreciate it. I appreciate that. that What are we doing? Yeah, call it out politely, quickly and but get it done. Needs to happen.
01:05:50
Speaker
All right, Bobby, do you got a water redoing for us this week? I do. I always talk about how my water redoings aren't necessarily covetching, but they're more actually asking, what are we doing? So what are we doing? And I'm interested in some of your feedback. What are we doing about managing coming to the end of the marching band season, and transitioning towards indoor?
01:06:13
Speaker
How are we setting up those meetings? Like I know my school hosts will do a an interest meeting that kind of overlaps with marching band because I like the marching band kids to be in the meeting. So how are we doing that? Does anyone take like just a big break break from between the two seasons? Does someone go right into it? I'd love to hear what everybody thinks.
01:06:35
Speaker
Well, here in Florida, we go up until Thanksgiving for marching band. So immediately after that Thanksgiving break, we jump right into the winter guard season. So there's not really that much like time off for us. And I know I got a message yesterday about a friend that is ending their marching band season early because they're not doing state championships. And it's like, hey, can you come judge my winter guard auditions? And I was like, ah I'm still going to be a marching band. So I'm sorry, I can't.
01:07:07
Speaker
We hear at least the the ensembles that I work with just because I need the mental break and and we go pretty hard. we We rehearse a lot in afternoons and then they get class. We give them at least a week, a week and a half.
01:07:19
Speaker
but where they're not doing anything marching band, they get those nights off, they get to relax. Uh, and then we'll start like, we call them try it out days. So it's like newbies will come and and try, try see if this is what it looks like. The the vets still get to take them that next week off. So really there's two, two and a half weeks where they're chilling. And then we have audition season. They do, we finished the month of November and then December rehearsal start up again. Let's normal all the way to April.
01:07:44
Speaker
That's usually what we do. And it helps me out too, you know, going six months straight. Like it's nice to have a break and not have to think about it. Obviously there's tons of plant. Like right now I've got all the shows already kind of clicked out and everything, but the kids need to have that mental break and, and get to go be kids for a little bit after school. That's what we do. I think there's something to be said for avoiding burnout, both as a staff and for the students, cause it is really hard to be a kid nowadays. Like they need that break for sure.
01:08:13
Speaker
So I think we always tried, we aimed for two weeks of of nothing and and jumping back in. But Bobby, to answer your first, one of the programs I work with right now, they don't hold any sort of interest meeting, but the um like drum, the director of the indoor drum line has put up QR codes all over for people to scan and fill out an interest form and get the schedule and get like the dues expectation so they can make the decision and kind of figure out where they are during that time off.
01:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I, I find that which I'm sure all of us do in some capacity and some of our listeners will too, especially where we are where we don't have, you know, members that each have 30, 50, 200 members in the ensembles. But ah you know we you know maybe ah the kids we pick up for indoor color guard are some of the flute players in the band or the clarinet players in the band. So there is this idea of catching them when they're still fresh in the mindset of the activity. But yes, I agree. I like to take two or three weeks off, depending on when the football season
01:09:18
Speaker
Is over if we go into playoffs or don't go into playoffs and then we start somebody said we start usually like the first week in December I think Joey said it and and we go until about April too. So that's I yeah, they get the Thanksgiving Day holiday They get that whole holiday sort of several days off and and that's nice, but it's never ending Let's just call it what it is. Yeah Yeah, that sounds like what my high school used to do when I was in high school. My ah my current place I teach, though, we just give them like a good six to eight month break. No indoor. Oh, wow. Give me time to do United. I don't need to endure at my high school for now. All right. ah Let's see. Joey, I think yeah you got our next water we doing. What do you got?
01:10:07
Speaker
oh Mine might be a little, ah I guess it depends on on on how you set your program up and and what you hold important to me. I think optics are really important and and i've never and I'm curious to see what the the panel or what what you know what what y'all think as well, but my what are we doing is what are we doing asking our kids to turn their backs on the ah and the currently performing ensemble.
