September 10, 2023

Brass & Color Guard Rehearsal 5:30-6:00pm; HS
Full Band 6-9pm; HS
New Member Parent Coffee Talk 7pm, HS staff dining room
Pick up Car Raffle Tickets or bring in tickets sold/money 8-9pm; either beside the stadium or bus circle depending on location of practice

Wednesday, Sept 13

Color Guard Rehearsal 6-9pm; HS

Thursday, Sept 14

Brass Rehearsal 3-5pm: HS (shortened to exchange time for Monday & Tuesday)
Woodwinds 3-6pm

Friday, Sept 15

Full Band Rehearsal 3-6pm

Saturday, Sept 16

Full Band Rehearsal and Heritage Day Parade (Complete schedule and details are below)

Future planned events can be found on the updated band calendar: Mason Band Calendar

Parent To Do Checklist For This Week

Senior parents- If you have not yet done so, please fill out this form regarding senior ads in the Mason Invitational program. We need this completed no later than September 17th for it to make it in the program.
Senior Parents- You have one more task. Please fill out this form regarding Senior Night as well. Due October 4th.
Pick up Car Raffle Tickets to sell and drop off sold raffle tickets/money. (Please see details below)
New Member Parents- Attend the next Coffee Talk this Tuesday. (Please see details below)
Schedule and order your pictures today! (Please see below for details)
All fees must be up to date by Monday, September 18th. In order to be allowed to sign up for a hotel room on September 18th, students must be current on all fees due or have made plans with a director. (Please see below for details)

NEW INFORMATION

Schedule Changes This Week

Make sure to review the schedule for this week carefully. There have been a few changes to the schedule due to Wes Cartright and Michael Rosales coming into town. All changes are in bold in the schedule above. Please refer to Mr. Sleppy’s email sent out earlier today for more details. If you have any questions, please contact one of the band directors.

Next New Parent Coffee Talk This Tuesday

All new member parents and mentor families are invited to attend our next Coffee Talk this Tuesday, September 12th at 7pm in the HS staff Dining Room. This will be an informal opportunity to socialize with other new parents and have your questions answered by seasoned band parent mentors. This talk’s topics: the Heritage Festival Parade, the volunteering for the Mason Invitational and Super Regionals. Please enter the High School through the music wing doors found at the back of the High School. You will walk straight and the dining room will be on your right hand side. We will have signs to direct you. We hope to see you there!

Heritage Day Parade And Rehearsal Schedule

The Heritage Day Parade is quickly approaching on Saturday, September 16th. Please see below for the day’s schedule. Please note the schedule is different than what had originally been on the band calendar due to the uncertainty of what time of the day the parade would be taking place. Please note that road closures will begin at 12:00pm. You will want to keep that in mind when you consider lunch plans for your student. It may be more difficult to have food dropped off or delivered. More details on road closures and the Heritage Festival can be found HERE.

Uniforms

The current plan is for the band to wear their summer uniforms. This could change depending on the weather so please be sure to read all communication from the directors prior to the parade.

Instrumentalist Summer Uniform (Please make sure you wear the correct colors):

Black socks
Black/dark shoes
Black Shorts
Green Mason Band polo
Black belt

Color Guard Uniform

Spirit Uniform

HERITAGE DAY PARADE & REHEARSAL SCHEDULE September 16
9:00-11:00am	Rehearsal
11:00-11:15am	Snack Break
11:15-1:30pm	Rehearsal
1:30-2:30pm	Eat Lunch and Change into Uniform (summer or classic TBD by weather)
2:30pm	Block in bus circle, then walk over to parade staging area (Foxfield Drive by the Municipal Center).
3:00pm	Parade! Starts at the Municipal Center, runs north on Mason-Montgomery Rd, then left on Rt.42, and runs downtown. Best pick up location will be St. Susanna parking lot.
3:30pm	Parade ends at the St. Susanna parking lot. Students dismissed.
3:30-4:30pm	Band Room open to return equipment

BOA Preliminary Performance Times Confirmed!

