2. Articles

Join us for Alumni Band Weekend 2022!

Hey Band!

Join us November 11th - 13th as we take part in the "Georgia Tech Tradition and Pageantry" for Alumni Band Weekend 2022!

Click here to register today!

Full Weekend Registration Package includes:

• Friday Dinner
• Saturday Breakfast
• Entry to the GT vs. miami Football Game with the Band
• Sunday Cookout
• Entry to Sunday's Women's BBall Game vs Kennesaw State

See the full schedule, SWAG info, and FAQ here.

Final Report & New Board Members Introduction

Hey Band,
In case you missed it, the Annual Business Meeting was held on Saturday, December 11, which was filled primarily with elections and a few updates and reports. Thank you to everybody who joined in virtually on your Saturday afternoon! Jen Isaacs sent out minutes yesterday afternoon if you're so inclined to read that sort of thing.

For everybody here, I would like to provide my final report...
Back in October I informed the Board that I would not be seeking another term on the GTBAA Executive Board. I have served on the Board for 11 years, the last 6 as Executive Director. That's a long time for anybody to be doing anything and have known nothing else since I got out of Tech. Now married with two children, it became pretty obvious to me over the last year and a half that I'm not able to dedicate the amount of time and energy to this role that it deserves. It's time for me to step away.

For the last six years, I was entrusted with the responsibility of leading GTBAA. It is a job that I took great pride in and did my best to deliver for you all. I'll be the first to tell you that things were not always perfect and I had swings and misses to go along with all of the successes, but I believe I can say, and I hope you'll agree that I left things better than how I found them.

By far, the accomplishment of the Board that I'm most proud of is surfacing the spirit of giving among our Band alumni, both to the Georgia Tech Band and Ma Tech herself. The band alumni helped with the Band's expenses for the Ireland trip to the tune of $10,000 in 2016, won the Alumni Association's last Roll Call Challenge among all Affinity Groups in the 2017-2018 giving year, and endowed the Georgia Tech Band Alumni Association Student Leadership Scholarship, exceeding the minimum gift required of $25,000 to fully endow a scholarship. This scholarship will be awarded in the near future this academic year.

Serving on the GTBAA Executive Board is oftentimes a thankless job, but is still very rewarding. There are highs, lows, and everything in between, but there are always fellow band alumni there to support you however they can. It is now my honor and privilege to introduce to you the 2021-2022 GTBAA Executive Board:

Bridget Neukum, Executive Director
Emily Jackson, Secretary
John Kelley, Treasurer
Sam "Fireball' Feuer, Member at Large
Heidy Lopez, Member at Large
Wes Hunt, Member at Large
Ben Simon, Member at Large
Matthew Zilvetti, Member at Large

There are some familiar faces in new roles and new members on the board. All of the folks who stepped up to serve are fantastic people and, in my opinion, will do a great job leading GTBAA for the next year and beyond! Congratulations to all!

I would also like to thank Jen Isaacs for her 9 years of service on the Board as Secretary and Jason Morcos for his 2 years of service as Treasurer. Jen was Secretary through all of my terms as Executive Director and I can't thank her enough for her work and giving me a steer when I needed it. I would like to thank Jason for his outstanding stewardship and thoughtful insights.

On a personal note, I would like to say "thank you" to everybody who has reached out and offered their support, thoughts, feedback, insight, everything over the years. There are far too many people to name individually, but I hope to be able to catch each one of you personally as we run into each other in the future.

I wish nothing but the best of luck to the new Board. I know they will all do well. They will also have my full support as we work through our transition and anytime you need anything at all!

Ramble This Way, Ramble That Way, Ramble Off the Field!
John

John Gorta
Immediate Past Executive Director
GTBAA

Save the Date! Alumni Band Reunion Weekend 11/12 - 11/14!

Hey Band!

Save the date for our 2021 Band Alumni Reunion weekend November 12-14, 2021. This year we will have a dedicated GAMEDAY weekend for Georgia Tech Band Alumni to reconnect and have the opportunity to meet, connect, and perform with the current Yellow Jacket Marching Band.

For the latest information and to RSVP, CLICK HERE

An OUTSTANDING Announcement!

Hey Band!

As with everything over the past 14 months, we've had to cancel, delay, or otherwise alter any grand plans we may have had and we were not able to do anything as we normally do. This was especially true for any and all things that we do around Homecoming.

