Group and Player Management

Your music program is made up of groups which could range from a String Quartet to a large Orchestra. Bandforté gives you complete flexibility to add players or move players between them. Players may be in multiple ensembles and play different instruments.

The Bandforté home page lists your active groups. One click takes you to the group's page to see the current players and gives access key group functions.

• Call players (parents) or email players, sections, tutors or directors with one touch on your phone
• Record attendance at rehearsals and events via the simple phone-friendly attendance screen
• Easily schedule rehearsals into the calendar
• Message tutors for the ensemble or just for one section or one player
• Quick access to band tutors, to current music and to band or player history

Your one- page Player summary provides:

• Contact details
• Current Group memberships
• Attendance
• Instrument Loans, tutors, unpaid invoices
• Link to player portal

Portal Pages

Portal pages are key information summaries for people associated with your band program who are not part of the management team. This includes all players, parents, musical directors and tutors.

For players and parents their portal shows:

• Key information for the ensembles of which they are a member: rehearsal times, contacts, events, music
• Allows players / parents to notify expected absences for events or rehearsals
• Shows outstanding invoices
• Shows tutor and lesson time/location details
• Parents can easily communicate with tutors or MDs
• Lists instrument loans

For Musical Directors their portal shows:

• Key information for the ensembles they direct: rehearsal times, player details, calendar events, music being worked on.
• Details of tutors for individual players or sections
• Allows MDs to communicate with tutors or players/parents

For Tutors their portal shows:

• Schedule for the players they teach. Times and room allocations
• Allows tutors to communicate with MDs or players/parents
• See music being worked on in their students bands

Instrument Management

Instrument management is so much easier with Bandforté.

• One touch to see all instruments by category; how many you have; how many available, on loan or in need of repair
• For each instrument, full details including asset numbers, condition assessment, location
• Loan and repair history
• Directory of repairers
• Stocktake lists
• Attach photos to record instrument condition before loans
• Notifications may be enabled to alert the instrument managers about changes to instrument statuses

Tutors and Musical Directors

Managing the musical professionals working with your band program is key to its smooth running. Bandforté will:

• Record contact details, skills, history with the band program
• Attach directors to bands, tutors to students
• A key feature is maintenance of Working With Children checks, if the WWC is out of date this is highlighted
• Tutor Portal allows quick access to tutor / MD specif details without a login
• Directory of past and present tutors and MDs
• Record tutor schedules and room allocations
• Message all tutors or those for specific bands, sections or players

Online Intake

No more retyping printed application forms - prospective band members can share details directly into Bandforté

• Customise your intake form with text and additional input fields.
• Put an application link on your website or in email invitations, even on printed notes
• New applicants can specify instrument preferences
• Applications may be entered manually for people who do not have internet access

Once applications are received, Bandforté manages these, assists in instrument allocation and efficiently migrates new starters into the group. .

• Review a summary of applications received with breakdown of preferences
• Simple to contact applicants and to fine tune their details
• MDs may add notes to an intake form to record audition or instrument try-out comments or other information
• An auto allocation process may be used as a staring point for deciding instrument allocation or do it player by player
• New intakes are managed separately to the current band until you are ready to enrol them

Calendar Management

The calendar function stores regular rehearsals and special events such as End of Year Concert, or a Guest Workshop.

• Schedule rehearsals, special events and performances, track who can attend and who cannot
• Selectively message attendees, non-attendees or those who have not yet advised availability
• Bandforté calendar may be shared via iCal to synchronise with other web based caledar sytems eg Google Calendar or Apple iCalendar
• Automatically send notifications when events change

Music Score Management

• Find any item in your music library quickly and easily by search; or browse by composer, arranger, grade or style
• Create links to MP3s or video files and share with bands
• Record internal or external loans of scores
• Mark scores as incomplete or requiring some attention
• Record performance notes, musical issues or other comments

Invoicing

Simplify generation of invoices and tracking of payments.

Invoicing covers ensemble fees, instrument hire and tutor fees and additional optional items can be easily added.

• A flexible invoicing system where you can set fees at a range of levels.
• Generate invoices for band membership, ensemble fees, tutor fees, instrument hire
• Individual invoices can be adjusted for special circumstances
• Bulk invoicing at the touch of a button
• Track payments and remind players via the portal

Bandforté Privacy Policy

What information is collected by BandForte?

Data Diction Pty Ltd is providing a service (BandForte) that requires collection and storage of personal information in order to enable management of client music programs.

This will include contact information such as names, phone numbers, email addresses. BandForte maintains a log file which will include information such as pages accessed, updates made and documents or photos uploaded. The Australian Privacy Principles require that we treat this information carefully and protect it from misuse.

Data Diction’s use of the Private Information

Data Diction, as administrator of BandForte, will need to provide access to the personal information to some of its employees. Our use of this information will be limited to that which is required to provide you with a reliable service. Specifically, Data Diction will not share, sell, rent or disclose personal information to any third party unless legally required to do so under NSW or Australian Law.

All Data Diction employees who have access to the private information have agreed to abide by these privacy principles. No contractors will have access to the personal information.

Client use of the Private Information

Information in BandForte is accessed by client band administrators (e.g. parent volunteers, school staff, musical directors). Data Diction strongly recommends that each client organisation has its own privacy policy and ensures that each user is aware of and abides by the organisation’s privacy policy.

Access to BandForte requires a personal User login and password. We recommend that logins are not shared and that password selection is made with care to avoid being easy to guess.

Secure Housing of the Private Information

The information you enter into the service will be housed in data servers physically located in Australia. The servers used are managed by a top tier cloud hosting provider, currently Rackspace. All the private information is stored encrypted and no hosting company staff have access to the encryption keys. All transmission of data is kept private by industry standard secure communications protocols.

Personal information will be kept no longer than is necessary to provide the service or as otherwise required by laws relating to data retention for services provided to children.

Access and Correction

You have the right to see the private information we hold about you and to request any corrections that may be required to that information. We will make corrections you request as soon as practical.

Unauthorised Access

Data Diction will use our best endeavours to detect and prevent any unauthorised access or attempts to access the private information you enter into the system. We will notify you as soon as practical of any data breach we detect that may have resulted in personal information being stolen from the system.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

Over time we may need to update this policy to take account of changes to the service or current laws or best practice. We will let you know whenever we make changes to this privacy policy.

Security

• Your data is hosted on dedicated servers managed by Rackspace in Sydney
• Your data on the server is encrypted and the encryption keys are not shared with Rackspace staff
• All transmission of your data between our servers and web browsers is made private by using the https: protocol
• An audit trail of all data changes is kept and can be easily queried
• We backup your data every night and keep daily copies for a month. We also keep monthly backups for a year.
• We will not use the private information stored in Bandforté for any purpose other than the provision of the service. Read our full Privacy Policy