The Pride Of California

My niece is in the 230-member Cal Band. I call them the high-stepping Marching Bears. And they're marching with much confidence right now after winning their first two games of the season, including the opener against Tennessee. This could be the year Cal makes it to the Rose Bowl. Or, if USC falters or some other Pac 10 school doesn't surge, maybe they'll be playing for more!

University of California's (also known as Berkeley or Cal-Berkeley) marching band is a student-run group. The director is the only person that is an employee of the school. The director and five students lead all aspects of the band.

Band members annually elect four students to the Executive Committee. They serve a calendar year. The prior year's Executive Committee appoints the student that is the Senior Manager for the next year.

This is pretty much the same format we used at OSU for the Homecoming Steering Committee. We even had only one paid university employee, our advisor. We had an Executive Director and five Executives, each in charge of specific committees. We made all decisions.

There were complaints it was a self-perpetuating group that limited the general student population from participating. All students could apply for the steering committee, then the five executives and executive director, elected by the prior year's steering committee, selected the current year's steering committee. It was often hard to break into that circle.

My experiences over the years on that committee in various roles were some of the best of all my college years. I experienced and received more of an education regarding people, loyalty, dedication, scandals, organizational and motivational skills, decision making, ill-will folks, and keeping calm in stressful situations than anything ever taught in a classroom.

Here's a link to the Cal Band website. Here's a link to the band's performance schedule.