Golden Harvest Sharp Notes

Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America

Knox Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina, Saskatchewan
Guests always welcome!

Well, it's hard to believe, but the year 2000 has finally arrived. And not only that, we seem to have survived the "y2k bug" with flying colours.

I hope you were able to enjoy the celebrations. Many of you will have made New Year's resolutions – and I hope you've remembered some of these if you did …

That last one might be stretching it just a little. Oh well – have a Happy New Year!

The Barbershopper Of The Year for 1999 is Bruce Fish. Nominated by a group of former BOTY winners, Bruce comes with many accolades. Bruce is serving as president and is doing a great job. He prepares a mean agenda for executive meetings. Bruce is also our Sharp Notes newsletter editor, and we think deserves an award for the quality job he’s done with this media. But perhaps the greatest of Bruce’s achievements is our Golden Harvest Chorus website. You must visit this truly remarkable site at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest to see how wonderful you look in both red and black. On the site you will find back copies of the Sharp Notes, a roster of the chorus membership and all sorts of other neat features. Don’t miss it.

Bruce was presented his BOTY award at our Christmas party in December. Congratulations and many thanks to Bruce Fish, our BOTY for 1999.

Congratulations to Ken Holzer, our latest recipient of the Way-da-go Award. Gord Gardiner, the previous recipient, presented Ken with this award at our Chapter Christmas Party. Way-da-go Ken – well-deserved and long overdue!

Wow – what an honour to be recognized by the chapter in this way. I was thrilled when Ron presented this award to me at our Chapter Christmas party. And I'm thrilled to see my name listed with those of BOTY winners who have gone before me. There's a great history and legacy within our chorus – and the names listed on this award are among those who have helped shape our chapter. I'm thrilled to think that my name has now been added to this list. Thank You.

The Executive met Sunday at Stuart and Jeanne Reiley's and started off the new year with an excellent and well-attended meeting.

We will be looking for more paid singouts and engagements in the new year – and becoming less dependent upon Bingo's. Singing Valentines are just around the corner. Ron will start some quartet singing on Monday and hopefully we can get some more members singing tenor (there seems to be a shortage of tenors for Valentine's quartets). Gord will send information to the newspapers once contact information is finalized. We'll look at booking the hall and quartet for next year's show – tentatively April 7, 2001. Bill Coulthard is coordinating arrangements for Clear Lake. Watch for changes in our meeting format – and more singing and quartetting and tag singing.

Thanks to Stuart and Jeanne for the hospitality and treats. Next meeting February 6^th, location to be determined. Executive meetings will be the first Sunday of each month for the next several months.

1972 Lorn Hamilton
1973 John LeBoldus
1974 Gordon Gardiner
1975 Mel Friesen
1976 Jack Wilkes
1977 Ralph Houseman
1978 Bill Lovely
1979 Carl Stroh
1980 Merv Tole
1981 Nelson Falkowsky
1982 Tom Magnuson
1983 Doug Richards
1984 Gord Balfour
1985 Boris Korpan
1986 Jake Krahn
1987 Bruce Pendelbury
1988 Tiny Eyre
1989 Bill Coulthard
1990 Dave Slinn
1991 Jan Harrop
1992 Don Gardiner
1993 not awarded
1994 Brian Woodcock
1995 Ken Holzer
1996 Lynn Lowes
1997 Wayne Keys
1998 Ron Evans
1999 Bruce Fish

Ron, Ken, Bill, Lynn and Bruce met this past Thursday to go over the show script and make a first cut at music for the show. The results are included in the repertoire listed here. We have lots of new music, and some standby's just in case some of these new tunes don't work out quite as planned.

The theme is "Remember Radio" and Bill will be working all of these into the script. There will also likely be opportunities for 4 guys to get together to do a jingle or other 'spot' that Bill might work in.

So, try to make it out to every practice – and look at your music between practices – and this will be yet another great show.

Christmas is behind us, and Valentine cards are already on the store shelves. Time to start warming up for singing Valentines. Anyone who participated last year knows how much fun it was. For anyone who didn't join us last year – what are you waiting for? It's easier than you think, and very rewarding. The more members we have participating, the less time commitment it will mean for each of us.

We'll be starting to practice some of our sentimental numbers on Monday nights, and getting some 4-somes (or 8-somes) up singing. We'll be trying to get some more people to take on the tenor parts so we can field more quartets.

We had a lot of discussion at our last executive member about the challenges of Bingo, our upcoming show and several other issues. It struck me that all of these things were so much easier when we had 40-ish active members. Wayne Keys reported that our attendance has been sitting at about 50 percent of our roster.

Firstly, we need to increase our attendance. We can do that by letting guys who aren’t making it out regularly know that we miss them. Also, we have several members who feel it is important to keep up their membership but for whatever reason haven’t been able to make it out. These guys need to know we care as well.

Secondly, we need to scour the bushes for new guys to share in our hobby. As I have said in the past, the best technique for accomplishing this is personal contact. I’ll be talking to you at upcoming meetings about some tools and techniques we can use to bolster our efforts in this regard, but nothing replaces personal contact.

I’d really like your feedback. If you have any ideas for membership enhancement, or have a contact you want followed up, please contact me. You can do this by phone at 525-0129 or by email at mbcoulthard@dlcwest.com.

If Clark Kent instead of a reporter, had been a dentist with a strong conviction of the benefits of dairy products because of their high calcium content, would his alter-ego have stood for Tooth Justice and the American Whey?

It isn’t too early to mark your calendars for the annual Clear Lake Mini-HEP. This event has been growing, to the point that it is now the largest Mini-HEP in LOL.

