Call for Comment: Draft of the OSCB Constitution Online for Review

Constitution of the Owen Sound City Band Final Draft.pdf

As promised at the 2011 GM, the constitution committee set out to craft a new modern constitution for the band and the first public draft of this is hereby available for member review; the constitution draft will be posted here and on the main website for the 30 days leading to the annual GM on April 30, 2012 whereupon, with member recommended changes and amendments, the membership will vote on adopting the official constitution.

Through the course of our 92 year history, the City Band has had several constitutions, some simple, some quite elaborate (and on legal-sized paper no less!) but as it sits, the last was crafted in 1963 with some modernizing changes made in the 1970's and while we have been using that document as a guide for executive policy, those guidelines are clearly outdated and inappropriate in our modern community band situations. ??For one thing, we cannot afford to pay our members (yes, once upon a time you did get paid to have this much fun! ??well, ok, it may not have actually been this much fun, and besides, the pay wasn't much anyway)

So a new deal was sorely needed and here it is, our first crack at defining who we are in 2012 and who we hope to be going forward into our second century. Please understand that this document is a DRAFT only, submitted for comment and approval, it is not ratified, it is just our starting point towards a workable constitution to hopefully be ratified by the membership at the AGM April 30th. Comments are welcome and encouraged; members are invited to comment directly to Clinton Stredwick, band president; an email will follow later today explaining the membership process for comments.

Stormy Weather - YouTube

1933 arrangement by David Bennett of the Ted Koehler and Harold Arlen "Descriptive Fantasy" STORMY WEATHER; recorded last summer during Monday Night concert series on the Harrison Park bandstand with the Owen Sound City Band under the direction of Robert Tite.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-WMZwYjkVw]

Ethel Waters first sang Stormy Weather at The Cotton Club night club in Harlem in 1933 and recorded it that year, and in the same year it was sung in London by Elisabeth Welch and recorded by Frances Langford. It has since been performed by artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Clodagh Rodgers, and Reigning Sound and most famously by Lena Horne and Billie Holiday. Leo Reisman's orchestra version had the biggest hit on records (with Arlen himself as vocalist)

David Bennett (b. Ida Grove, IA 3 Sept. 1892; d. Chicago, IL 27 Aug. 1990) was a nationally known band-music composer and arranger in the 30's and 40's, and named a life-member of the American Bandmasters Assoc in 1929 -- the Carl Fischer catalog gives his bio as:

David Bennett's name on a composition, as composer or arranger, has for years been a symbol of quality and distinction to discriminating music directors. His compositions and arrangements reflect a thorough understanding of the problems of players and directors alike, gained from a long and varied experience in every phase of music. Characterized by sound musicianship and good taste, the David Bennett publications in the Carl Fischer catalog have deservedly found a wide audience.