- Dodgen Middle School Band -
Calendar
2009-2010

I.
Please assist me in teaching your child how to become a responsible young adult by not scheduling two events in their life at the same time. They should honor their first commitments and should inform others of previously scheduled activities. Evening band concerts are listed as MANDATORY because they are a part of the curriculum.  Please check all performance dates prior to volunteering for membership in additional morning ensembles.  Membership in the morning ensemble program is not required, but the performance dates for those groups are required of all volunteer members. Thanks!

II.
Permission forms for all events can be found on the Forms link on the Dodgen Band Website. In an effort to save paper, all permission forms will be created as Google Documents. As you type the information on the Google Document, your responses are automatically downloaded to my spreadsheet. Those families without internet access will be given a hard copy of the permission forms.

III.
CONCERTS: All concerts and recitals will be presented in the Dodgen Middle School Theater beginning at 7:00 PM.  Students are to report at 6:30 PM for concerts.

NOTE: During the course of the year, this calendar is subject to change due to conditions which may be beyond our control.  In an effort to respect your personal calendars, any event changed or added with less than one month's notice will not require mandatory attendance. HOWEVER, in return, in order to respect the participants in each performing ensemble, we ask that you keep all band dates posted on this calendar free of conflicts if none exist as of August 11th, 2009.   Thank you!

All students are required to attend the mandatory events (highlighted in RED) for the group (s) in which they hold membership. ALL OTHER EVENTS which are not mandatory will involve students on a volunteer basis. As you can see, the mandatory events have been kept to a minimum for each group to allow as many students as possible to participate in the band program. The other events are provided to enrich the students' musical experience and to take advantage of opportunities to share the talents of our students with the community. Therefore, students can "Custom Design" their desired level of participation in the Dodgen Band Program. In summary:

ALL 6th grade band students only have two MANDATORY attendance events (winter concert and spring concert)
ALL 7th grade band students only have three MANDATORY attendance events (winter concert, GMEA Performance Evaluation, spring concert)
ALL 8th grade band students only have three MANDATORY attendance events (winter concert, GMEA Performance Evaluation, spring concert)

Place these dates on your master calendar at home now.  If something comes up on a mandatory band date during the year, please immediately inform the other activity sponsor that your child has a previous band commitment. The sponsors of community groups are more than happy to work with you IF THEY KNOW you have a previous commitment. THIS IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IF YOUR CHILD IS A MEMBER OF A COMMUNITY SPORTS TEAM.  Please hand a copy of this schedule to the coach of your team at the first practice of the season.

* Your child's performing ensemble will be scheduled to perform on only one of the dates indicated.  Once the schedule is established by the Georgia Music Educators Association, you will be notified so that you may free up the other dates.   We normally have two to three weeks notice prior to the final scheduled being posted which is not enough time to give you a month's notice.  By blocking off these dates now, you will be able to avoid conflicts for this mandatory State Standards Performance Evaluation.  Thank you!

êIn an effort to help students avoid missing instructional time in other classes, we will be holding our pre-concert double-class rehearsals before school.  Please note there is only one double-class rehearsal scheduled for each band prior to their winter and spring concert. The 7th & 8th grade bands will have an additional rehearsal scheduled prior to their GMEA Performance Evaluation concert.  Since the two band classes at each grade level perform as a single grade level band at concerts, it is important that the two classes have an opportunity to have their final rehearsal as a combined full group.  Please place these few early morning rehearsals on your calendar so that we can maximize rehearsal results with 100% attendance. Thank you!

PLEASE NOTE: Morning ensembles normally meeting on those dates marked with a gold star will be cancelled due to the double class pre-concert rehearsal.