Often lost in the shuffle of the ever-increasingly-busy week and weekend that is Homecoming, is what is probably the GTBAA Executive Board's favorite activity: interviewing candidates for the Outstanding Junior Award.

For those who may not know or have forgotten, the Outstanding Junior Award is an award presented annually (typically around Homecoming) to a third-year Georgia Tech Band student who was nominated by their band directors and/or peers and is otherwise considered to be...outstanding. (That is, outstanding in their contribution to the Georgia Tech Band.) The candidates really are always outstanding and the Board is often left with an extremely difficult decision, which, interestingly enough, is one that we believe really cannot get wrong, speaking to just how awesome the active YJMB students are. This year was no exception, as each candidate was truly outstanding in their own right.

And so, it is our honor to announce to you the Outstanding Junior Award winner for the 2020-21 academic year:

Nichole Beck!

Congratulations, Nichole and thank you for all that you do for the Georgia Tech Band! We look forward to the possibility of being back on campus this coming fall to meet you in person.

Ramble this Way, Ramble that Way, Ramble off the Field!

The GTBAA Executive Board

John Gorta, Executive Director
Jen Isaacs, Secretary
Jason Morcos, Treasurer
Sam "Fireball" Feuer, Member at Large
Heidy Lopez, Member at Large
Wes Hunt, Member at Large
Emily Jackson, Member at Large
Bridget Neukum, Member at Large

Hey Band...We did it!

...a Scholarship update from our Executive Director

Hey Band!

On February 17, I signed the agreement with the Georgia Tech Foundation, Georgia Tech Alumni Association, and Office of Financial Aid, officially marking the creation of our organization’s scholarship endowment. All of our gifts over the past two years allowed us to exceed our goal of raising the minimum gift amount for a scholarship endowment prior to the end of 2020. As such, we can award the scholarship to a deserving student leader in the GT Band for this coming academic year.

This is a momentous occasion for GTBAA as an organization and everybody who gave as a collective group of individuals. An endowment was an idea that had long been thought of by Executive Boards and members past and I am honored to be associated with a group of people who sought to capitalize on the opportunity laid in front of us to make it happen. We’ve created something that will truly leave a lasting legacy on the Georgia Tech Band by providing for the students. I could not be more proud of our group for having achieved this goal. My hope is that our efforts have also fostered a culture of giving back along the way so that the Band may have it even better than we did back in our day.

I want to give my sincere THANK YOU and CONGRATULATIONS to everybody who played a part, no matter how large or small, in making our scholarship endowment a reality!

Remember, this is just the beginning and we have to continue to help this scholarship endowment grow. If you maybe missed out last year, wish to give another gift, or perhaps even a recurring gift, this can be done online directly with the GT Foundation (don't mind the out-of-date text and description!) or by contacting the Alumni Association.

I hope we are all able to be back on campus soon to reconnect with each other like only GT Band alumni can.

Ramble this way, Ramble that way, Ramble off the field!

-John

John Gorta, MGT '09
Executive Director
Georgia Tech Band Alumni Association

Scholarship Fundraising Update: Only $3,300 Left to Hit Our Goal!

Hey Band!
We've ween working with our friends at the Alumni Association and have confirmed that we are just $3,300 away from achieving the $25,000 fundraising goal to endow the GTBAA Student Leadership Scholarship! If the goal is met by the end of calendar year 2020, it will be available to award for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Please find more information about the scholarship and instructions to donate HERE. Once in place, this scholarship will be awarded in perpetuity and continue to grow over time.

Donations are made to the Georgia Tech Foundation and are treated the same as any other gift for tax purposes and are also eligible for employer matching!

Please reach out to any of the Executive Board members with any questions!

GTBAA Executive Board Fall 2020 Update

Hey Band!

We’re probably long overdue for an update of any kind, but with so much of our world in flux, we honestly didn’t have much to say (well, maybe not as a Board, even though there are a number of us that are never at a loss for words). So we’ve been following all of the recommendations and mandates and checking in on each other every now and then in the background.

Given where we are in the calendar year (it’s mid-August in case any of you have lost track), it’s right about now that you would start to hear from us about all of the usual activities that come with the end of Summer and beginning of Fall. Here we are! Except this time, we’re not here to deliver the usual message.

We are fairly confident that everybody knew that it was only a matter of time before this announcement came, but here it is anyway:

The GTBAA Executive Board has unanimously agreed to forego the typical Alumni Band program which takes place at Homecoming and will not be assembling in-person in order to protect the health of our membership, families, and friends, as the world continues to navigate life with COVID-19. While most messages in this vein have included words to the effect of “it was a difficult decision,” this one does not. This was a fairly easy decision for us as a Board and we feel that this is the correct decision and the best one we could make for all involved.

