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bulletin! REGINA GOLDEN HARVEST Barbershop Chorus
Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America
# Sharp Notes #
Publication of the Regina Golden Harvest Chorus
Golden
Harvest Chorus meets most Monday Evenings, 7:30-10:00 at
Knox
Metropolitan United Church, corner of Victoria and Lorne, Regina,
Saskatchewan
Guests always
welcome!
Season's Greetings
December 2000
Happy Holidays
It's been another great year for our chapter – lots of singing, fun, food and fellowship.
Take time over the next few weeks to enjoy the season, enjoy the weather, and be thankful.
May the quiet joys of Christmas bring a warm glow to your hearth and heart.
Boty
So, what is BOTY you may ask? Well, for the past year, my living room has been the proud showplace of the Regina Chapter Barbershopper Of The Year award.
This trophy was donated by Gord Gardiner in 1972 and reads "In Recognition of Unselfish, Prolonged, Faithful and Devoted Service in the Interest and Promotion of Barber Shop Harmony". This trophy is presented annually – the recipient being chosen by the past active BOTY recipients.
As this year now draws to a close, it is my honour to present the BOTY trophy and bowtie to our 2000 Barbershopper of the Year – and you'll all find out who that is at tonight's Chapter Christmas Party.
Rotary Carolfest
Our chorus was again pleased to participate in the Rotary Carolfest on November 27. CableRegina (Access Communications) tapes all of the CarolFest performances so if you would like to see and hear what we were like you should be able to catch us on Cable 7 over the next few weeks. Thanks Wayne for organizing us for this event each year.
Shriners
We had a wonderful time and made a great impression at the Shriners dinner this past week. Thanks to Gord Gardiner for arranging for us to entertain and for MC'ing our portion of the evening.
These events keep us in front of the public and help us sell our Singing Valentines as well as show tickets – and perhaps may net us some new members as well. So keep your eyes and ears open – there are other groups out there looking for an evening's entertainment that we could undertake.
Wishing you
happy, harmonious holidays!
Wascana Rehab Centre
Lots of Christmas Carolling up and down the halls. The Rehab Centre and patients appreciate our visits – at Christmas, and at any time of the year. We don't make any money from these singouts, and won't likely gain any new members or singing engagements, but we do have the opportunity to share our gift of music with others less fortunate or less able than ourselves.
Thanks to all of you for taking time out of your busy schedules.
May peace be your gift at
Christmas
and your treasure through all the year.
Executive Meeting
The members of the Executive met at Bruce & Elaine Fish's for our final meeting of the year – and lots of Christmas goodies.
We are starting plans for Singing Valentines; investigating travel arrangements for Spring Convention in Fargo; considering additional shows / performances in nearby communities; show preparations will begin to ramp up after the new year.
Our next Executive meeting will be on Sunday January 14 – place to be determined – if you are able to host January's meeting, or any other upcoming meeting, please let Bruce know.
All members in good standing are welcome and encouraged to attend any executive meeting. Please let the president and host and hostess know in advance so that they may plan accordingly.
Legislature Tree Lighting
Thanks to all of the chorus members who came out to join in the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Legislature, and Thanks to Stuart for making the contacts for this engagement.
Wants
– at the end of the Second Millennium. Some things don’t change!
"Johnny wants… Suzy wants… Nellie wants… As for me, my little brain…"
Well, my little brain is bothered. It’s not only in the Christmas carol that you hear about wants: it is everywhere. Radio and in T.V. ads. create more of them, ad infinitum. Yet, at this time of year especially, we are reminded that what we need to do is to give, not to have our every want satisfied. Meanwhile, there are real wants everywhere. Some are material wants, like children who go to school hungry, and some are more subtle, as in the case of people with low self-esteem who, in their despair turn to mood altering drugs, alcohol, and gambling often with consequent child neglect. And that is sad, because the low-self esteem syndrome tends to be self-perpetuating. In order to break that vicious circle, intervention is necessary, the kind of thing the Early Learning centre valiantly works away at.
