Posted by Brian Frederiksen on May 19, 2003 at 14:29:58:
In Reply to: Texas RTEC posted by Just Wondering on May 19, 2003 at 13:21:33:
I have been to the Texas, and UMass and Kansas regionals. Attendance has been low at all of these for reasons that no one can explain. In Texas most of the tuba/euphonium teachers from Texas were there. Most schools (including our host TCU) were out for the summer. It seems that a number of high schools in Texas used saturday as a makeup day for a day school was cancelled earlier this winter. Yes, it is spring and things go on.
Here's the point - while their teachers were there, most of their students were not. Yes there were a handfull but the total there was under 75. There were so few weekend warriors that the warrior's ensemble was cancelled. Richard Murrow was shocked as TubaChristmas draws a couple hundred. He did mailings to ITEA and TubaChristmas lists for Texas and a number of states and we have heard about it here for a while. I do not feel this was a problem of getting the word out. Yes, it cost a few bucks to get in - events like this are not free.
I have noticed the same at the other regionals. No one knows what is up and a few organizers have lost a lot of sleep over this. Maybe this is a perfect forum to start a discussion on why you didn't go to the regionals. Don't be afraid to tell the truth, you can post anonymously, just be serious. Let those who put these together know what they can do to improve this!