Thank you to all of you (parents, students, and siblings) who went through this past Tuesday's In-Stand concessions training at the BOA stadium.  If you could not attend the training session, please don't let that stop you from volunteering for a Panthers game.  When you sign up to volunteer for the first time, let us know in your sign-up email that you "need training."  You will be trained before the gates open. 

 

Our 1st Panther Event- August 7th!   NOTE NEW ARRIVAL TIME!!!

Panther's Fan Fest is an “Open to the Public” football practice session.  Our first level stand (#132 located on the South side) will be open.  It is a great hands-on training opportunity for us.  The Stadium Food and Beverage folks said that it is a perfect opportunity to over-staff so that everyone gets a feel for the cash registers, food prep, clean-up and procedures. 

 

If you are available to work next Saturday, please let us know by Monday morning.  Our Monday morning deadline is so that we can meet Stadium Food and Beverages deadline for submitting our volunteer list which is five days prior to a staffed event. 

 

To sign up for the 8/7 event (or any Verizon concert or Panther event), please go to www.fortmillbands.com, scroll down and click on the Panthers Schedule, and select the Volunteer button next to the 8/7 Fan Fest event (or what games you’d like to work). Fan Fest food prep begins at 7:30 am with gates opening at 9:30 am.  The event itself runs from 11-1:00.  We should finish cleaning up and closing the stand by 2:00.  Think of Fan Fest as mini-version of what our game days will be like.

 

Important info about working Panthers:

·         Uniforms - Our volunteers are provided with a blue Pepsi polos, visor, and an apron to wear during the event. We have to wear khaki or black pants, capris or shorts and closed-toed shoes.  Shorts should come close to the knee(no short shorts, jeans of any color, or extremely tight or baggy clothes!)  If your pants or shorts have belt loops, you must wear a belt.  Shirts must be tucked in.  Each uniform violation can cost us $35.  Fines are taken out of our commission checks.  If you wear jeans or inappropriate shoes, you may not be allowed into the stadium.     

·         Jewelry – Women may wear a single pair of stud earrings… no dangly earrings.  Men are not allowed to wear any.  If you have any facial piercings, it must be covered with a band-aid.

·         Smoking policy - NC's no-smoking law applies to BOA stadium.  No one is allowed to smoke on the  stadium premises.  If you are a smoker, your last light-up should be in the Penman lot where we park, before boarding the shuttle buses to work.

·         Parking - Volunteers and employees park at the Penman St. lot.  There are only 500 spaces for parking and over 2,000 employees/volunteers working each game so carpooling is very important.  The driver of a carpool will receive a ticket stub when they arrive to park.  The driver should write their name, phone number, and stand number (#132) on the stub and deposit into the carpool drawing box after checking into the stadium.   Drawing winners at each game will receive a free gas card. 

·         Arrival time– On regular game days, volunteers need to arrive game-day volunteers need to arrive 3-4 hours before kick-off.   We must in our stands, fully staffed and ready to sell food and beverages when the gates open 2 hours before kick-off.  Volunteers are not allowed into the stadium after the gates open two hours before kick-off.  For example, we have a game that starts at  1pm, we must arrive between 9 and 10 am.  We will be charged fines if we are not fully staffed or ready at kick-off. 

·         Staffing Requirement – We must have at least 26 volunteers for each game.  Of the 26 volunteers, at least 14 must be 18 years of age or older.  Adult volunteers do not have to be TIPS trained.  Students must be at least 15 years old.  Students must be prepared to show proof of age at check-in.  If we do not have enough staff, we must "hire" individuals from Stadium Food and Beverage for $40.

 

Is working at Panthers fun?

·         You bet!  Even though we have more stringent rules at the BOA Stadium than at Verizon, the stadium  is a fun place to work.  Like Verizon, we get to interact with members of other band families.  The stadium's food service is clean and professionally operated.  Stadium Food and Beverage provides their own employee for our stand to answer questions and to help us with issues involving taps, soda fountains, and other equipment issues.    Each cashier has their own cash register which can also processes credit cards.  You do not have to remember orders or determine the cost of an order in your head or  the amount of the customer's change.  The registers do it for us!  We have a limited selection of food (and candy!) to sell and we rarely run out unless we are approaching the stand closing time.  Student volunteers have an opportunity to gain work experience.

 

Tell me about the money!

·         Event commissions from stand sales – Each event's commission is based upon one of two methods; base commission of net sales OR minimum commission.  Base commission of net sales is what we want to strive for!  We earn 8% of alcoholic beverages sold and 10% on food and non-alcohol beverages sold. For example, if we have $18,000 in sales for a game (not uncommon!) and $12,000  is in food, etc with 6,000 in adult beverage sales, we will earn $1,680 for the day.  Of course, our commission will be reduced by any uniform violations and the cost of any additional individuals we had to hire meet our minimum staffing requirements for that event.

·         Annual incentive –We will receive a 1% bonus at the end of the season if we work ALL football events (football games, Fan Fest, and the ACC championship games) and are NOT short-staffed for more than two events.  Playing with numbers, if we have an $18,000 day for all 12 events currently on the schedule, that totals $216,000 x 1% = $2,160.  This is a conservative estimate.

·         What happens to the commission checks? –Like at Verizon, a volunteer earns 1 point for each hour worked.  Each point is reduces your student's band fees by $2.  Don't need the points?  Then designate the points for a student who does.  Both schools have students whose families cannot afford to pay their band fees.  Any portion of the commissions that is not used to cover points is split between the two high school bands based upon the percentage of hours worked by each school's volunteers. 

 

The bottom line!

We know that this email contains a lot of information, but it is information that we think is important to our band families.   The bottom line is that if we fully staff approximately 2 events per month beginning in August, we can earn a good bit of money for FMDBBC and keep our schools’ bands operating at the high level needed in order to provide the best experience and opportunity for our children.  Full details and information is available on the web site.

 

Please get involved and support our students.  As always, if you have questions on something, please email bandvolunteer@comporium.net or contact our vice-presidents:

·         Fort Mill High School:

o    Michele C. Henderson-   mchenderson@comporium.net or  803-417-9210 (cell)

·         Nation Ford High School:

o    Peggy Gray-  peggyse@comporium.net or 803-548-9558 (home)

o    Vicki Niedermeier- niedermeier@comporium.net or 803-396-8692 (home)