Tom Blakeley called the meeting to order at 7:07 pm.

Secretary's Report
Denise Ozburn made a motion to approve the minutes which were posted on the website; Dave Drenner seconded. Motion carried.

Treasurer's Reports
Mike Kaczmarski explained the deposits recently made. There have been some disbursements for travel. Some prior year cleaning bills have been paid and a deposit has been paid for 2007 Band Camp. The year-to-date cost for props is approximately $2,000, which is below budget. Credit card payments from Discover and American Express cannot be accepted. The District Office is working on $2,591 in old obligations that should have been collected from registration fees. Mike highlighted $7,932 in expenses for Fall Fest, $400 in entry fees for the home show have been collected, and some SIAM fees have been collected. Mike explained the breakdown of travel fees collected. A lot of field show shirts were sold and Mike thanked Mary Ellen Pifko for her hard work. Mike Albert made the motion to accept; Dave Drenner seconded. Motion passed.

IBA Updates: Bill Geary reported that IBA account balances are current through last week. Mr. Johnson has the list available; parents can email Bill if they want to know their balances. Labels will be on the next newsletter showing payment status and IBA account balances.

Communications Report
Newsletters should be received in homes by the end of the month. Emails are sent about a week prior to Booster meetings. Joyce Eriks is taking name tag orders for $6.

Ways and Means Report: Tom McKay was not at the meeting. The car raffle ticket sales are going well. Cookie Dough and Butter Braid orders, which are IBA fund raisers, are due September 28th. Five percent of sales at the Sara Lee stores can be rebated back to the Boosters; our identification no. is 17102. An ornament fund-raiser may be done; anyone interested in the snowman ornaments should let Tom Blakley know. Joyce Eriks is working on a Kohl’s gift card fund raiser. Information will come out in October. The gift cards can be used to pay off Kohl’s account balances; the cards are good for 2 years. The minimum order is $1,000 and 5% will be rebated.

Old Business

Fall Fest: Don Stachura thanked everyone who helped at the Brat Booth at the Fall Festival. The budget figures were met. Tom Blakley thanked Don for his hard work.

Registration/Booster Membership: Cindy Heath has the membership cards for anyone who has not received them.

Market Day: Jean Smith reminded everyone to buy from Market Days. She is trying to earn a new freezer. Orders can be placed on-line or order forms can be dropped off in the school office.

Current Business

Mokena Down Home Fest: This festival will offer another fund raiser opportunity. Anyone not attending BOA is encouraged to work the information booth and run a 50/50 raffle.

SIAM: Tom and Karen McKay will be chairing this fund raiser next year. There will be a driver’s meeting following the Booster meeting. Students will be selling cards on October 1st and 8th. Drivers will be contacting the students to remind them of the dates. Drivers are still needed for all towns. There are 337 businesses represented on the SIAM cards, up from 333 last year. A Frankfort Square/Tinley Park Town Chairman will be needed next year in anticipation of the school split in 2008. Tom Blakley thanked Dave and Lisa for their hard work.

Field Show Shirts & Spirit Wear: Tom commended Mary Ellen Pifko on all her hard work on these shirts. Mary Ellen thanked all her volunteers.

Field Show (Central): Sue Davis and Steve Garbaciak have volunteered to co-chair the home show. They are meeting with Central next week. They will need about 64 volunteers from East. They will be sending out information via email.

LW Foundation for Excellence: Kris Lindley reported that there is a LW Foundation Dinner/Dance on October 28th. The cost is $100 per person, and the Foundation purchases equipment needed by the school, including the Music Department. The Boosters like to have two tables; right now, there are only enough people signed up for one table of ten. There is a silent auction as well as a live auction.

Props: Jim Berry and Jeff Facer have put in a lot of hours on the props. Steve Therriault explained that Jeff has worked over 30 days straight on the props. They are putting together a team of ten people who can consistently get the props on and off the field. The props must get on and off the field within a specific time frame; otherwise, the band is penalized. Prop movers for the field show are not band chaperones.

ISU Tailgate: Steve Therriault and Kris Lindley are co-chairing this event. This party is tradition - started long before the split. It ties together the marching band staff, alumni, and family at one event. The primary purpose is to feed the band between the preliminaries and finals. In a span of 45 minutes, up to 900 people are fed. David Madden is in charge of cooking, Don Stachura is in charge of transportation. Robyn Madden is in charge of tickets. Kris Lindley reported that we have the same sight as last year. The location is only about a ½ block from the stadium. There are bathrooms available as well as hand washing stations. Maps showing the location are available. Additional help is needed during the day. Parents are asked to bring pre-cut desserts. As soon as the band performs, they eat and then prepare for finals, so it is a tight time-frame. Volunteers will not miss the band performance. The cost is $10 per person. The menu includes friend chicken, hot dogs, chili, potato chips and desserts with coffee, Gatorade, water and hot chocolate. Hopefully, this is a break-even event, and Kris encouraged everyone to order tickets ahead of time. Ticket orders can be placed in the blue mailbox, and tickets can be picked up at the October 10th Booster meeting or at the tailgate party. They need light bars, generators and volunteers to help unload the truck on Sunday.

Holiday Bowl parent trip (update): Forms are now available for an optional parent trip to the Holiday Bowl. The trip includes round-trip air transportation, land transportation from the airport, five nights at the hotel, coach bus travel to all events and tickets for all the events the band members are attending. They have a dedicated website for LWE and information pertaining to this trip will be on this site. There are four options; land/air, land only, air only and nothing.

Staff Comments
Madrigals practices are underway; instrumental auditions have been held. Chorally, everything is going well in the Music Department.

Rob Calhoun will be leading the Jazz bands. There will be two jazz bands and a combo, and the top jazz band will be doing some traveling out of state. Guitar ensemble auditions have already taken place. Mr. Teare is now the coach of the Bowling Team.

The concert bands have been working very hard; the first concert is in October.

The band traveled to Goshen last weekend. The day was very long because of traffic problems. The band performed well and earned first place. The competition this weekend at Lake Park will be much tougher. The entire show will be ready for Lake Park. The junior high bands will be joining the Marching Griffins at the football game on Friday evening. They will play the National Anthem and the Fight Song, and then sit with the band until half-time. There will still be a Sounds of the Stadium, but the format will be changed.

More information will be available at the next Booster meeting about San Diego.

Mr. Johnson reminded everyone that a finals performance is never guaranteed. ISU performance time is 5:30. The itinerary for Lake Park is on the website. East performs at 3:30. This year there is no clearing of the stands between prelims and finals. The itinerary for BOA will be out later this week. All performances will be over five weeks from Saturday, with the exception of possible football playoff games.

Mr. Johnson thanked everyone who came out to support the Marching Griffins this past weekend. He thanked all the dads who have helped with the props. He also thanked the chaperones.

Dave Drenner made the motion to adjourn at 8:07; Marcia Montet seconded. Motion approved.

Upcoming Dates:

September 16 Lake Park Show

September 22-24 BOA

September 29 Football Game/Homecoming

October 1 SIAM

October 3 Executive Board Meeting

October 6 Football Game East vs Central

October 7 Band Competition

October 8 SIAM

October 10 General Meeting

October 13 Football Game

October 14 Home Show

October 21 ISU

October 26 Sounds of the Stadium