September 12, 2007

Good Wednesday Morning from the band office –

Sorry I am a day late; I’ve been meeting and talking with folks preparing for our first London meeting tomorrow night (Thursday, Sept. 13) at 7:00 p.m. in the SMW cafeteria. Please make plans to be there and hear about the exciting events that are being planned for your student & you if you so desire to travel with us! If you cannot attend, please email me after Thursday and I will email you the outline and maybe the Power Point of the contents of the meeting.

The next London meeting with Mr. Robert Bone and Lord Roger Bramble is Wednesday, September, 26 also in the Cafeteria. This one is NOT required, but is an excellent opportunity to meet and talk to the gentlemen running the festival. We have invited several local dignitaries to meet and share in this time with such important visitors.

We did get our performance time for the Blue Valley Marching Show on Saturday, September 29. We perform for the first time at 3:45. We will get to watch several other bands. The staff will have time to talk with the judges during the dinner break (dinner provided by Band-aides) and then will perform the show again. Everyone performs twice that day. We get critiqued both times so it give us a lot of feedback allowing us to really come back and clean our show in preparation for the Shawnee Mission and K-State Marching Festivals. I do not yet have times on those shows.

Call time for Sept. 29 is still noon to go to downtown Overland Park for the parade. It will be a tight fit to do both.

BRAVO Freshmen who participate in the Adopt-A-Frosh event last weekend. It looked like everyone had lots of fun and made many new friends. We were extremely proud of your work to get ready as well as your spirit and enthusiasm that evening.

Freshman parents – Charms is now ready for you. Use the link on the Band-Aids website. Enter: ShawneemissionWband in the parent/student box. On the next page enter your son or daughter’s student ID found on the back of their ID card. On this first login, you may change that password to whatever you wish. You may now begin to check on their fundraising and fee payments and many other details.

EVERYONE – A big pat on the back to Sheri Resa for entering the fundraising information in the Charms (she is also trying to get the fee payments posted). Most everyone has paid their band fees for the year. There are only a few that are outstanding at this time. Keep trying, and please let me know a timeline. Again, since this is the first time we have used this system, give us a little time to get used to it, but do ask if you think there is something incorrect.

I will probably take off the calendar info from Charms since Brenda Colvin has done such a great job with the Google Calendar on the Band-Aids Website. We will probably use the Charms Calendar to post important trip deadlines. We’ll see what works best.

While passing around the pats on the back, my hat’s off to Ginny Blaney and her crew for their work with uniforms. Everyone was clothed in fine fashion at our game last week. Also the MIB (roadies) have been exceptional in loading, unloading and moving the equipment for us. There are so many hardworking people. I know many of you are working hard on Spaghetti dinner and all of its many facets. Thank you all for allowing Kevin & I to teach while you go about the business of supporting the kids! Band-Aides R-O-C-K!

Bill Thomas

Director of Bands

Shawnee Mission West High School

email: wethomas@smsd.org

voice: 913-993-7852