World of Pageantry

I joined the marching band last year and was an unofficial assistant section leader the year I joined. Last year they had no assistant section leader, but when our section leader was gone I was always the one to step up and take over. Now this year im an official Assistant Section Leader, and with our Section Leader being Assistant Drum Major and being Drum Major next year I obviously have to fill in a lot for him. My section does not recognize me as a section leader, because of last years issue with me being unnofficial. Now Friday i called a marching sectional to practice our marching before a band review and the members of the percussion section basically told me "no i dont want to" and blew it off. Sure enough at the band review the next day we had insane marching issues. I really would like to avoid this problem from occuring again and can't figure out how to make it clear to them that im the section leader when our's is gone.. not that we DONT have one. Any tips?

talk to them about. tell them that you are no long unofficial and that you will call a sectional if need be

talk to ur section leader and have him tell the group that u are official ...

if that doesnt work have him call it so that they dont have a choice even if ur SL wont be there ...

another suggestion (which should only be used as a last thing) is to have ur band director call the practice

these are deffinatly not all of the possible solutions but they are some ... maybe other people can give you more ideas

I don't know how much telling them that you're the boss is going to help...
That's obviously something they don't want to hear.

Think about whether you've done what it takes to build up trust with the section over the past months. If they don't trust you, they will refuse to follow you.

One way to build trust is to build a relationship with them on a personal level. There are many other ways... maybe some others on this forum can give suggestions.

I think it's also important that the head section leader is acknowledging your authority as assistant. That could be a problem; if he doesn't appear to consider you a leader, the other guys won't think of you as one either.

i wasnt sayin u should go up to them and be like "im the boss, u have to do what i say" i was talking along the lines of letting them know that that u r no long just a helper person and that u r tryin to do what u can to improve ur section.

i say go to the director and have him/her tell your section that you are next in command when no one else is there and that you are to be treated as a section leader.

Flyingtoenails wrote:I joined the marching band last year and was an unofficial assistant section leader the year I joined. Last year they had no assistant section leader, but when our section leader was gone I was always the one to step up and take over. Now this year im an official Assistant Section Leader, and with our Section Leader being Assistant Drum Major and being Drum Major next year I obviously have to fill in a lot for him. My section does not recognize me as a section leader, because of last years issue with me being unnofficial. Now Friday i called a marching sectional to practice our marching before a band review and the members of the percussion section basically told me "no i dont want to" and blew it off. Sure enough at the band review the next day we had insane marching issues. I really would like to avoid this problem from occuring again and can't figure out how to make it clear to them that im the section leader when our's is gone.. not that we DONT have one. Any tips?

Sometimes it's how you talk to people and tell them whats happening. If you flat out tell them what to do they will likely not listen. Like Moo-Man said you have to earn the trust and respect. It doesn't just happen with a title.

By the way was there ample warning of the sectional, did you give them notice so they would be able to make arrangements to be there. A lot of times people won't go to a sectional unless they have enough warning.

P.S. Having a sectional after a two hour extended rehearsal called by your band director is not a recipe for success. Especially when called during the above mentioned rehearsal.

One of the most important things is that your sections see's that other leaders (section leaders, band assistants, and director) recognize you as a leader, support you as leader. And if they don't listen to you, they are going to have to answer to higher authorities. If they don't understand that they wont listen. So have the higher authorities remind them of your position.

have a talk with your section about what they want out of the rest of the year. do they wanna jerk around and blow off marching and get laughed at all year for sucking, or do they wanna actually beat people and show that they're better. if u can establish this, get them motivated to beat someone, maybe a rival school, or what not, it will help them want to work harder. consequently, when you tell them to do stuff, they'll listen. remind them when they start losing it about the session you had and what's expected of them. if they don't want to work hard and really are all just jerks, as an assistant there really is much more you can force them to do cept motivate. otherwise, enjoy the year and build repect for next year. but you can blow this off, since i dunno if this would work with other schools, but it did for mine line.

What everyone's saying is correct: Your section is the final decision in who they give their respect to. In this case, I'd be careful about saying "I'm the boss" to them, but you have to approach it differently. Talk to your band director or your DM about this, they can definitely help with this problem. Good luck!