The FFCC Annual meeting took place on Sunday, June 3rd at Cypress Creek High School in Orlando, with more than 70 member team representatives in attendance. FFCC Executive Director, Mike Higbe, provided an overview of the season and the discussion at Saturday’s Annual Board Meeting. Each Board Member provided a report on their respective areas of responsibility, and questions were entertained from the audience.

The 8 proposals brought forth by the membership were reviewed on Saturday by the Board, and brought to the voting delegates for discussion and straw polls. A number of proposals were passed to the new Board to put into policy, and several were passed on to the Advisory Boards convening in July for further discussion. A short overview is included below, but the full discussion and voting can be accessed in the Member Resources section of the website.

Board Candidates submitted applications and letters of nomination by May 8, 2018 to be considered for election. Candidates were reviewed by the nominating committee, which included volunteers from the FFCC Membership and members of the Board of Directors not up for re-election. The nominating committee determined eligibility of all candidates, reviewed their submissions, and assessed their possible contributions to the FFCC. This information was made available to the membership on Saturday, May 26th for review prior to the Annual Meeting. At the meeting, candidates were allowed a brief personal introduction, and left the room while the membership discussed their merits. All voting delegates present submitted their vote via circuit laptops. Current board members returning for another term include Cichele Fields, Tom Slaughter, Alan Smith, and Andy Snow. Newly elected to the Board was Jen Karp. The remainder of the Board is comprised of Erin Brown, Trevor Cox, Jamie Dyer, Mike Higbe, Jackie Price, and Kelly Ross, who were elected in 2017 to two year terms.

The FFCC would like to recognize and thank John Campese for his many years of service to the FFCC Board of Directors, and are pleased to welcome him to the FFCC Percussion and Winds Advisory Board, where he will continue to serve and support our Percussion and Winds membership. John has long been a mentor and guide for many of the programs in our Circuit, and was a guiding force in helping to establish the Percussion and Winds divisions in the FFCC. We look forward to many years of partnership with John and the rest of the Percussion and Winds Advisory Board Members.

The FFCC Board of Directors has begun the major task of restructuring our organization in an effort to best serve the membership, and the long term health of our Circuit. Throughout the summer the Board will meet to define critical tasks, develop staff roles and associated training, and establish best practices moving forward. Stay tuned for announcements throughout the summer and fall as we complete this arduous but critical process. 

Dates open for bidding on shows for 2019 are available in the meeting minutes, and show bid applications will open soon. Our next events will be summer budget committee and board meetings, followed by the first Colorguard and Percussion/Winds Advisory Board meetings in July. The Initial Membership Meeting for 2019 will take place in September.

Proposal Summary

Passed

Proposal 1: At FFCC Percussion and Winds Premiere/Focus/Championship events,

Contest Director will schedule an open session 1 hour before the show begins where

all ensembles participating that day can send a representative to come into the

arena and test/verify the power set up that will be available to them during that

day’s show.

Proposal 2: Seed ensembles for color guard championships using a formula where

the three highest scores (factored using the same per week factor that WGI uses)

an ensemble receives at FFCC events during the season are added together.

Ensembles with the highest total of three factored scores will be seeded higher.

Proposal 4: All reclassification of color guard, percussion, and winds teams will be

made during the competitive season.

Proposal 6: If a change of schedule is made after the show has locked that affects

the number of rounds, no changes would be made to the structure of the schedule.

No new randomization would occur, and the moved member team would be placed

in the middle of the round of their classification.

Proposal 7: I propose that contest schedules lock on two Mondays prior to a contest

at 11:59 p.m for an entire weekend’s events.

Failed

Proposal 3: Whoever has championships in Dayton first should have their FFCC

Championships competition first. (e.g. If winter guard is competing at WGI the first

week in April and percussion competes the second week in April, then the guard

competitions should finish on Saturday and percussion should compete on Sunday).

Proposal 5: To have the final competitive show in each region, North, South, Central

and West, be designated an FFCC “Regional Championship” contest. Similar to

Premiere, the same lineup of competing units in the region would compete for a

title exclusive to their geographic area.

Out of Order

Proposal 8: There will only be one unit per middle school in cadet and novice

classes. High School students should prohibited from participating at the cadet level

of classification. Any cadet guard wishing to add high school students must compete

in Novice class or higher.

(This is already a rule. Cadet teams will be required to add grade to rosters)