Trumbull High School Band

Webmaster Emm Dee’s suggested points to talk about for volunteers who have worked this event already and plan to do more – for the same of our beloved THSGEMB. Here were the topics we hope people will talk about to others

• Can you describe all the work that is involved in this type of Golf Fund Raiser event
• your frustrations (within reason – remember this is a family show)
• what we did right
• what we did wrong
• what you might try differently next year
• what you expect on the day of the event
• What you will do if it rains – and why wouldn’t it rain at this point !

Well here are my long awaited responses:

• all the work that is involved in this type of event

First let me just say that if you have not run an event like this – don’t even pretend to know how much work that others have to do behind the scenes in the early years of an event like this to make it come off well. To get the tasks identified, to get the prizes and golfers maybe a few local celebrities, and to make sure that for those golfers who show up that it goes really well- and everyone has a great time, is so much work by so many people, that it is hard to explain..  I will try to come back to this point because so much could be written.  You have to understand one thing about these events, there are a lot of them now, it is not like 30 years ago when there were just a few in Fairfield County. Now there are Soooo many events by so many good causes and great causes, and questionable causes that I think the novelty is gone, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great events out there.

• your frustrations (within reason – remember this is a family show)

Pass on this one mostly  for now – except that this event has taken so much out of me that I will be ecstatic when Monday night, June 29th rolls around, and I am headed on home – done with the event for this year, done for the event forever?

• what we did right

We were able to recruit from within the parents so many volunteers that gave so much time and effort into this event that I can safely speak for Frank in saying that the volunteers made this easier than they will ever know. And none of them but one or two even golf ! I’ll say e had six regular volunteers do whatever I asked them to do (and not much of that work was fun) oh yea, other things we did right was get a Hole-In-One contest YEA BABY! – talk Storm’in Norman from WEBE into playing and we concentrated on getting so many good prizes that if all goes as planned, the average golfer will go home with prizes worth well over half of what he or she paid for the event – and he will have been able to play golf, drink beer, eat fabulously, get a tax deduction and stuff our trunks with golf balls, golf clubs, gift certificates. We really did the prizes right this year – yes we did !

• what we did wrong

Not Sure – in this type of event you need to start early and we did. I think the Economy played a big part in making this event so hard to attract people this year. After all how can somebody justify spending a couple of hundred dollars if you are not working. So we started earlier than last year by two-three months, had twice the volunteers, and we wanted a hundred golfers this year, we will be lucky to get 66 maybe 68.

• what you might try differently next year

Next year I would try a different golf course, and that is no reflection on the current course, but maybe people want to spend $300-$400 and play a country club that they would never be able to play ordinarily. I think next year I would also like to guarantee a better economy so that it will be easier to get the golfers to commit to spending that money. Getting back to my comments from above, I will pick the most fabulous Country Club around and team up with a polysyllabic disease that has the effect of bringing wallets right out of the pockets of people so they can help cure a really good cause and our band will help that cause so the organizations that benefit will be very deserving.  I want to make it so that the golfers can play golf at a place that makes them drool when they drive by that golf course. The Connecticut Country Club in Easton comes to mind, there are a few other clubs that might even donate the use of their club on a Monday to allow us to host a cure for some really really bad, bad disease that needs money rasied for it, and I think we are just the organization to make that happen.  If you are going to put your few hundred dollars towards a charity event – and deep down people want to play golf now at a a charity related to some disease they can’t pronounce because it has so many syllables and puts little children through such horrible pain, that people in general (people with a conscience) have to play in these events because they truely are once in a year or lifetime type events. We ran our Advertisement in the paper last week, and there were 3 other ads for similar golf events. Ours was the least expensive event, but the other events were not even listing their prices and were playing golf at local country clubs that a golfer only dreams about playing. So maybe they had the right formula, really good causes, really good golf courses, and don’t worry about the money so much.

• what you expect on the day of the event

For it not to rain, and everybody to leave the event laughing inside and smiling because they had such a great time.

• What you will do if it really rains and thunders – and why wouldn’t it rain at this point !

Cry, and then just move to Seattle, because after all the weather in Seattle right now could not possibly be any worse than it is here in CT this year. So back to the point, I would Cry, Cry, Cry, and then just suck it up and open the bar early since we have already paid for dinner.

Emm Dee