top of page
Annual Meeting - 2017

The St. Johnsbury Band held its annual dinner and business meeting on October 23, 2017 at the Elks Lodge in St. Johnsbury, VT. There was a large turnout of Band members and spouses, family, and friends.

The business meeting was held after the dinner. The minutes from last years meeting were distributed, presented and accepted by the Band. Treasurer Kirsten Harter presented the Treasurer's report bringing the members up-to-date on the Band's financial status. She discussed the Bands income and expenses. There have been some donations for an ongoing music fund and a permanent Band display at the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center in St. Johnsbury. She discussed the status of the Bands investments in depth. All items are in the black. The Treasurer's report was accepted.

The Bands manager, Dave Hare, gave the Manager's report. The Band has a $5000 music fund that will have a $500/year distribution for at least ten years depending on how it fares in the market. This will help the Band purchase new music for the next ten seasons. We are also working on a permanent display at the St.  Johnsbury History & Heritage Center. All donations from the upcoming Veteran's Day concert will go to that fund.

There was no old business so the Band turned to new business. Bobby-Ann Fearon of the Nominations committee read the proposed slate of officers for the coming year. Cheryl Gove has volunteered to replace Debi Smith as the Assistant Manager and Ken McCullock will become the new trustee, replacing Rusty Speicher. All other positions remain the same. The slate of officers was voted in and the Band thanked Debi and Rusty for their service.

Attention then turned to awards. Jim McGregor gave us some history of how the Bands highest award, the Lifetime Membership award, came about. He read the current names of past Lifetime Member recipients. The board honored one of our current members with this award: clarinetist Billie Winter. An accomplished player who frequently performs solo pieces, Billie has also served on the board in the past. She is now bringing her children to play in the Band. Congratulations to Billie!

Next, Jim McGregor requested that we add the United Community Church as an Honorary member to the Band. The church is very helpful to the Band letting us perform our Veteran's Day and Holiday concerts in their sanctuary. They have also let the Band hold its annual dinner meeting in their hall in the past.

John Goodrich was the recipient of the Reg and EE Bagley award this year. John has been in the Band for many years helping in almost all aspects of its operation imagineable. This past year, his efforts were responsible for bringing in the money for the music fund and for the permanent display at the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center.

Jim McGregor proposed that a New Music committee be established to review and decide what music to purchase each year with Band funds. Band members can suggest pieces to purchase. This committee was setup and will be an ongoing operation.

Two more items were handled prior to adjournment. First, the Band voted to take the dividends and capital gains from our investments this year and put those funds towards the permanent display at the St. Johnsbury History & Heritage Center. The desire is to get this display completed while prime space is still available at the center. Second, an effort to get our music library appraised so it can be insured will be made. Our library contains many pieces from various eras that are no longer available. Following this appraisal, the Band will look into digitizing or some other means of preserving these irreplaceable pieces.

bottom of page