This is an opportunity to get some top flight coaching for quartets and choruses, sing with guys from all over the district, attend individual classes on vocal production, presentation, and more, and view (or preferably take part in) the Saturday night show.

If you go as a quartet, you can get up to 3 hours of coaching. There will be room for up to 18 quartets this year. There will be 11 faculty members, including 5 certified judges.

The Saturday night show will open with a 100-man chorus and will feature all of the quartets from the quartet classes as well as the headline quartet "Excalibur". A new feature of the Saturday Night Show will be a quartet contest, with awards given to the top three finishers.

The price is reasonable, although this year it is two-tiered ($65.00 early - $75.00 at the door). This price covers 4 meals, lots of singing and a great staff.

I have taken on the role of Chapter Coordinator for the event. If you haven’t already done so at a chapter meeting, please let me know about your intention to attend. I can also help tee up accommodations if you wish. Let's get a great turnout from Regina.

A mother pig was walking through the barnyard one day with one of her piglets. Suddenly, a raccoon raced out from behind the barn and scared the living daylights out of the mother pig. ... The little hog laughed to see such a plight and the sow jumped over the coon.

I will begin with wishing you all a Happy New Year, and may the final year of the second millennium be good to you. (By the time it is over, surely we’ll have broken the habit of writing 19 when we should be putting down 00). Then I want to talk a bit about labels, the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry, and Valentine’s Day, in that order.

According to Doug Pederson, it is a done deal. Coronation Park School will take any labels we happen to acquire. I have a sack full, which I intend to deliver to the school when it opens for the new term. Any labels that are offered to us by those who have been saving them, will be welcome, and one of us, Doug or I will see that they get to the school (3105 4th Avenue North, phone 791-8570).

All Friday afternoon I spent at a poor people’s rally, at St. Andrew’s United Church. I was there as a member of the Regina Anti-Poverty Ministry’s Board of Directors, not as a SPEBSQSA representative, but I thought you might be interested in hearing about it, since it was dealing with a social problem, and as an organization dedicated to harmony in all its aspects, poverty is definitely a social problem and inimical to peace and harmony. The topic of discussion was a Report by an employee of RA-PM, Peter Gilmer, "Saskatchewan Anti-Poverty Alternatives". The report concluded with 37 recommendations, all of which received consideration, and at the end of the day, the Report was adopted in principle by the assembly, and the Ministry was commended for its initiative. Those of us who are shielded from the worst of the fallout from poverty, are unaware of its ravages. As I sat there listening to the debate, I was glad that our Golden Harvest Chorus is doing something significant towards the eradication of future poverty by supporting the work of the Regina Early Learning Centre. But make no mistake, there is lots more to be done.

It is more than time to get cracking on our Valentine Day program. We stand to raise a significant amount of money that weekend, but also, we publicize our brotherhood, and that can’t do any harm. We face the awesome demand that something special should be done this year, the year 2000, but maybe it will be enough if we do as well as we did last year. For this purpose, we need to field several quartets, and we need to start selling the program to the public. Those of us who made some contacts last year, should exploit them; and if you don’t have any contacts yet, why not make a start: call up a few people, or go and see them with a sales form, and get some commitments.

Thanks to Ron, Bill and Jack for your bulletin articles – this month and throughout this past year.

Do you have any pictures of chorus barbershop activities, quartets, shows, singouts, parties? show programs, tickets, newspaper clippings, bulletins? If there's enough interest, I would like to scan/copy all of these and put together either a CD slideshow (or perhaps a vhs tape?) Let me know your ideas on this…

COMING EVENTS

Mid-Winter Tucson, AZ January 24^th

Executive Meeting Sunday, February 6^th

Sharp Notes out Monday February 7^th

Singing Valentines February 12^th, 13^th, 14^th

Executive Meeting Sunday, March 5^th

Executive Meeting Sunday, April 2^nd

Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show, Darke Hall Saturday April 8^th

Western Canada Regional Sweet Adelines Competition, Regina April 27^th-30^th

LOL Prelims / Spring Convention, La Crosse, WI May 5^th - 7^th

Mini-HEP, Clear Lake, Manitoba June 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th

International, Kansas City, MO July 2^nd

Articles in this bulletin do not necessarily reflect the views of the chapter. Unless carrying a byline, they are those of the editor. Items received may be referred to the executive before publication. All chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit articles to the Sharp Notes. Submissions will be credited to the author. Please address any comments, suggestions or submissions to the editor – Bruce Fish, 761-2503 / bfish@cableregina.com. Current and back issues of the Sharp Notes can be found on our chapter website at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest.

Key	Show Tunes	Learning Tape	Title
Bb	¯	¯	Baby, Won’t You Please Come Home
Eb	¯	¯	Banana Boat Song
F		¯	Barbershop Strut
D	¯	¯	Basin Street Blues
Eb	¯	¯	Candle on the Water
D	¯	¯	Chattanooga Choo Choo
F	¯	¯	Danny Boy
Bb	¯	¯	Down Among the Sugar-Cane
F		¯	Georgia on my Mind
Eb			Ghost Riders in the Sky
G		¯	Goodnight, Sweetheart, Goodnight
F	¯	¯	I’m Sitting On the Top of the World
B		¯	If I Could Write a Song
F		¯	Irish Blessing
F	¯	¯	Lazy River
F			Lion Sleeps Tonight
C#		¯	O Canada
C			Saskatchewan (I’ll Come Home to)
F		¯	Shenandoah
Bb	¯	¯	Something
C		¯	Somewhere Out There
C		¯	Song and Dance Man
C		¯	They Wrote ‘em in the Good Ol’ Days
A		¯	Under the Boardwalk
E			When the Saints Go Marching In
F		¯	Yesterday