01:10:31
Speaker
To me, it feels it just feels just petty. but feels like we i su I posted something about this on my Facebook the other day, and Suzy Harlow said something along the lines of like, it's just an old tradition that shows that you kind of value winning more than you care about supporting others doing the thing that you're doing. And so my what are we doing is what are we doing? Not bringing each other up.
01:10:55
Speaker
You know what I mean? like that We're all in the hot, we're all in the cold, we're all fighting to make sure that we have the right frequencies for our microphones and make sure everybody's got the flags. like There's enough stressors and enough hurdles to jump over that we don't need to be you know going to the sideline, dropping our flags off, looking to the left and seeing the backs of people that we wish were supporting us. so I just think it's a silly tradition and I'm fighting to get all my ensembles to get away from them.
01:11:23
Speaker
Dude, yeah it is just banned. It's hundred just banned. None of this matters to 90% of this kid after they graduate. If we're not teaching them to be decent human beings, we shouldn't be teaching them. Period. I think that I always, I think that I always, at least where we are in sort of the Philadelphia mid-Atlantic area and I could be wrong. I think that I always understood it as get focused. yeah Like i we need you to get focused that by watching what's on the field or on the floor, you're not getting yourself into the right mental. I never took it as a form of disrespect. I don't subscribe to it personally. But I don't know, I guess maybe others don't do it for that the reason that you're maybe mentioning, but I'm not sure.
01:12:11
Speaker
So I used to do this because you know it was an old school thing and it was like, yeah, we have to get the kids focused. And what I found over my many, many years of teaching is that it doesn't actually make the kids focus. It makes them more nervous because they're listening to stuff, they're listening to drops, they're listening to the crowd reaction, and they're not actually seeing what's happening. And so I stopped doing it a couple of years ago and I just had the kids like look at them, like support them, see what they're doing.
01:12:40
Speaker
see how, you know, if there's something that they're doing right, how are you gonna emulate that? If there's something that they're doing wrong, how are you gonna do it better? And it changed the dynamic of the way that my kids took the floor. Like, first of all, they were supportive and they were clapping for the kids that came off the floor right before them. And then they got to go out there and say, okay, we're gonna do what we do and the way that we do and it. And it's a game changer. It is. And it's not rude.
01:13:10
Speaker
Dude, way to self reflect and grow. I love that. Yeah, you know, that was weird growth mindset around here. Absolutely. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of what I'm doing with my baseline at United lately, like for their video assignments in the beginning part of the year, like I want them to send a video of a WGI baseline that inspired them. Like I think like there should be more of a reverence for the other people performing.
01:13:35
Speaker
like in my baseline sense like yeah I'm trying to get them to specifically look towards like lines that have done it really well but at like a local high school sense like you should have a reverence for the other groups you're competing against like in my opinion at least the right thing to do is to like show them the respect of watching and seeing what they do you know yeah At the end of the day, you're going to be in an all district band with some of these people in like a month. You know what I mean? Like in a short ah a short amount of time, you're going to be making music together like we're all we're all a big band family here. And well i also kind of I also think to what we're learning about this generation of students is that they do have reference for these things, maybe where my generation didn't and the generations before me and the ones right after me.
Student Support and Show Design Critique
01:14:21
Speaker
The kids love this. They love to support each other. They want to cheer on each other. They're giving each other high fives when we're walking past each other in the hallway. They're interconnected because of social media. So they're all friends with people from other schools, whereas we didn't have that before back in the day because we didn't have that connectivity. So you're exactly right, Bobby.
01:14:41
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Should be more like at the end of a NFL football game when like the two quarterbacks go and dap each other up and it's like, Oh, you guys are boys the whole time. Like I thought this was competitive, but you know, you can have that kind of support and still be like, yeah, the most respectful thing I want to do as your competitors is beat you and be so good. But like that doesn't mean that I can't watch what you do and like what you do either. Yeah.
01:15:10
Speaker
word. Austin, you've had a lot of time here to think out of what are we doing? Do you got one? got one i Okay, I am. I'm gonna have to go into witness protection with Ricardo after this one. But it's here we go. Here we go. We'd like each other you can share my witness protection house.
