Huntsville High School Band

Welcome to all Crimson Panther Band students and parents to the start of another great year at Huntsville High School. I am excited to begin the 2013-2014 school year as your new Band Parents Association (BPA) President. I look forward to working with some familiar faces as well as getting to know our new band members and their families.

WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO: The Huntsville High School BPA is a parent led organization that provides both volunteer assistance and financial support to the year round band program and its director, Dr. David Spencer. Our goal is to assist in providing the resources needed for a rich music curriculum that meets a high set of standards and keeps our band program viable and competitive in marching and performance competitions. Unfortunately, the band is not funded by Huntsville City Schools or the State of Alabama. Therefore, we fund our program through band dues and fundraising efforts. Our BPA will do its best to control cost while maintaining a top quality band program.

As an organization, we believe that communication is critical in meeting our goal. Throughout the year, our BPA Communications Representative will push information to parents through email channels. She will send a weekly email announcement to keep everyone up to date on the planned week’s activities as well as send out flash email notifications for any changes or time sensitive information. Also, we invite you to stay informed by pulling information from our website where you can find the band planning calendar, forms, and general information. We will do our best to keep the website up to date and reflective of changes as they happen.

MEETINGS: The HHS BPA will meet monthly on the 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:30pm in the band room. Our first meeting will actually be on Tuesday, 20 August instead of the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Everyone is welcome and we hope to see everyone who can make it.

VOLUNTEERING: The BPA could not function without volunteers and we believe that many hands make for light work. Over the course of the school year we rely on our band parents to assist with chaperone duties, concession sales, assisting at concerts, helping with hospitality, and assisting the various committee chairs with other band endeavors. We try to offer service hour credits as compensation where applicable. See the HHS BPA Bylaws on our website for more details on service hour credits.

FUNDRAISING: Our fundraising efforts serve two purposes. The first and primary purpose is to raise funds that will supplement our annual operational budget needs. The secondary purpose of our fundraising efforts is to allow students an opportunity to raise funds through their own initiative that can be applied toward their annual dues and/or trip fees. The revenue raised during fundraising activities is difficult to predict, but these funds play an important role in supplementing our budget. Fundraising efforts are a critical link between our budget needs and maintaining low band fees.

In closing, let me reiterate how excited I am about this coming year in band and how much I look forward to seeing everyone at our BPA meetings. Over the next ten months, I can promise you that your band students will: be directed by an award winning professor, be challenged musically, be rewarded for their hard work, and have a lot of fun as a member of our Crimson Panther Band family. Please let me know if I can answer any questions or be of assistance to you.

Warm Regards,

Rich Arnold, HHS BPA President