Drawing a Line in the Sand

So here it is...the line in the sand. Do you or don't you? Do you want to become one of the premier band programs in the state or don't you? I have made a goal. What is it? I want my band to play at the South Carolina Music Educators Convention next year. What does this mean? Well a few things. First, when we go to concert festival we work up 2 concert pieces and one warm up march. For convention we will need to work up an entire 50 minute concert. This will include a grade 2, 3, 4, and 5 or 6 concert work, a march, a band accompianed solo work. But first you have to be accepted. To do this you must submit an example of your work. This is want we are working on now. Today was disappointing in that yesterday we worked on a great piece and made a lot of progress but today...no improvement. It was obvious that not much at home practice had taken place. This just can not happen if we are to be accepted. Maybe I just want different things for the band than they want. That is a problem for sure. Certainly things are better than ever in the concert program at Swansea but I am ready to take the entire program forward. I am ready to grow as a band director. Perhaps the band is ready too or maybe not. One thing is for sure, the entire band will need to work much harder from an individual stand point if they want to play at convention. The problem is that there are always consiquences when you make ultimatus. You have to be willing to back them up.