01:15:28
Speaker
Cool. I'm down. Let's go. ah we're We'll move to an undisclosed um island in the middle of the Pacific for this. Yeah. Meet me at the undisclosed where we're going to be. I said the Pacific's a big ocean. But anyway, um so what are we doing not designing around the strengths of our current performers?
01:15:52
Speaker
um you got a liha hated you yeah I got the praise hand shot fired. Oh, I know. I know. See, because the issue, the the reason I'm going to get thrown into witness protection is because someone's going to listen to this and be like, I do design around my kids. And then they get all these tapes from all these judges and they go, no, honey. No, that's not the case. I haven't seen a lot of shows this year from hardly anybody.
01:16:22
Speaker
But I did see a couple of shows and in a in a in a state that I'm not going to disclose where I was. It was in the southeast. But I saw a show and I was like, watching a cup I watched like a few bands and I'm like, okay, these are really, really good. Like it's designed around their kids. It's well thought out. We've done everything great. And they they do everything really, really, really well. And then there were other groups that went on and I was just like,
01:16:52
Speaker
What? Like, why is your drum major off the podium for a third of the show, playing a saxophone solo? I don't understand that. but if if If they're a really good saxophone player, put them on the field. Feature them as a soloist. Showcase your color guard. put them Put them in a spot where I want to watch them if if they're good enough, you know?
01:17:20
Speaker
Put your, your percussion section is great. Put them in the front. Give the, give the wins a musical challenge while also showcasing your percussion. Like design to the strengths of your performers and you will get way more credit than just doing elevator drill or putting the color guards on the sides or. Or an arc in the back. Exactly. Exactly.
01:17:48
Speaker
I think that goes a little further even into show choice to like pick shows that will resonate with your kids or resonate with your audience. Yeah. This over intellectualized realm we got into with marching band shows. Like I'm just I'm so but I'm going there. I'm going there in a minute. So you're forcing me. I'm getting not getting triggered. I'm getting trigger wrong. I love the thing. I really do. I really like it. I like designing those types of shows. But they but it has to be relatable to the people that are watching it. Like adding in those little Easter eggs, one of my favorite things to do. But if I tell cannot catch my work.
01:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I tell my my clients, like I want grandma sitting up in the corner of the stands to be able to connect with the show as much as anybody else. And if they have no idea what it's about, we're doing something wrong. I told another judge this past weekend in the box because he was like, what was the name of that show? What was the name of that show? And I was like, the name doesn't matter. If we can't tell what it's about, there's a problem.
01:19:00
Speaker
We want to grow this activity and if we're not growing the activity from people that are outside of the activity because they can't connect with it in any way, then what are we doing? yeah Yeah, I will die on that hill. but i I think the conundrum is it's it's a a maturity thing. It's an ego thing. I don't think anyone aims to be not good at designing. I don't think anyone aims at giving their students something that they can achieve. But I just think it's it's a just not knowing, ah unfortunately.
01:19:36
Speaker
And yeah I think that the the passion is always there. Think about the billions of marching band and color-guarded drumline kids we birthed into the world over the last ah decade several decades. And they're going to college and doing it. And then now they become future coaches and band directors. They they have a passion for it. They want to be good at it. That's why I think these different symposiums and and resources that are provided by our parent organizations are really great. We need to get the word out there to get those resources out to people too. But yes, just be better. I don't know. 100%. So I'm going to jump in and do my what are we doing now because it was kind of leading into that. What are we doing designing trauma shows?
01:20:26
Speaker
Hey, Cannot I'm gonna call some people out. I will say, you know, I Like most of us where we get most of our information from trying to figure out what the listeners want to hear about but People post shows. Oh, I'm doing this show and it's dealing with you know Teenage addiction or blah blah blah Like no one wants to see a show about that. No student wants to perform a show about that. Yes, we want kids to have a voice and do that, but no one wants to sit around and watch that. Like you are making kids have to perform and understand things that they may not necessarily know. And I'm pretty sure that the people designing these shows are not mental health counselors to be able to understand it. Like in my my theater world, I,
01:21:18
Speaker
was a victim of, I felt like every year for my competitive one act show, I had to do like a sad tragedy show. And what I found was I, as a trained theater professional, was having to take kids to a place that was very dark. But then I also was having to bring those kids out of that place after every rehearsal, after every performance, and it was a lot of work. It was a lot of mental strain on the kids.
