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Harms continued
May also gave us a chance to see former
member Jerry Nelson, now living in Florida, who came along to
the Cookie Festival and the May 25 rehearsal. Our membership recruitment night on May
25 was quite successful with a large number of guests attending. If
you brought someone, I hope you will be following up with your guest
to convince him that we have a wholesome, educational experience to
offer from which they will get great
enjoyment. I hope each of you keeps the idea of
bringing in new singers uppermost in your mind regularly, not just
at our occasional guest nights. If you haven’t read the inspiring
stories in the March/April 2006 Harmonizer
about our fellow Central States District chorus in Beatrice,
Nebr. and its $10,000 prize for bringing in the most new members,
then please do so. It tells you a lot about how recruitment is done,
and how if everyone puts in the effort, membership will rise. They
now have 100 members. What if they add another 34 this
year? And speaking of membership, don’t forget
the reward for recruiting new singers. For every member you sponsor,
you get a 20 percent discount/rebate on your dues due in 2007. What
more incentive do you need? Don’t stop reading after you’ve gotten
through the Beatrice article. Read on about the chapter in Grand
Junction, Colorado, which went from 24 members to 42. Both of these
chapters tried new ideas and each chapter member worked at getting
results. Let’s follow their lead. As we look toward our contest in Wichita,
I will be interested in knowing your thoughts about instituting some
form of taping program. For those in doubt, what I’m talking about
is encouraging each member to demonstrate his achievement of the
goals of singing the right notes and words for the contest songs. As
a chorus, we have vacillated about his over the years, and lately
haven’t gotten more definitive than trying to get voluntary
compliance. Years ago, taping oneself for evaluation by a section
leader was a condition of contest performance. Should we move in
that direction? Let one of the board members know your opinion,
unless you don’t have one, but I’ll bet you do. Regardless if we
institute some sort of requirement, remember that taping yourself
for your own benefit gives a chance for self improvement at the very
least. The goal of taping is skill development, not
exclusion |
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of participants. We need more opportunities to perform for the community, in my opinion. The board is working on this and I hope chorus members won’t be hesitant to suggest opportunities, or seek an invitation for us to perform when the opportunity arises. We have a good chorus and we should be worth a decent fee for private parties, and we should be willing to contribute our talents to our community with no-charge performing. We need the opportunities. Keep in mind that we have a performance in the Anamosa city park on July 22. Barring inclement weather, I’ll bet we have a good audience for that concert and we need to give every audience a good show. Speaking of performing around the community, I appreciate the willingness of many leads and basses to participate in a church singout squad. However, we must have more depth in the baritone and tenor sections to be able to commit to engagements. We cannot rely that schedule conflicts won’t develop or problems arise which leave us without representation in every part. That won’t do. If you’ve been absent from recent meetings and want to participate in the church singout opportunity, please let Dave Lasley know soon. If you’ve always wanted to try out baritone or tenor, why not give it a try now? It’s not too late to attend Harmony University in St. Joseph, Missouri, from July 30 through August 6. You can go for just the weekend of August 3-6 for only $170. It’s close, it’s fun, consider attending. You’ll learn something while having a good time. I’ll see you at the next rehearsal. Keep singing!
The Harmony Hawks Annual Picnic is less than two months away! This year, it will be held at Morgan Creek Park on Sunday, July 16 (By Buzz’s place). This is a perfect time to relax, enjoy good food, and be merry! Bring your wives and friends! The annual golf outing will be held sometime on a Friday in August. Costs will be approximately $35 which includes greens fees, a cart, and food. Tee times will start around 4:00 p.m. More details to come. |
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