Weekly Announcements
Hello Mav Band and Guard Family!
Congratulations on finishing the first week of school and on your performance at the Watermelon Social! This Friday is our first game, so please become familiar with the game day schedule.
Here are this week's announcements, and a copy of my previous email with instructions to register for the Boston trip is below. Please read them carefully and remember that the deadline to register is 9/12.
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Hello Mav Band and Guard Family!
The McNeil Band is traveling to Boston for our 2024 spring trip. The dates of the trip are April 26-29, 2024 and it is for current Mav Band and Guard students and parents/ guardians. Unfortunately, this only includes current 9-12 graders in our program. Also, parent chaperones are the only additional family members allowed to go. We chose these dates because it will be after UIL Concert and Sight Reading Evaluation and before AP & STAAR testing.
This is the first time in my 20 years at McNeil we are traveling to Boston and I am SO excited! We will hit major attractions, attend a world-class performance, eat fantastic food, and make wonderful lifelong memories. You can read the details of the trip when registering. Instructions are below.
One of the unique offerings in the band experience is traveling. In fact, music is how I have gotten to travel around the country and throughout Europe. There is nothing like it. These trips are the most memorable experiences for students and they talk about them for the rest of their lives. There is nothing like traveling with a big group of friends and it is unique to our fine arts programs. Our goal is to have a vast majority of the students attend the trip, along with several parent chaperones.
REGISTER AND PUT DOWN YOUR DEPOSIT NOW….THE DEADLINE IS SEPTEMBER 12TH!!!
Payment This trip is entirely optional and families are responsible for cost. It will be one of the greatest high school experiences for everyone who goes. Payments are all made directly to Educational Travel Adventures at www.etadventures.com. PLEASE DIRECT ALL QUESTIONS ABOUT REGISTRATION AND PAYMENTS TO ETA. THE DIRECTORS DO NOT HANDLE ANY OF THESE THINGS.
Rooming Assignments Students will room with other students of the same gender, and they will choose their roommates as the trip approaches. Students will develop new friendships they don’t know about yet, so you are only registering to attend the trip at this point.
If you sign up for a quad room, then there will be three other students in your room. Period. If you want your own bed or want to room with only one other person, then both students must sign up for a double. Again, all quad registrations will have three other students in the room.
Parent Chaperones?? Please let me know if you would like to chaperone this trip before signing up. We need several adults on this trip, but we must go through all of the proper RRISD channels first. Chaperones will sign up for a double room with another adult unless you want to pay for a single room. While we will try our best to refund part of the cost of the trip for chaperones, they should expect to pull the price in full. Again, chaperones need to wait to register until they hear back from me.
Trip Insurance This is optional, but highly recommended. Please note that it is not ETA that offers trip insurance, as it is provided by a third party. All inquiries about trip insurance should go directly to the insurance company.
Website Registration Instructions (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY)
1. Visit https://www.etadventures.com. Click the green button in the top right-hand corner "Log in to myETA"
Trip Code: mcneil24
Password: bostrip24
2. Click on the Red Button that says "Make a New Reservation"
3. Complete the information and continue to follow the instructions to complete your registration.
4. Once you have completed your reservation, you will come to a page with tabs at the top, click on the "Passengers" tab.
5. On the Passengers tab, click on the "Waiver Incomplete View/Edit" button.
6. Complete all required information in the Waiver. You can log out and log back in to finish the waiver at a later date using the reservation information emailed to you.
7. Refer to these instructions again before contacting a director. They will likely ask you to follow these same instructions.
Sincerely,
Jason Dimiceli
Director of Bands
McNeil High School
Round Rock ISD