Greetings Alumni and Friends,

In a few weeks The Pride will be running out of the tunnels to start the 2006 Football Season. How fortunate we are to have been able to participate in such an awesome program. It is our duty to help Continue the Tradition. We can do this in several ways. Our OUBAA dues help support the activities that we provide for The Pride. Last year we provided the disc jockey for the swimming party, hosted the pizza dinner after the first full rehearsal of the new block, and supplied goodie bags for the bus trips to Texas and the Holiday Bowl. We plan on continuing these activities and increasing our involvement with The Pride. The pizza dinner this year will be Sunday, August 20th in the Orchestra room at Catlett. We would enjoy having any of you that would like to come and hand out pizza and drinks and talk about the good ole days to the new block after their marching rehearsal before the first day of class. They really do enjoy hearing any stories of prior bowl trips, Texas trips, and how hot our WOOL uniforms were as we were lying on the 120 degree artificial turf.

In the past, The Pride has been using money from their budget to help cover the homecoming tickets for the Alumni Band. Our organization is about supporting The Pride, not them supporting us. Homecoming game tickets are $67 each. This year the Homecoming registration fee is $25.00 plus another $40 for each member that wishes to sit in the Alumni Band section. Guest tickets will cost the full $67.00 as usual. Hopefully, this will allow The Pride to use their money to provide extra frills for the students. We have reserved 200 tickets for this season's Homecoming game, which is October 21 versus the Colorado Buffaloes. Please respond with your registration early.

At our last business meeting, one of the discussion items was how a member could become a lifetime member of our organization. This was sent back to the advisory board to generate ideas. After researching how other organizations attained the status of lifetime member, the advisory board came up with two ways. One is a donation of $600 to one of the Band Alumni scholarship accounts. This would be the equivalent to paying the annual $15 dues for 40 years. The other is to reserve the right to the advisory board to grant lifetime membership based on outstanding service to the organization and The Pride.

Hosting a golf tournament as a fundraiser for The Pride was another point of discussion. We are working on setting a date for spring 2007, either late April or early May. We would like to have volunteers to chair the following positions: Hole Sponsorships, Prize Committee, and Food Committee. Mr. Brian Britt has volunteered to be the Tournament Chairman. If you are interested in any of these, please contact me via email at oubapres@cox.net. If you play golf, please plan to participate and bring your own foursome. We will have more information at this year's business meeting, at Homecoming on October 21.

As I was traveling to a conference with a colleague, whose brother was a starting football player last season and whose husband is RufNek alum, we started talking about OU football, The Pride and Homecoming. She went on and on how Homecoming was her favorite game and how she loved the Alumni Band and how they exemplify Sooner Spirit. Then, I told her I was a member and she continued for at least 30 more minutes on how much fun it must be to have played in The Pride and still get to march at Homecoming with the Alumni Band. She could only imagine it, but you can relive it! I invite you to come to Homecoming, October 21 and "March down the field with our heads held high" and join in all of the fun and give our fans what they have been waiting for all year.

Boomer Sooner!
Gail Warmath-Richardson
OUBAA President
Flute 81-84