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	Establishing Effective Relationships With Music Stores James Marioneaux Steve Hankins, the Yellow Board moderator, former assistant director, and longtime friend asked me to write this article to help younger directors.  One important task that any new director at a school needs to handle is deciding which music store to use as your school service store. A positive relationship with a music store can be a big help to a director and an asset to any band program. Most schools will already have a school music service store and you will have to decide whether to continue with that store or to bring in another store (or stores) of your choosing.   If a music store helps you locate a job, as a courtesy, most directors will at least consider doing business with them if they are in the area. You should check with your principal and see if they have had had any problem with the music store that has been servicing the school. Sometimes a principal and/or the business office might have had problems with the music store that has been used and sometimes they might feel more comfortable with that store. If you plan to continue with the store that has been used, but are not familiar with the store you should make arrangements for a visit and introduce yourself. Find out who your representative (road person) will be. Find out if they are a full service store or if you need to use one store for your instrumental needs and another for your music. Meet the repair staff and discuss your needs. Ask questions and also let them know your expectations. Once, I had another music store that wanted to do business at my school, so I drew up a set of music store guidelines that included one year of trial service as well as other aspects of service I expected. After that year, I would consider them as a replacement for our regular service store, but there was no guarantee that they would be a replacement. It just so happened that they did not adhere to the guidelines, so they were simply not considered. Music stores provide many different and sometimes unique services. One store I dealt with in my career was some distance away, so they left a few old but playable instruments as loaners in a couple of sections where I did not have extras. If an instrument needed repair, the student could use a loaner until theirs came back from the music store. Another music store left Fridays open in a couple of their representative’s schedule for football game emergency deliveries and repairs. If directors needed something for the game, a representative was available to deliver it on Friday before the game. Many music stores that service rural areas have toll-free telephone numbers. Most give free concert and marching folders to the schools. As a director, you should make arrangements for a time that the representative will come to your school and be sure you are available when that person calls. Don’t schedule them to come at a time when you are in class and cannot talk to the person. Make your administration aware that this person will be on campus and find out if they can just come directly to the band hall, if they must sign in through the office or, as some larger schools do, get a school ID tag issued to that person. Check with your business office or person in charge of purchases about purchase order procedures. Different schools have different procedures. Some are more relaxed on this and some are very structured. Check with the music store about their billing procedures. Some schools allow an “open” purchase order for a certain amount and you apply the invoices to that PO until it is used up. Some music stores will hold your invoices until you do a purchase order, then they will bill for a group that are on a purchase order after they receive the PO. Many business offices get very upset if they receive a bill without a purchase order, but most music stores will work with you to help see that this doesn’t happen if your school is a stickler about this. You as a director need to take care of the paperwork on this as quickly as possible. Above all, make sure that all bills are completely clear before you leave for the summer. Money in your budget does not carry over to the next year and music stores like to begin the year with a clean slate. Have a list of recommended brands of instruments, especially if you are in charge of the beginner display. Have the instrument brands (I suggest more than one), model numbers, types of mouthpieces, accessories you like have the students get, and the beginning book you plan to use. Discuss the accessories that you would like for your students to have and most music stores will try to stock them. If you have preferences concerning reed brands and strengths, mouthpieces, and cleaning accessories, inform the music store. Give this list to the music store and check to be sure they can have these instruments. Give this list to the students so they know what instruments you prefer them to have. Make arrangements for the beginner instrument display as soon as possible because music stores will get booked up and your choices of days will be limited if you try to schedule too late. A good relationship with a music store can be a huge help to a band director. Your school music service store can be a great supporter and your representative many times can come to your rescue in a crisis. The store can also provide a wealth of information concerning new products, jobs, contest schedules of various regions, procedures that have worked (and not worked) in other schools, and other valuable information. Take advantage of a good relationship with your school music service store. James Marioneaux recently retired after thirty years as a Texas high school band director.  His bands were consistent UIL Sweepstakes winners. Under his direction, bands at El Campo High School and Sweeny High School advanced to the UIL State Marching Contest and Barbers Hill High School advanced to that contest three consecutive times. His bands at Sweeny High School and Barbers Hill High School have placed in the top five in the TMEA State Honor Band Competition.  During his tenure at Sweeny High School, the band won the UIL State Wind Ensemble Contest and was named outstanding AAA band at the American Classic Music Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.  The Palacios High School Band earned the first UIL Sweepstakes in the history of the school and was named outstanding AAA band at the South Coast Music Festival. During his nine years at Barbers Hill High School, the band earned nine consecutive first divisions in marching and eight consecutive UIL Sweepstakes awards. In addition to his band directing duties, Mr. Marioneaux has been an active clarinetist, having performed with the Beaumont Symphony Orchestra, Victoria Symphony Orchestra, Lake Charles Symphony Orchestra, Heights Concert Band in Harker Heights, Texas, and the Bay Arts Quintet. He is currently playing with the Baytown Concert Band, the Baytown Symphony, and has performed with The Solar Winds of Houston. He is on a weekly schedule of clarinet master classes for several schools in Houston area as well as teaching private lessons.  In addition, he also keeps a very busy schedule as a marching and concert band clinician, adjudicator, private instructor.