Colony Projects
District III Marching Band Festival
The District III Marching Band Festival is the major high school marching competition for southern Idaho. Iota Kappa was asked to organize the various competition volunteers. Due to an inadequate number of outside volunteers, Iota Kappa ended up being largely responsible for escorting the bands, supervising pre-performance rehearsals and the warm-up areas, assisting the adjudicators, and setting up the reserved seating. Iota Kappa's efforts cut down the infamous (and decade spanning tradition) of being 45 minutes behind schedule when the last band of the night took the field a mere 30 seconds late, making DIII 2001 the most timely in the history of the festival.
Garbage Collection
Members of Iota Kappa cleaned up the marching band section of the stands after the football games. Beginning in October they set up trash bags throughout the seating for band, dance team, color guard and guests of Blue Thunder, and collected the sacks and boxes afterwards.
Hawaii Trip Packing List
Knowing that the marching band trip to Hawaii had people excited and the band staff frantic with last minute arrangements, Iota Kappa took the time to create a packing list and distribute it to marching band members the week before the trip. After all, when it's 40 degrees at noon it can be quite difficult to remember to pack sunscreen...
High School Band Clinic
When Boise State hosted their annual High School Band Clinic, Iota Kappa was again asked for help. Showing up at 6:00 in the morning and finally leaving at 5:00 in the evening, Iota Kappa worked as setup crew, runners, equipment room guards, information booth workers, guides, and finally as a tear down crew. During the festival Iota Kappa again handed out flyers and interest cards to prospective students.
Music Department Audition Day
Iota Kappa was approached for help in the Music Department's annual audition day. During audition day, all the potential incoming freshmen for the next year flood the halls of the Morrison Center auditioning for scholarships, taking campus tours, and getting the "come to BSU" speech. Iota Kappa worked as guides showing people where to go, runners fetching everything from coffee to music, and even ambassadors, giving impromptu campus tours in the rain. To prep for the event Iota Kappa tried to gather promo material for the campus bands; discovering that no such material existed for any band but the marching band, Iota Kappa created information flyers detailing all the campus bands, and interest cards for prospective students with more questions.
Music Department Holiday Concert
Iota Kappa was asked to setup and tear down the set, and function as stage crew, for the annual Boise State music department holiday concert. Due to little information from the music department, other than the fact that they wanted the colony to help, members ended up spending the vast majority of the day in the Morrison Center learning exactly what was expected to be done and when. Iota Kappa set up seating, stands and the like for the all the choirs, the orchestras, the symphonic bands, and a few smaller ensembles. They did stage changes during the concert and afterwards tore down the set. In the end the concert went off without any major problems and the music department and Iota Kappa’s sponsor were all very happy with the colony’s efforts.
New Song Signs
If you were at the San Jose State vs. Boise State football game... well, chances are you're still struggling to dry off. Seriously, everyone was soaked. The signs used to tell the band what song was up next were no exception; in fact, they were casualties of the game. Iota Kappa spent a long night inhaling marker fumes at Kinko's, making new signs, and laminating them to prevent future rain damage.
Pictures with Santa Fundraiser
During finals relief week Iota Kappa set up a booth in the Student Union Building complete with picture-taking elves, Santa, and most importantly Mrs. Claus. Students could sit on Santa's lap and have their pictures taken. Pictures were available in digital format and distributed through e-mail. Pictures were free, but donations were accepted. While not an overwhelming financial success, it made some money while being a lot of fun.
San Jose Band Social
San Jose State chose to make their band trip coincide with the Boise State vs. San Jose State football game. While they were here, Iota Kappa organized a minor social event between the bands after the football game, involving pizza followed by some of their band members coming to play at our basketball game later that night. Fun was had by all.
Scrapbook
Right before homecoming the powers-that-be on the homecoming committee decided to create a scrapbook for our sponsor and marching band director, David A. Wells, filled with pages created by his band students. Due to the flood of performances and hectic schedule related to homecoming the scrapbook didn't come off in time to present at homecoming. After homecoming the homecoming committee lost interest in the project and dropped it. Iota Kappa stepped up and resumed the project with the intention of presenting the scrapbook at the band banquet. Iota Kappa obtained supplies and arranged times for groups to get together and work on their pages. Iota Kappa also sent letters to alumni members of the band asking for contributions. The scrapbook was completed and presented to David at the post-season marching band banquet, December 7th, 2001.
Stadium Flag Project
Until this year, the fifteen-foot American flag that flies over the Boise State University stadium was left crumpled in a garbage bag in a storeroom, brought out only for Saturday football games. Iota Kappa has now taken responsibility for the flag, ensuring that it is raised and lowered six days a week and properly stored at night.
U.S.A. Media Project
The local media invited the Boise community to pose on the blue turf in the shape of the letters "USA". Iota Kappa’s sponsor asked the colony to be there to help set the participants into the formation. They also ended up helping to make up the letters ourselves. The resulting photograph was made into a poster, the benefits of which went to the Red Cross.