MBPA October 5, 2023
Meetng started at 6:02pm
- Mr. DeJoy
o 2023 MetLife Trip- Friday morning to Saturday evening
o More affordable, only one night and with NESBA finals on Sunday we didn’t want to stay
but stll want to give students the opportunity to go to New York (missing school on
Friday- all teachers are aware)
o Info packet will be sent out with hotel contact informaton
o All students have sleeping arrangements, each student has their own bed
o Stll looking for chaperones (Ideally we will have 6, we only have 2 now. Completely free
of charge, responsible for only 2 meals on your own. You do have to share a room with a
chaperone (but will have your own bed))
o First come first serve for chaperones, bias for junior and senior parents
o Chaperones will ride the bus
o Debby McMaster offered to chaperone
o Bus prices have increased, hotels the same
o MBPA put $7,500 towards the MetLife trip saving families $
o When students come to school in the am, they must bring their items in the morning
(possibly bring stuff to rehearsal on Thursday, Mr. DeJoy to look into it this)
o Leaving around 7:30am on Friday
o Field trip absence/excused absence for all students
o Kevin Sitler to drive one of the trucks and will be a chaperone
o Saturday arrival back to Mansfield approximately 10pm-11:30pm (will know the
schedule 2-3 weeks before)
o Sunday NESBA finals- will keep truck packed up and use on Sunday. Will perform at 3:30,
will leave the high school around 12pm for Sunday finals
o Parents not going to MetLife as chaperones, you are welcome to take the trip and go
atend the performance- reach out to MBPA if you are interested in sharing hotel
informaton, etc.
o Ticket price for the performance- $not listed yet, stay tuned (can buy at the gate as well)
o NESBA finals is at Lawrence Memorial, nice big stadium
o Tuesday Oct 24th is the haunted hallways. Group effort between QMS and Performing
Arts, concert at the end. Concert band will do one song. $5.00 a family with trick or
treatng; concert is not too long. Starts at 5, concert at 7, should end by 8:00
o Compettons- every weekend through November
o Received some lights for the field hockey field which will be great for rehearsals,
Mansfield Light Company has donated a light tower for the season at no cost to us;
MBPA and School Administraton were key in getng this done. Lots of support by the
upper administraton, which is very much appreciated!!!
o Halloween Parade is October 28th (band students can wear a costume, no masks so they
can see when they are marching) Mr. DeJoy will give a prize out for best costume
o 7th and 8th graders- Color guard? 7th No; 8th grade Yes. Issue with 7th graders was
traveling out of state. It has not been officially released yet, details will be worked out
but it has been approved by the administraton
- Reminder to sign in to the meetng
- By-Laws: Lots of work has gone into updatng, previous dates were from 2018
o By-Laws will be sent via a link to see the original and the new By-Laws through a
newsleter
o We have 30 days to review, then we will discuss at the next meetng and vote to approve
or make revisions that are deemed necessary, startng a new 30-day cycle, if needed
Changes made:
Did increase the approval spending to $500 (MBPA can spend up to $500
without going to the general group for approval to help with flexibility of items
that Mr. DeJoy may need quicker)
Took out outdated commitees, updated new ones
All board positons are 1-year, treasurer is 2-years - Swag Store- did really well. It is now closed, thank you for the orders. We made about $200
o Orders should be in the first week of November, hopefully before MetLife
o Will send emails to all the parents when the items come in (in case they were purchased
as gits)
o Thinking of opening one in the spring, will keep everyone posted. If you have ideas,
please share!
o We stll have magnets, stckers and lanyards for sale all the tme. If interested, just email
MBPA - Calendar Fundraiser- Coming out 10/12 and due back 10/26. We have great prizes, thank you to
everyone who helped obtain donatons.
o Students will get the calendar in an envelope at rehearsal.
o Ticket on the botom of the calendar needs to be returned
o We are not Venmo’ing MBPA directly- people can Venmo the student/family, then the
student/family will turn in all payments on the 26th
o First pull November 1
o $5.00 for every calendar sale goes into the student’s account; $5.00 to general account
o Credits will not be able to be used for next Disney payment, but WILL be for MetLife, or
the following (November) Disney payment
o Students should turn money and slips into Frani, not Mr. DeJoy, on October 26th
o If you get donatons, turn in with a note that says” 100% donaton to the student” (full
donaton will go to the student) - MetLife already reviewed
- Lights- special thanks to Mr. DeJoy for all he did
- Banner- We have ordered a new parade banner. Mr. DeJoy came up a few optons, students
voted on their preference. Hoping it will be in for Veteran’s Day Parade - Grant Coordinator- We have a new grant coordinator with Rick McMaster. If anyone has interest
or ideas, reach out to Rick. - Any other questons/concerns/new business?