Now, just because we’re not planning our normal program doesn’t mean we’re not going to do anything at all. In the next several weeks, the Board will be working to lay out a plan to hold a virtual annual business meeting and elections for members at large (it’s an even year!). In addition, we’ll be looking for other ideas on how we can engage virtually with Band Alumni and the active Yellow Jacket Marching Band. Stay tuned for more information!

We sincerely hope that you will make every effort to keep yourselves and your family safe and healthy as we all work to defeat COVID-19.

As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to any one of us with any questions, concerns, or feedback.

Ramble This Way, Ramble That Way, Ramble Off the Field!

The GTBAA Executive Board

John Gorta, Executive Director Jen Isaacs, Secretary Jason Morcos, Treasurer Sam “Fireball” Feuer Julie Filipek Wes Hunt Heidy Lopez Amanda Verdin

Executive Director's Update: February 2020

Hey Band!
I hope everybody's 2020 is off to a good start...now that we are almost through the first 2 months of the year... The GTBAA Executive Board has begun meeting and chipping away at the actions coming from the last Business Meeting at Homecoming and kicking into our regular planning cycle and I wanted to get some updates out there.

First, an important bit of information of which many of you should already be aware:
Homecoming will be October 15-17, culminating with the football game against virginia on Saturday the 17th.
While we expect the Alumni Band program to be similar in structure to the last five or so years, we cannot say for certain until registration is officially opened.

Next, the GTBAA Student Leadership Scholarship...

• Current official total is $17,715 or ~71% to our goal of the minimum endowment gift of $25,000, which will return a $1,000 scholarship.
  Note: we are working closely with the Alumni Association to validate the totals with the GT Foundation and this figure may be lower than the actual total!
• If we hit the minimum by end of calendar year 2020, the scholarship will be available to award in the Fall of 2021!
• Please visit HERE for the information on how to donate
• At present, snail mail with a check is the only way to donate to this scholarship. This is an extremely huge pain point for a lot of us and I continue to be a broken record asking for a method to donate directly to this endowment directly.

I can't express how excited the Board is about the scholarship and what it means to have a permanent impact on the Georgia Tech Band!

As far as some of the other bits coming out of the Business Meeting, here are some general business updates:

• Bylaw review and discussions are underway during regular Executive Board meetings - we'll spare you with the terribly boring things (sorry to those of you who enjoy those types of debates) for now. More to come.
• We are working with the Alumni Association to plan out some type of a "Town Hall" and offer an opportunity to get anybody and everybody who may be interested in such a thing together in a meeting-like setting outside of the annual Business Meeting AND include a virtual component for those that are out of town but want to participate!
• A candidate to serve in the capacity of a "student liaison" for the GTBAA Executive Board has been identified and we're working to iron out a few details before that is made official.

I speak for everybody on the Board when I say we welcome your feedback, questions, and ideas. We're always happy to discuss anything and will share as much as we can. If there is something you want to see us take on or to look into, please, by all means, give any of us a shout.

Here's to a great rest of 2020.

Ramble this way, Ramble that way, Ramble off the field!

John

John Gorta, MGT 2009
Executive Director
GTBAA

Toe Meets Leather at 4PM for Homecoming Game!

Hey Band!

Toe Meets Leather at 4:00PM against pitt on 11/2. We hope that a later start time means more of you will come join us as we perform with the Yellow Jacket Marching Band!

All of the key Alumni Band Registration links and information can be found HERE

Please read through all of the information all the way through the FAQ!

Participation in Alumni Band DOES NOT guarantee entrance into the game. Tickets to the game are available through an online ticket window which will be presented at the end of the registration process.

Registration closes Tuesday, October 29

2019 Alumni Band Registration is Open!

HEY BAND!

2019 Alumni Band registration for Homecoming is now open!

Registration for Alumni Band, as has been the case the last several years, is a 2-step process:

Step 1: Fill out the form

Step 2: Follow the link on the confirmation page to the secure payment site and proceed with payment.

All of the key Alumni Band Registration links and information can be found HERE

Please read through all of the information all the way through the FAQ!

Participation in Alumni Band DOES NOT guarantee entrance into the game. Tickets to the game are available through an online ticket window which will be presented at the end of the registration process.

Registration closes Tuesday, October 29