Hello LHAB
We are looking forward to seeing everyone back on the Forty Acres this weekend for the 56th Annual Longhorn Alumni Band Day Reunion. For those of you who will be attending (over 600+ registered), we are excited to see you again on campus!
As your outgoing LHAB President for 2018-19, I am honored and excited to have served in this position. THANK YOU to all of our LHAB Officers, Board of Directors, field operations, section leaders, volunteers and LHB/KKY/TBS students who are working extremely hard to make a successful Alumni Band Day. Without their dedication and commitment, we couldn’t pull off the weekend’s events and create an enjoyable and memorable experience for our members.
On behalf of LHAB, I want to say thank you to Dr. Scott Hanna, Professor Jerry Junkin, and the entire Longhorn Band faculty and staff, as they are huge supporters and advocates of LHAB. They provide immense support in manpower, supplies and financial support when needed and they are committed to our success and growth. We are one large family and we’re very grateful for everyone connected with LHB.
If you’re unable to make Band Day, we’ll post the Band Day Program on the website for you to read. And please don’t forget to signup again and submit your membership dues to remain in ‘good standing’ with LHAB. Your participation and support help to keep this organization running. You can download Mail-in dues form here: PDF Registration form
The LHAB/LHB Family:
As Dr. Hanna and I like to say “We’re all one big family – the only difference is there are some who are enrolled students, and the rest are graduated”. Therefore, I also highly encourage everyone to spend some time meeting the younger new members and introducing them to other section members. Please greet and introduce yourselves to the Longhorn Band student musicians, too. By these simple acts, we can maintain our continuity and fellowship among banders.
Each band day, we have a huge opportunity in recruiting for LHAB. We have a large block of new LHAB members over the past several years, and as seasoned alumni band day members, I encourage you to enthusiastically welcome these new members on board and get to know them better. Let’s ALL give them an exciting experience and encourage them to return to future LHAB events. These new members are the future leaders and the legacy of LHAB.
Speaking of a very important LHB/LHAB legacy family member, we mourn the passing of Moton Crockett, Jr. Each of us owes a debt of gratitude to Mr. Crockett for his stewardship and support of the Longhorn Band throughout his life. A memorial service for Mr. Crockett will take place on Sunday, October 20 at Central Presbyterian Church beginning at 2:00 p.m. I hope many of you are able to attend that event.
We’ll have some special recognitions in our program for him. If you would like to send his family a message, please send to Elane Crockett: helainecrockett@me.com
If you would like to make an honorary contribution to the endowment he created for Big Bertha – giving.utexas.edu/bigbertha
What happened in 2018-19?
• LHAB attended the historical 75th Anniversary of D-Day landing in Normandy with 535 travelers, 300 of which were LHAB performers who played 4 musical events in France over 7 days. (A recap is provided in the band day program)
• Global press coverage of 85 media segments from the Normandy trip garnered over 1.5 Million viewers of broadcast video segments; 8.0 Million in global website audience impressions; 40,000+ in radio audience listeners; $550,000 in publicity media value.
• Attended the National Association of Alumni Bands (NAoAB) Symposium hosted by the University of Washington Husky Band with the formal creation of NAoAB chartering and documents.
• Relocated all LHAB owned equipment and instruments from the off-site storage unit to a new site in the LHB band hall basement. This included a major move and cleaning/repair of all the sousaphones, baritones and other items.
• Presented LHB members with a token from LHAB, “Longhorn Band” dri-fit t-shirts to supplement the student official uniform. An annual tradition from LHAB to LHB.
• Created the first LHAB Football Tailgate event near the LHB band hall with 4 vendor sponsorships as a fundraiser for donor dollars for scholarships, fellowship, and festivities prior to home games.
• Creation of several new committees to aid in the operations of the LHAB organization: Events Committee, Section & Decade representatives, Communications Committee, and Historical Archives Project Committee.
• Held the 4th LHAB Scholarship Awards Event where LHAB/BOT distributed a record $250,760 in scholarships to 127 recipients.
LHAB was started in 1964 by young passionate and energetic alumni who had a love for the Longhorn Band and wanted to have annual band reunions with purposeful intentions in sustaining the Longhorn Band through scholarship campaigns. WOW – did we hit the mark this year. THANK YOU to all the donors!
Where do LHAB members live in the U.S.?
https://infogram.com/lhab-member-infographic-1gqo2ql6zqo6m78?live
This is just a representation of our membership by instrumentation currently in our LHAB database. We have additional members to make contact with to update our records.
Band Day Survey coming soon!
Right after the weekend events, we’ll send out the 2019 Band Day Survey and we would appreciate it if you would complete the survey and provide us with important feedback. We want to hear from you!!!
This organization is made up of all of YOU and each person has a part in LHAB.
Thank you and Hook ‘em Horns!
Geof Sloan
LHAB President 2018-19