01:21:45
Speaker
So for color guard people who really only know five, six, seven, eight and down, up, down, angle, flat, why are you trying to do a show that's going to cause more harm in kids than it is about pushing the activity forward? What are we doing?
01:22:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great one. Something that I've thought along the same lines before is like some of these shows don't need to be marching band shows. Like we have movies for that or we have books for that. Like we don't need to do a marching band show about this idea. We can do something that's like more appropriate for this medium.
01:22:20
Speaker
I feel like everything you're saying about, like, subject matter can be the same way. You don't need to do shows that are dealing about, like, things that personal in nature. You could just, like, literally come up with any other show. Absolutely. Yeah, I'm the... Great job, everyone. Since you're coming down, gush and go.
01:22:42
Speaker
Well, Joey, while you get us started with gush and goes here, it seems like I'm feeling some Joey time right now. ah Well, so the first thing I want to talk about is I have a really awesome opportunity this weekend. I get to judge the Wyoming State Marching Contest. ah It is held in an ice rink. It's 20 to 20. It's indoors. We're judging literally 10 feet away from spectators.
01:23:06
Speaker
It's going to be really cool. I can't wait to share how this all goes. But the ah the really thing that i I want to talk about is the I want to go and go about this freaking a ah awesome interview we just had with Greg Mills from Taft High School. I mean, ah from what he did.
01:23:23
Speaker
From wanting to to raise $41,000 to what he plans to to continue to do, to keep putting the carrot in front of the kids as he says, then just his his absolute just knowledge on what it takes to be a band director these days. i I left the conversation last night just I felt like a lot of things i continue to talk about with band directors and and and when i hear from band directors all across the united states was i felt validated i felt listen to i felt heard and i felt ah nearly so almost supported like it it felt like there's there's people in great places are doing great things that.
01:24:01
Speaker
are going through the same thing that I see these amazing band directors across the US s do. so i mean the the The conversation, I can't wait for everybody to listen to it, was just amazing. Yeah, that's awesome. I can't wait for the episode to come out so everyone can listen to it as well. But definitely sounds like everything that he does, an inspiration to like how band directors all across the country could run their bands and how they can do all sorts of stuff to really make sure the students are going to have the best experience they can.
01:24:30
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Austin was there with me and I mean, we were sitting there just tag teaming like, okay, well, what did you do? How'd you do this? Or what happened? And it was just, it just, his answers and how knowledgeable he was, was incredible. It was, it was an awesome interview. It was great. He's like a straight up businessman, like an inside of a band inside of the shell of a band director. And it just,
01:24:52
Speaker
It's just, the way that he described everything was just amazing. And you guys already heard, you guys already heard it already, but just the way that he did everything was awesome. I was like, wow, this is phenomenal from top to bottom. He's just a really, really smart dude, like plain and simple. Yeah, that's great. I can't wait for the episode to come out that way. ah Everyone else out here can go take a listen to it. It's a ah a great interview that we got to be a part of here. Thank you guys.
01:25:20
Speaker
Bobby, what's your question this week? So kind of unrelated, but it's concerning ah so many people that participate in our activity.
Celebrating Band Achievements and Transitions
01:25:30
Speaker
It was just National Coming Out Day. And in Philadelphia, Jeremy and I, along with many people who are tacitly connected to the marching arts, were involved with producing our our what we are calling our fest, a National Coming Out Day parade and festival.
01:25:50
Speaker
So it was an amazing day, beautiful weather, went off sort of seamlessly. Andy Cohen was a special guest on the our main stage speaking about getting the vote out. The legendary R and&B singer Shanice stopped by to perform a couple of her hits.
01:26:08
Speaker
So we had an incredible parade that featured, for instance, the Philadelphia Freedom Band, which is, we talked a lot about that during our Pride episode back in June, bands from all across the country that are LGBT Pride ah band groups. So we had our Philly local group. So it was a great day, a great weekend. And of course, you know,
01:26:33
Speaker
and So many people in our marching arts activity are in this community. So I thought it was worth gushing about Yeah, it's awesome is this is this the first year of our fest or have you guys has this been going on for some time now?