The current Harmonizer talks about the contribution that Dick Van Dyke is making. It points out also, that we are going to be saying good bye to the Second Millennium shortly. When you look back over a Millennium, some pretty frightening failures stand out. The mistakes that our so-called culture has made include the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and all of the wars in recent memory. Added to all of the many indignities that those wars are responsible for, is one horrendous refugee problem. The condemnation of our past behavior is captured unforgettably in the following quotation. "The refugee is a product of our errors, his predicament an indictment of our conduct as peoples and nations. He exists for our education and as a warning" [Sadruddin Aga Khan, former U.N. High Commissioner]. Santayana is credited with saying that those who refuse to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. At this time of year we think on those things, if we’re smart, and search for ways to keep from repeating past mistakes.
Maybe the important thing is not to acknowledge the past, but to look forward, celebrating our achievements, as we vow to do more. And we do have some achievements. We participated in two civic parades; we have done a lot of pro bono sing-outs, and we have supported the Early Learning Centre, an agency that is devoted to reducing the chances of repeating past mistakes. We also support our Society’s charity. But have we done as much as we are capable of?
The other day I attended the Finance Committee of the Early Learning Centre. I learned, distressfully, that the E.L.C. is looking for $80,000 in order to continue with the P.A.T. program when the present grant runs out in less than two years. The Parents as Teachers program works with families that are at risk to improve parenting. There is little doubt that the solution to future social ills lies very much at the foot of better parenting and early learning institutions. I’m not suggesting that we should pick up the tab. What I am saying is this: when it comes to wants, the E.L.C. is an example in spades.
One wonders if we might come up with some fresh fund-raising suggestion that would make our support more significant. For instance, we might be able to supply the entertainment for some fund-raising event, and thereby make a donation without burdening our treasurer. Maybe we could also step up our financial contribution. There is no question that the work that the E.L.C. does is preventive in the best sense of the term. It saves society from enormous expenses in the future, besides making the lives of the many people it touches richer in many ways. Although it not our responsibility to save the world, our beneficial example could conceivably start an avalanche.
We could help Dick Van Dyke in a material way. And we could do more sing-outs. The latter would be self-serving to a certain extent in that we might do some recruiting at the same time.
We’ll soon be celebrating a New Year that is also a new Millennium. This will be a time for really BIG resolutions! Let's make it count for our charities in Spades!
Meanwhile, remember: if you meet someone who doesn’t have a smile, give the person yours.
With best wishes for the Yuletide season.
Jack Boan
Never a Christmas morning, never an old year ends, but someone thinks of someone... old days, old times, old friends.
Share the Dream–Easy as 1-2-3
Recruiting idea #5
The following letter comes from Wyman Schmidt and contains some ideas that all of us need to continually remind ourselves about while recruiting. Wyman is another of our Society members who has recruited more than 20 new members during his career. He writes:
"I appreciate getting your note about recruitment. I am sure you are going to get a variety of answers to your questions, and I am sure that each person tailors his methods to fit his own personality and that of the person he is recruiting. Some of my thoughts are:
1. You have to be sold on the whole barbershop scene yourself: music, performing, camaraderie, etc.
2. You have to like people.
3. You have to have barbershop as a significant part of your personality and it has to show through.
4. Play the high percentages—those whom you know that have a strong interest in music, e.g. fellow choir members, work associates whom you know like to attend music functions, etc.
5. After you succeed in getting him to give it a try, pick him up and take him the first several times, introduce him to as many people as possible (there usually is someone in the group with a similar vocation or something in common). Picking him up is critical!
6. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.
7. Include his family in some function if at all possible, early in the game.
8. I’ve had the most success with people who have recently moved into the community, before they get involved with every other organization in town.
9. Timing his first visit with a night you know the chapter is going to have a good, planned program.
10. Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.
Our chapter is planning a four-week membership drive, mid-September to mid-October, with special emphasis on the fun of learning new music, culminating in an Oktoberfest for all the new recruits, wives, kids and, of course, our regular members. The Oktoberfest includes the new songs in a mini-show so that his spouse can see what "Joe" has been doing on Wednesday nights. This intense effort gained a number of new members last year. We’ve found that membership drives should be done first-class or not at all because sometimes we’ve "wasted" a potential member because the first night he came was a "bummer" of a practice night.
Yep, I’ll continue to recruit, and have a couple of potentials come September. Glad to see this effort on your part.
PS: We are so pleased to see the SingAmerica/SingCanada program and are using it in the schools of our area."
