Info for Managers and Hosts

Festival Policies

All hosts and managers should be familiar with District 3's Festival Policies

Budgets

D3 budget can be found by clicking here. Listed there are fees for students, conductors, accompanists, and adjudicators, as well as mileage and meal allowances, etc. In addition, the supplemental part of the budget lists honorariums for the various hosting and managing positions, to be paid to the person's school. The honorariums will not be paid until the end of the school year and only if the funding is recommended by the treasurer and by vote of the membership at the spring meeting.

Please remember that the MMEA Institutional Fee for each school system should be paid in order for a school to participate in D3 Festivals. Schools who have not paid/cannot furnish an MMEA Institutional Number on their festival registration forms will be charged an additional fee of $100.00 for each D3 event in which they participate. 

Finances

Please read carefully and follow the  financial checklist

Please request checks at least two weeks prior to an event. You may e-mail the treasurer to do this (d3treasurer@mainemea.org), but please provide a “snail-mail” address to send the checks.

Sample Contracts for Conductors and Accompanists

Below are the contract templates that event planners can use in hiring conductors and accompanists for festivals. Simply click 'make a copy' so that you are able make changes needed for your event (highlighted in yellow). It is highly recommended that you specifically check the conductor, accompanist, and mileage fees in case they have been increased and this sample hasn't been updated. Check the District 3 calendar before carving anything in stone! Hotels will only be provided for conductors & accompanist who live in excess of a one hour drive to the festival site.

Sample Audition and Festival Registration Forms

Below are templates that event planners can have directors fill out for info about audition and festival registration. Simply click 'make a copy' so that you are able make changes needed for your event (highlighted in yellow). 

To make a link that prompts directors to make their own copy to fill out your form (recommended when sending the document): 1. make sure your document's sharing settings are set to 'anyone with the link' 2. get the link for the document 3. replace the word 'edit' at the end of the link with 'copy'! You can see what that looks like because that is what I did with the links below!

Programming and Purchasing Music

• Once you have chosen your conductor, give them the link to the D3 band and choral library so they can check to see if there are any titles that would work on their program - at least 1 piece of music must be chosen from the D3 library

• Double check the past programs to avoid repetition of pieces within a 4-year period

• Double check the proposed program to make sure the pieces are appropriate for the level of musicianship in each group

• Borrow as much music as you can from other schools in District 3

• High School Honor Choirs:  purchase practice tracks from https://choraltracks.com/en - at least 1 piece of music must be chosen from the already existing  practice tracks

• Once music selections have been made, email them to the webmaster to ensure proper record keeping!

Video and Audio Recording

District 3 does not authorize video and audio recording of Festival performances with the intent of marketing tapes without proper payment of copyright fees. Local cable companies may legally tape and broadcast Festival performances. They are expected to follow ASCAP and BMI regulations regarding the sale of such recordings.

Photography

If a hosting school arranges for it, District 3 allows professionals to photograph our Honors Ensembles and to market those photos to the parents of the students involved. However, because of the many and varied legal ramifications concerning showing the faces of our students on the Internet, no photographs of District 3 Honors Ensembles or any of the students participating therein may be displayed on any website (not even our own!) for any purpose.

The only exception to this would be if participating schools were to include photos of their own students on their own websites and faces of students from other schools were not included.

District 3 does not authorize audience members or student participants to take photos during Festival rehearsals or Festival concerts. Further, the District assumes no responsibility for unauthorized photos taken by students or audience members that are subsequently shown on YouTube or other Internet venues.

Mentorship

Managers and Hosts need to be available to help mentor the next person to take the job so they can run a successful event. It is recommended that the person "on deck" shadow the current manager or host. On occasion, a mentor may be asked to take over the job when a host, manager or event chair needs to bow out of the commitment.

Date Setting Guidelines

• High School Honors Festival Auditions: Monday of the third week of October

• Grades 7&8 Honors Festival Auditions: Thursday of the first or second week of November, not Election Day or Veterans Day

• High School Honors Festival: Friday and Saturday the last weekend in January/ first in February

• Adjudicated Jazz Ensemble Festival: Middle of the last week in February or first week in March OR whenever the Jazz people say it must be, at least two weeks before State Jazz Festival

• 6th Grade Honors and 7th/8th Grade Honors Jazz Festival: Second Friday in March

• Elementary Honors Festival: Saturday in April

• Grades 7th & 8th Honors Festival: A Friday and Saturday in April that are not part of vacation or Easter weekend, may be before or after vacation, the vacation always incorporates the third Monday (Patriot's Day)

• Spring Membership Meeting & Dinner: On or about the Monday of the second week of May

• Snow Dates/Inclement Weather Dates: District 3 encourages the setting of snow dates/inclement weather dates for ALL Festivals. The scheduling of the date is left entirely up to the discretion/possibilities/limitations of the Host. It is recommended that this issue be discussed early and be well publicized.