o Bar Pizza will do a pizza dinner night for us
o Pie fundraiser- Disney fundraiser, $22 per pie, depends on how many pies we sell
regarding the money back to student; do not do online component that is listed on the
pie order form; most likely $8.00 per pie back to the student; forms are due Tuesday
October 17th; pies come in the week before Thanksgiving on November 14th. Students
should have the informaton. They are frozen pies, pick up 4-6:30; Mr. DeJoy said that if
any student sells over 20 pies, they get to throw a pie in his face!
- Financials- Please review Ted’s packet
o We will be nowhere near where we were last year
o Last year Gillete increased the stpends, no longer doing that
o August and September are extremely expensive months for us
o Invoices have been sent out to all families for MetLife
o As of tonight, we have received over 50% of the payments for MetLife which is great as
we have a lot of expenses coming up
o We are saving a lot of money for truck rentals, thanks to Gary Troilo for coordinatng this
for MBPA (cheaper and a beter truck!) People at Ryder have been incredibly kind and
supportve to give us their brand new truck, they allow us to pick it up on Fridays, and
only charging us for a 1-day rental which is very helpful for packing up earlier and gives
more flexibility regarding pick up and drop off for our drivers - We will be taking orders for additonal buton orders, due next week, fill out the Google Form
- Gillete:
o Thank you to Tom, Christne, Aaron for keeping this program running for the past 5
years. Thank you for your hard work!!!
o We have new Coordinators- Guy and Katherine have stepped into the Gillete
Coordinators role. Small transitoning period
o We REALLY need people to step up for stand and kitchen managers- it is too much for
people to do everything. There are two trainings: Serve Safe – need names by Friday.
All-day training, take a test and then certfied for 5 years. Teams- alcohol online training;
2 hours, watch videos, take a test, can serve alcohol. We are looking for people to be
the kitchen and stand managers so they will need to take these trainings and get
certfied. Even just running 1-2 events for the season is appreciated.
o Volunteers- We are in desperate need of volunteers. We canceled 10/8 because we
don’t have enough people. Will probably need to cancel 10/21 because we need 7
people. We need 6 people for 10/22; need 11 for 12/3. The more we cancel, the less
we make.
MetLife cost $275 because of what MBPA contributed this year, possibly $850
for MetLife next year
Winter- increase of $1,000-$3,500 without Gillete happening
o Recommendatons/Thoughts Discussion:
Talk to other band parents to volunteer; everyone in the room are the regular
volunteers
When renegotatng contract, try to increase the student partcipaton number
to 4 students (It is hard with only 2 students being able to atend right now)
Dartmouth is able to send 3 students, they almost dropped out of Gillete due to
serious issues with Gillete (now they are on the third floor)
Mansfield High School id’s are accepted
Can you break up the long shits? No. Only for graduatons, monster jam,
tournament days. The “check-in” closes 45 minutes ater call tme
Put on Facebook that we are having to cancel and what we lost out on for
money
Maybe put the breakdown of costs and what MBPA contributed on each of the
invoices? Will do this going forward
Ted will put together the average of what the Patriots games earned for the
program for us to share with families on social media
Maybe clarify that an 18-year-old is not considered a “student”. Frani clarified
the sign-up genius (Will you be 18 years or older at the tme of the event? Now
at the end of the form) Frani will keep an eye out if a student who is too young
signs up to volunteer
We have looked into Xfinity but it is not as profitable and every volunteer needs
to be Serve Safe trained. More regulatons and not as profitable. We do not
think it will sustain the program
Serve Safe trainings cost money. Families get $50 for taking the course whether
you pass or not
MWOT- partnered with Rotary Club and did a Gala and got donatons from
businesses and did a silent aucton. Perhaps do a big event? Dinner Gala with
silent auctons, raffles, etc. Maybe put together a commitee?
Does anyone have any tes into the Grid Iron? Looking to see what they do to
raise their money. We are curious to what their secret is.
We are open to any and all suggestons for fundraising. We don’t want to see
the program go away, if Gillete goes away we become a pep band and there is
no winter, no marching band compettons.
- Link for By-Laws will be sent out shortly
- Next meetng is the 2nd Thursday (November 9th) due to MetLife being on November 3rd and
town meetng on November 2nd.
Meetng Adjourned 7:06pm
Mansfield Band Parents Association 