From Richard Holmes, President-Elect NCBA

There are times when a band has scheduling conflicts that make it impossible to attend District Concert Band MPA in the district that it has membership. This should not prohibit a band from attending MPA in that school year. Procedures are in place and established for applying to attend another district. While this is an understandable occurrence, bands should not make a habit of repeating this practice.

Definition in procedure of "what" to do when arranging to go out-of-district is described here. Please make sure to follow these guidelines.

1. Band directors planning on taking their band out-of-district to Concert Band MPA first must apply with the Concert Band MPA Chairman of the district they wish to attend. The request must ask permission to attend their MPA (email accepted). The reason(s) for the request must be included.

2. Once the District MPA Chair from the requested district has approved the request, and responded in writing, the band director must then send a copy (email accepted) of the letter of approval to the District MPA Chairman of the district where the band holds membership to obtain permission to attend the out of district concert band MPA.

3. The Band Director must also send a copy of the written responses, granting permission from both district concert band MPA chairs (email accepted), to the State Concert MPA Chairman (President-Elect) for his/her files. The State Concert MPA Chair (President-Elect) may deny permission and/or grant permission depending on the reason(s) for the request.

4. ONLY after these procedures are followed is a band "legal" in attending a MPA in a district other than the one where the band holds membership. Failure to follow procedures could result in disqualification.
As stated, bands are encouraged to attend MPA in their district where they hold membership. When need arises, however, procedures are in place that can work for everyone.

Concert MPA hosts are asked to keep a record of bands that attend MPA in a different district (home district MPA chair and out of district chairs). If a band makes this a frequent practice and abuses this privilege, the MPA host should bring it before the State Board of the NCBA for review.