Bands of America has confirmed performance times for both BOA trips. They are below:

BOA Indy Super Regional - Friday, Oct. 20, 2023- 4:15pm*

BOA Grand Nationals Prelims - Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023-4:45pm*

*Even though these times are confirmed, there is a slight chance that they could change due to bands dropping out, being added, etc.

BOA Housing Update and Room Sign-Ups

We are happy to report we have secured housing for our students, directors, staff and chaperones for the upcoming Bands of America trips in Indianapolis. The entire band will stay at the following hotel in Downtown Indianapolis for both the BOA Super Regional (1 Night-Oct 21-22) and BOA Grand Nationals (2 Nights-November 10-12):

Indianapolis Marriott Downtown (this is NOT the JW Marriott)
350 W Maryland Street
Indianapolis, IN 46225

This means we will be creating room lists coming up very soon. Have your student work on creating their twosome or foursome (4 students to a room) and we will plan to have sign-ups after rehearsal on Monday, September 18th, 2023 6-6:15pm.

A few things to note regarding room assignments:

Rooms will be 4 to a room; we will not be assigning any rooms of 3 this year!
Each room will have two Queen beds. (no King rooms this year)
If your student submits a group of 2, they will be paired with another group of 2.
Students may only room with students of the same gender assigned at birth.

We will be using the same room lists for ALL THREE TRIPS this season!

IMPORTANT: In order to be allowed to sign up for a room, STUDENTS MUST BE CURRENT ON ALL FEES DUE TO DATE OR MAKE A PLAN WITH THE DIRECTORS! As we did prior to Mini-Camp, each family will be receiving a statement via email this week which will include any past due fees. There are LOTS of Student Experience fees still outstanding. You should have received two invoices from Quickbooks, both of which are now PAST DUE:

$400 - Due 7/1/23 sent from quickbooks@notification.intuit.com
$450 - Due 9/1/23 sent from quickbooks@notification.intuit.com

If you have not yet paid either of those invoices, please pay them TODAY as it will greatly help us reduce the amount of work for our volunteers who work so hard on these experiences for our students! If you aren’t sure whether you have paid or not, you should have received a payment confirmation email from Quickbooks or if you find the original invoice emailed to you, click on “Review and Pay” and it will tell you your balance is $0.00. If you did not receive any invoices, please email treasurer@masonbandboosters.com.

Time To Schedule Individual Portraits

It is now time to schedule and place an order for individual portraits! You will also be able to place orders for the panoramic picture of the band, section photos, buttons, ornaments, and more. To schedule and place an order, please click HERE.

Instrumentalist photos: Wednesday, October 4th. (Date is subject to change if the competition uniforms do not arrive as scheduled)
Color Guard photos: Thursday, October 5th.

** Please Note** If you are in the Wind Symphony please schedule your appointment after your rehearsal. Your rehearsal ends at 5pm. This will ensure that rehearsal will not be disrupted. For those who are not in the Wind Symphony, if your schedule allows, please sign up for an appointment prior to 5pm. We appreciate your cooperation.

Friday’s District Tailgate

The District Tailgate was on Friday, September 8th. Mason Bands was there handing out prizes with our PLINKO board and selling Car Raffle tickets. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booths! A great deal of fun was had by all. Special thanks to the band parents who volunteered to work the booths and helped to make sure everything ran smoothly. This was a wonderful opportunity for younger Mason students within the district to have fun with the band and perhaps plant a seed to get them excited to possibly join the band in the future.

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE MUMS SALE!

Saturday was the conclusion of our Mason Band Mums sale and it was a huge success! The Band raised over $3800 profit! Special thanks to Betsy Sherlock, Carrie Upchurch and Rebecca Synan for coordinating and leading this event and to our wonderful volunteers who came out on Saturday to help sort, deliver and distribute the orders!