01:26:49
Speaker
Well, Outfest has been our national coming out day has been around for a number of years, a couple of decades. I imagine there's been in at least Philly for several years and Outfest, but this is the second or third iteration of this specific team doing it with a parade. And it's been pretty special and growing every year and looking forward to future years.
01:27:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's awesome. Congratulations to you both for ah putting on a good festival. Thank you. And Joey, we already went with Joey. Austin, have we ah done your gush and go yet? No. um Oh goodness, I am gushing and going about winter season coming up um just because I'm really really excited to step into the like kind of the full the full realm of design rather than just like teaching the kids and throwing my input here and there. Just doing the full doing the full design thing. I'm so excited about it. I've just got one group focusing on them doing my thing.
01:27:56
Speaker
going out and visiting them probably once a month. And then yeah, just hanging out and seeing what we can put together and piece together and make it great for them. Nice. Well, good luck with getting all the designs together, man. um all's already rolling I'm loving it so far. So yeah, we'll look forward to hearing more about that as we move through these seasons. But Alicia, what do you want to gush and go on about? I want to gush about the tiny bands that are just killing it right now, and like rural groups. um I just recently got to see if you had a show this past weekend, um a group of 20 members that
01:28:38
Speaker
you know, full design, full visuals, a show concept that made sense. The kids were bought into it, like, and they just played really, really well. And it was so impressive. But then the host school came out. They have 14 kids total in the entire program. They have seven wind players. And I've seen the program for 15 years or so now, and they played so well and sounded so good. And it's just really, really cool to see like these very tiny schools right now doing the thing and doing the thing really, really well. That host school would have been the grand champion of the show had they been competing. Like it, the hands down. Wow. That's really impressive. Yeah. all right What's, where was this at? Like you don't have me asking. No, this was in East Tennessee. So the,
01:29:30
Speaker
The well-designed school I bragged on is Oliver Springs High School and the host school of that show was Harriman High School. Gotcha. That that big area of like Appalachia, especially into like Kentucky, they do it so well. They just got a bunch of really really established 1A programs and then like East Tennessee too. Like with the exception of Dobbins Bennett, of course. but A lot of it. Yeah, obviously. I mean, don't get me wrong, they do they do great things, too. But there's a lot of those like really, really, really small schools up in there that that do really, really well. Yeah, yeah. And just see a group come out with seven, seven members holding instruments and just play as well as, you know, groups that have 50, 60 members. It's it's so cool to see. And, you know, like their educators doing really great things there. Yeah, that's pretty wild to imagine being in like a seven person marching band.
01:30:21
Speaker
It's like I've been in seven person baselines. like That's crazy. We were probably a little louder than the seven person marching band if I had to guess. but we've We've got this band here in North Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina, Carolina, Carolina area. Words are hard. And they usually have about 20 wins and no color guard every year. They do their ballot every year as a soloist or a duet. And the entire band picks up flags and spins very well, by the way. Yeah, double swing flag. I love that. Yeah. Yeah.
01:31:00
Speaker
Okay. night drop of school i Nightdale High School. Nightdale High School. That's and tough. You would be surprised, Steven, that small bands that have a history of being small are conditioned to put out more volume. So 20 kids that have always been 20 kids are conditioned to put out a bigger sound because they have to. So yes, your seven bass drummers were probably pretty loud.
01:31:24
Speaker
But I guarantee you, 20 band kids are like, I got to make up for the seven other trumpets that aren't here. Yeah. It's like any wind enym ensemble, everyone on a part. There's no one else playing your part and you have to carry it and you have to do it well. Wow. Yeah, that's crazy. Shout out to those bands. That's like a totally different way to do marching band, but everyone's a soloist band.
01:31:50
Speaker
That's like that arch Bishop altar group. Did we talk about them? They're they're consistently pretty incredible. they're They've got like a wins group of like 10 every year. It's pretty great. Wow. Yeah. And make like BOA finals and stuff. They're awesome. With 10 people, that's awesome. Yeah, they're great. All right. Well, Ricardo, what's your, ah what are you gushing and going on about this week?
