Projects
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 giving campus tours. 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.High School Honor Band Festival - When Boise State hosted their annual High School Honor Band Festival, 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.
Pictures With Santa Fundraiser - During finals relief week Kappa Kappa Psi 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 picture taken. Pictures were available in digital format and distributed through e-mail. Pictures were free, donations were accepted (guilt is a wonderful tool). While not an overwhelmingly huge financial success it made money while being a lot of fun.
Music Department Christmas Concert - Iota Kappa was asked to setup, tear down, and function as stage crew for the annual Boise State music department Christmas concert. Due to little information from the music department, other than the fact that they wanted us to help, members ended up spending the vast majority of the day in the Morrison Center learning exactly what we were expected to do and when. We setup seating, stands and the like for the all the choirs, the orchestras, the symphonic bands and a few smaller ensembles. We did stage changes during the concert and after it was all over tore down the set. In the end the concert went off without any major problems and the music department and our sponsor were all very happy with our efforts.
Scrapbook - Right before homecoming the powers that be on the homecoming committee wanted 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, predictably, 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 submissions. The scrapbook was completed and presented to David at the end of the season marching band banquet, December 7th, 2001.
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, we were soaked. The signs used to tell the band what song is up next were no exception, in fact, they were casualties of the game. Kappa Kappa Psi spent a long night inhaling marker fumes at Kinko's, making new signs and having them laminated to prevent future rain damage.
Thursday Clean Up Day - About halfway through the marching season we realized that the facilities being used by the marching band were, well, trashed. On off days some of the practice rooms are used by various high school football teams who are a little hard on the rooms. Kappa Kappa Psi setup a rotating cleaning crew of brothers who pick a room a week then clean and organize it. A major all day cleaning party is scheduled for after the Humanitarian Bowl, which is the last event of the year held in the stadium.
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 we organized a pizza minor social event between the bands after the football game which resulted in some of their band members being invited to play at our basketball game later that night.... and fun was had by all.
Hawaii Trip Packing List - Knowing that the marching band trip to Hawaii had people excited and the band staff frantic with last minute arrangements and more than a little preoccupied, 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...
District III - The District III Marching Band Competition is the major high school marching contest 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. Read the Fall 2001 accent article about District III.
U.S.A. Media Photo - The local media invited the Boise community to pose on the blue turf in the shape of the letters "USA". Our sponsor asked Iota Kappa to be there to help set the participants into the formation. We also ended up helping to make up the letters ourselves. The resulting photograph is currently being made into a poster, the benefits of which will go to the Red Cross.
Garbage Collection - Members of Iota Kappa clean up the marching band section of the stands after the football games. Beginning in October we set up trash bags throughout the band, dance team, color guard and guests of Blue Thunder and collected the sacks and boxes afterwards.
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 store room, 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.