REMINDERS

Volunteers Needed To Help Sell Car Raffle Tickets

The Car Raffle is one of our largest fundraisers for the band. We are in need of parent volunteers to help us sell tickets during football games and to help build up some community interest and excitement. If you are interested in helping us with this simple but important task, please sign up at the links below.

Friday, Oct. 6th

Mason Bands Car Raffle

Only a few more weeks to sell and purchase Car Raffle tickets to win a 2023 Jeep Wrangler or a cash prize! Please help us reach our goal of selling 3000 Tickets before the drawing on October 7th.

Information on the Car Raffle can be found HERE.

If you have not yet done so, please pick up tickets to sell near rehearsal (either bus circle or stadium) on Tuesday from 8-9pm. Adults ONLY please! You may also drop off money/tickets you have already sold during this time. We are asking each family to sell at least 9 tickets. We welcome you to sell as many as you can! The three families that sell the most tickets will win a $100 gift card to Topgolf!!

Please Note: If purchasing a bundle, all tickets in the bundle must have the same name, address and phone number with them.

Questions? - Please direct those to carraffle@masonbandboosters.com.

Super Regional Tickets On Sale Now

Super Regional tickets can now be purchased at the links below.

Friday Prelims Tickets- Guaranteed to perform. (4:15pm performance time)

Saturday Finals Tickets - Will need if we proceed to finals. **Please note that the only tickets needed for Saturday would be Finals Tickets since our preliminary performance takes place on Friday.** You do not need Saturday Preliminary Tickets (unless you are interested in watching other bands that are scheduled for their Prelims on Saturday.)

The most current details/information on the trip can be found HERE for your planning purposes.

More information can be found at https://marching.musicforall.org/event/indysuper23/

Grand National Tickets Now On Sale

Performances and Tickets

This is a ticketed event. Families and friends are encouraged to make plans in advance to see the band in action at Lucas Oil Stadium.

There are two days of preliminary competition and we know Mason will perform Thursday, 11/9/23 at 4:45pm. Pending scores, Mason hopes to perform a second time in the semi-finals on Saturday 11/11/23 during the day. Based on the results of the semi-finals, bands have the opportunity to perform in the finals Saturday evening.

PLEASE NOTE: Each round is a separate ticketed event! Mason's Preliminary performance is on Thursday, November 9th at 4:45pm. Any Semi-Finals or Finals performance times will not be known until Preliminary competition has concluded. The links to purchase tickets are below:

Prelims - Thursday, 11/9/2023 - Mason Performs at 4:45pm!

Prelims - Friday, 11/10/2023- Mason does NOT perform this day, but the plan is for students to watch bands and semi-finals announcement at LOS.

Semis - Saturday, 11/11/2023 - Mason Semis performance time TBD (announced Friday evening).

Finals - Saturday, 11/11/2023 - Mason performance NOT guaranteed. Performance and time slot contingent on score in Semi-Finals and results.

***Pro Tip*** If you plan to stay in Indianapolis at any point during the weekend, we highly recommend you make reservations/plans for accommodations now to ensure you have a place to stay.

STUDENT ACCOMODATION SCHEDULE
Thursday	Travel to Indianapolis and will Return to Mason later that night. (Sleep in own bed!)
Friday	Spend the night in Indianapolis
Saturday	Spend the night in Indianapolis
Sunday	Return to Mason

Please click here for more information. Additional schedule details will be released as it becomes available.

Marching Band Next Steps - Registration Guide

Marching Band Registration Guide

This linked guide below is a comprehensive guide on all of the remaining steps required for both Marching Band and the Rose Parade Trip.

2023 Marching Band Registration Guide

Next Up

October 1- Rose Trip Payment # 5 of $575 is due. Payment can be made to Bob Rogers Travel

Please contact medicalsecretary@masonbandboosters.com with any questions regarding medications or physicals. If you have any questions regarding fees, please email Mr. Sleppy at sleppyj@masonohioschools.com.