01:32:13
Speaker
Well, I have had a pretty big life move this week at the time of recording. But I have left the classroom. And now I am a school district administrator. I am the district visual and performing arts specialist. Wow.
01:32:34
Speaker
Congrats. Yeah, thanks. It's kind of a sad move because I'm going to miss being with my kids every day. but um I was able to negotiate in my new contract, since this did happen after the school year got started, that I am able to retain my position as theater director and color guard director through the end of this the school year. So after we finish the winter guard season, I will be done as the color guard director. And after we finish the spring musical, which is Haiti Sound this year,
01:33:06
Speaker
I will no longer be going back to that school every day, and I will be fulfilling my responsibilities of making all of our fine arts programs, visual and performing arts in the school district. Top 10 programs. Wow. That's so cool. That's awesome. Congratulations on the promotion there, but it's it's like now your outreach and your net is bigger. You have to go and spread the joy a lot farther. I get to spread this love and light all over all the schools with thousands and thousands and thousands of kids. And I think that this speaks to the importance, I believe.
01:33:44
Speaker
And I actually said this in a public meeting with principals about a year or so ago at my school. It speaks to the importance of fine arts and performing arts administrator positions. Some schools don't have that. I think it certainly maybe depends on the population of your school and therefore the population of the performing arts. but I think that everyone needs a fine, every district needs a fine arts, performing arts person and district office for sure. Absolutely. There's got to be somebody that's advocating for our programs because so often people think that the fine arts classes are the dump classes and oh, they're just going to have fun. They don't understand the actual importance of the education that happens um and the talent that's being fostered in these kids.
01:34:33
Speaker
i mean um We're all products of fine arts programs in some sort of way and we know how valuable that is. So there needs to be someone at the district level that is out there advocating for all kids to be able to get the opportunity to be exposed to the arts in some sort of way. So that's what I said in my interview and I got the job.
01:34:56
Speaker
Well, they have a fantastic advocate in your district's arts program in New Riccardo, so I'm excited to hear about all the great things you'll get up to over there. Thanks, friend. And I'll quick quick gush and go. We just set our baseline at United. I'm super excited. I'm trying to go really, really hard in like the right way with video assignments.
01:35:17
Speaker
and like take that really seriously but like I was saying earlier in the call like also treated a bit more like a college class in the sense that like we're not just gonna like do a drumming video we're also gonna like have book club but the book is a video of Rhythm X's baseline in 2013 or something like we're gonna discuss all these great lines that I think have like shaped what these kids are trying to be and I don't know I think it's like it's really cool settling into my second year of doing this I get to like really really
01:35:49
Speaker
figure out like, what do I want to do to try to make the best baseline that I could in the world? I think that's such a really, that's a really cool idea. And, uh, just the idea of getting them to, to look at different people in the, in the idiom, uh, and, and take from greats in the idiom, I think is really neat. I'm, I'm going to use that at, at Eva this winter. I'm just getting them more aware of things that have come before them, you know,
01:36:15
Speaker
Yeah, thank you, man. I appreciate that. Hey, it's called Gushin Go, not Gushin's Day. Let's go. All right. Well, thank you for a great rehearsal this week. Thank you to our hosts, Austin, Bobby, Joey, Ricardo, and Alicia. Where could they find you on social media or any place else they could follow you? Go follow me on TikTok. Alicia on TikTok 2, the number 2.
01:36:43
Speaker
All right. And thank you to our guest clinicians, Greg Mills as well. You can follow their band at The Raider Band. And one more thing, don't forget we have our YouTube channel now and it's got many of our interviews coming out as full video editions as well. ah Go and subscribe so you don't miss those. And before you close out of your podcast listening app, please go subscribe, write us a review, share this with a friend, and follow us on social media at On A Water Break. And we will see you at the next rehearsal on A Water Break.
01:37:13
Speaker
and go intro and outro music was produced by Josh Lida. To learn more, visit lidamusic.com. And until next time, thanks for tuning in.