Penn Band Executive Board Elections

Every student organization has their own leadership structure, and more importantly, their own mechanisms to choose said leaders. Some bands have your protypical President/Vice-President/Secretary/Treasurer. Some have a parade of managers. Some just have a Drum Major and Manager. Some of these students are selected by calendar year, while others are chosen by academic year. Some are chosen by the Director of the group. Some are chosen by vote among their peers. Some are chosen by other leaders. Some are just figureheads and spaceholders. And if their groups are lucky, the students actually lead!

Tonight, the Penn Band had its annual Elections - we have a President/Vice-President/etc structure that runs during the Calendar year. Our constitution dictates that our elections are to be held within two weeks of the end of Football season. Students sign-up to run for a position, give speeches, and get elected by a majority vote. Honestly, this paradigm of election and function hasn't changed much in decades.

The first student leadership structure of the Band arose in the early 1930s, when the Fanfare Honor Society was formed - the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of this Society led the organization, outside of the auspices of performance. This was in contrast to the prototype of a Drum Major and Band Manager common to all marching bands of the time. Lost through the fogs of time are the exact details of how the changes occurred, but by the early 1960s, the Band had evolved to the prototype we have today, with both a Constitution and Fanfare Honor Society Charter that have changed relatively little.

The Penn Band Board is a very important entity - the students choose a council of leaders (including section leaders and a variety of managers), working with the "Alleged Adults" (the Director and other staff), institute policies concerning performance and the whatnot, write halftime shows and student activities budgets, organize roadtrips, and all-in-all are intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of the Penn Band. All in all, the Band really cannot function without these leaders.

How can one organization go almost 50 years without a major change in its primary leadership structure? Golly, I don't know - one would think that some evolution would occur over time. But really, it doesn't seem to have changed much. Yeah, there are things like web managers and the whatnot, but little in terms of fundamental changes.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it?