Hello everyone,

For the past two summers the TJ Band boosters have worked with Ovations (the company that holds the concessions contract with the Frederick Keys) to run a concession stand at Harry Grove Stadium during the minor league baseball season.  For those of you that have been around for a while you already know that the first season was painful.  This past season however was much much better.

Since working Keys games has been a good fundraiser, but does involve quite a bit of work, the band boosters like to establish a Keys/Ovations exploratory committee after each baseball season to gauge interest among the band boosters to determine whether we want to continue working the Keys games or not.  We have taken the first few steps towards continuing this fundraising activity.  At last months general band booster meeting Jen Baker took a survey of families in attendance to see what the interest was with regards to continuing to work Keys games.  She received a favorable response.  We then solicited volunteers to form a committee to work out the details for the upcoming season, and that group met last week.  Vicky Smith has volunteered to be the “Scheduler,” and I have stepped into the “Time tracking/Payroll” role.  Those of you that have been around for the past two seasons know that Dennis Spencer did both of those tasks two years ago, with Linda Norris doing them last season.  With that key role, (now split into two,) filled, it was our intention to communicate with Ovations to learn the specific rules and details about the upcoming baseball season and then distribute those details to the boosters a large, so that we could take a Yes/No vote at this weeks booster meeting.  Well, Ovations is a little behind.  Our main contact with Ovations is actually working at another venue temporarily, up in Canada, so the working-out-the-details process has been delayed a little bit.

Rather than simply waiting for the Ovations folks to ‘catch up’ we’d like to go ahead and start getting our ‘ducks in a row’ by soliciting volunteers for the two lead roles that the stand requires for every game.  Those lead roles are Stand Manager, and Lead Casher/Money Manager.  If we can get 5 to 8 people to commit to each role, then we’ll be in very good shape for the upcoming season.  In a nutshell, the baseball season is 70 games.  If we have 7 stand managers and lead cashiers… each individual is only committing to working about 10 games, spanning 4 months.

Roles briefly defined

The stand manager is just that.  The stand manager is responsible for working with the kitchen and Ovations personnel to make sure that the stand has what it needs to operate, both before and during the game.  The stand manager is responsible for making sure that the workers abide by Ovations’ rules and TJ Band behavior standards.  The stand manager is also responsible for making sure that the opening and closing inventory are completed, and for filling out the paperwork that must be completed for each game.  In addition to the Ovations paperwork, the stand manager also records the time worked by each person and provides that information to the person responsible for tracking the overall worker time and receiving the payments from Ovations.  It’s rare, but the stand manager is also responsible for backing up the cashiers, and contacting stadium personnel when they believe that a customer has had too much to drink.

The lead cashier/money manager is also very much what the title implies.  At the beginning of a game the lead cashier is responsible for making sure the cash registers are ‘zeroed’ out.  They accept the starting cash and insure that the amount is correct.  They then distribute the starting cash between the cash registers.  During busier games the lead casher prepares a money-pickup, usually around the 3^rd inning.  At the end of the game the lead cashier closes out the registers, tallies the final cash, credit card receipts and coupons, reports those totals to the stand manager, and then turns the money in.  For the vast majority of the games the lead cashier/money manager also runs a register as a ‘regular’ cashier when not doing the above duties.  However, there are a handful of very busy games throughout the season where it’s difficult to take a register off-line in order to perform the money manager duties.  For those few games, the lead cashier/money manager will simply be an extra runner or food prep person when not doing money manager things.

That’s about it.  If you have any interest in either of the lead roles for the upcoming baseball season, please let us know by e-mail or by coming to this weeks band booster meeting and letting one of us know.  If you have any general issues or questions please ask.  We may not have an answer to a very specific question yet, as we haven’t received much information about next season from Ovations, but you may very well ask about something we haven’t thought of and need to work out with Ovations… so don’t be shy.

Tom Kurdt

Jen Baker

Vicki Smith

Dennis Kieft

Linda Norris

I received candy bar orders from the following people.  The candy will be at school tomorrow morning.  Please see Mrs. Caulfield for your box of candy if you are on this list. However ,if you have not turned in your money for the 1^st and 2^nd box you will not be allowed to take the next box of candy. I will be checking the mailbox for any candy bar money tomorrow also.  So if you have turned it in I will get it then and you can disregard. Anyone wishing to sell a box of candy please see Mrs. Caulfield and sign up and I will get you on the next round, or you may email me.  We are trying to deliver candy once a week.

Thanks,

Susan Brown (candy lady)

Alexis Hott (need money 1^st)

Shelby Strasser

Kacy Strasser

Victoria R

Whitney Summers

Kelsey Engram (need money 1^st)

Alex Sharman(need money 1^st)

Chris Bona (need money 1^st)

Alex White

Max Goransson

Megan Fowle

Rachael Kalinyak (need money 1^st)

Elaine Zickafoose (need money 1^st)

We have Candy Bars to sell!! Anyone interested in selling a box of candy to make money for their student account please email me and I will make sure you receive a box of candy.  This is a great fundraiser.  You will earn $24.08 per box sold.

Candy Bars will still be distributed tonight!!!!!!!