Note: Glad to see your effort, too, Wyman. So, how many other Oktoberfest ideas are out there. Does planning a drive with a follow-up activity make sense to you? If not Oktoberfest, how about Thanksgiving? Or any other tie-in that you can think of. What about Valentine's Day? Why not feature as part of your recruiting efforts the idea that you’ll teach a guy how to sing to his wife, sweetheart, mother-in-law, mother or significant other on Valentines Day?
Why not?
Ev Nau
Remember – Every night is a Guest Night!
Mini-COTS in Brandon
Four of us – Wayne Keys, Ron Evans, Ken Holzer and Bruce Fish – headed out in our van at 5:00 am on Saturday November 18. We were headed for a one-day Northwest Division Music and Leadership school in Brandon, Manitoba The weather was good; we made good time, stopping for breakfast in Virden, and arriving in Brandon at 9:30 for the kick-off session. We spent most of the day in separate breakout sessions for Music VP's (Ron), Membership (Wayne) Directors (Ken) and Presidents (Bruce). The school was well attended with chapters represented from all over the Northwest Division, and a great faculty. Each of us brought home lots of great ideas (and lots of paper).
Following the afternoon windup session, we stopped to grab a coffee and to phone home before leaving Brandon around 4:30 that same afternoon. Little did we know that it would be Sunday afternoon before we made our way back to Regina.
The roads were becoming slippery, and snow was starting to blow, so we drove for a while in daylight before stopping for supper in Moosomin. Re-fortified, and coffee mugs refilled, we headed off again – and got as far as Whitewood before the RCMP closed down the highway on us. Unfortunately, there was a wedding that weekend in Whitewood, so there were very few rooms available in the 2 motels and what was left was quickly filled. Ken and I managed to find shelter in the guest bedroom of one of the innkeepers – Ron and Wayne ended up toughing it out in a couple of "rooms" over the local tavern / pool-hall (and next to the train tracks). While Ken and I chatted with and drank coffee around our hostess's kitchen table, Ron and Wayne were shivering in their barely heated rooms.
The next morning Ken and I had toast and coffee while we waited for the highway to be re-opened – and Ron and Wayne tried unsuccessfully to find an open restaurant in downtown Whitewood.
Once the highway traffic (including over a hundred semi trucks) started moving, we picked up Ron and Wayne (cold, tired and hungry) and the four of us started west – only to be stopped again in Broadview. Here we found a bustling breakfast spot and stopped to eat, rest, warm up and drink coffee while letting the traffic clear.
Before we left the Broadview Lighthouse, we sang a song for the staff – and as it happens, a representative from the local Arts Council was at the next table and wanted to know more about us and how to contact us…
So who knows… we may be back in Whitewood again before too long.
Check out this old-time
music site, replete with lyrics and midis of
dozens of standards, their original sheet music covers and
vintage recordings:
www.melodylane.net
Don't miss the Christmas,
George M. Cohan & Irving Berlin pages.
May Christmas bring Friends to
your Fireside,
Peace to your Pathway,
And Good Health throughout the New Year.
Sunday |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
|
December |
17 | 18 Christmas Party Bulletin out |
19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 Christmas Eve | 25 Christmas No Meeting |
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| 31 New Year's Eve | |||||||
January |
1 New
Year's Day No Meeting |
2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 First meeting of 2001 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |
| 14 Executive Meeting | 15 Chapter meeting Bulletin out | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |
| 21 | 22 Chapter meeting | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |
| 28 | 29 Chapter meeting | 30 | 31 | ||||
February |
1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 Chapter meeting | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 11 | 12 Chapter meeting | 13 | 14 Valentines | 15 | 16 | 17 | |
| 18 | 19 Chapter meeting | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |
| 25 | 26 Chapter meeting | 27 | 28 | ||||
Golden Harvest Annual Spring Show, Darke Hall, Saturday, April 7 LOL Prelims / Spring Convention, Fargo, ND, May 4, 5, 6 |
|||||||
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, 2327 Brodie Bay, Regina, Canada S4V 0V1
phone: (306) 761-2503; email: bfish@accesscomm.ca.
Current and back issues of the Sharp Notes can also be found at www.gpfn.sk.ca/culture/arts/gharvest.
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