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!

March 2001

Singing Valentines a Success

Our singing Valentines were a success both financially and publicity wise!

Thanks to all the Quartets involved, we made a lot of ladies and men cry and brought happiness and love to many people.

The "Four Hoarse Men": Jack, Bill, Stewart and Peter only did two Valentines but the one brought in $100.00. This is getting to be an annual event for them!

The "Mixed Nuts": Dave, Mark, Doug, and Peter were all over town, from one end to the other. They began a week early by doing one on the 7th of February, and they sang on CJME radio before the 14th, to promote our Singing Valentines. On the 14th they went all-day and finished about 8 PM. They were featured on the noon weather at CKTV with Tom Brown and they must have done well because it brought in 6 additional requests that they took ‘on the fly’. It was a real good experience for them all and now they’re getting ready to sing on our Annual show!

The "Chord Jesters" went from 8 AM to 8 PM, putting in a full fun filled day. Our thanks to Ken Cameron for filling in from 8 AM till 3 PM. Ron couldn’t get away from work till then and Ken did a fine job and gained some fun experience of Quartet singing.

We had lots of laughs, made quite a few ladies teary eyed and got quite a few interesting comments. The Chord Jesters did some early promotion also, when they sang to Jane Pearce on Monday afternoon for a CBC TV interview with Marilyn Maki on the CBC weather.

They also sang early Morning on Valentines Day on Z99, as they serenaded C.C. and Lori, (They even thru in a song for the Receptionist on their way out) . This freebee brought in an additional 5 requests that were ‘fitted’ in.

Global TV got into the act when they asked if they could film one of our performances so we gave them our schedule and they met us at Miller High. This Valentine was shown both at the 6 and the 11 o’clock newscasts.

All in All it was a great day.

Thanks to Dave Pearce for all his efforts in getting the message out to the media, to Val at SPMC for her scheduling of the Quartets and a special thanks to all the Quartet members who took time off (or holidays) just to sing and make this Valentines such a special event.

Lynn Lowes

New Evidence Supporting the Early Learning Centre

Late last year the Fraser Institute criticized programs of the Head Start variety saying that they did not justify the cost. The fact is that they did not include all of the variables in the analysis. Now, fresh evidence has come to light that should quiet the skeptics for a while.

Dr. Fraser Mustard has examined all of the evidence he can find and concludes that "good nutrition and good stimulation (from nurturing care and opportunities for play) in the first years of life improve outcomes for all children's learning, behavior, and physical and mental health throughout life".

So our own Anne Luke, without the help of all that science, over 25 years ago put together a program that does just what Dr. Mustard has called for. Nevertheless, it is nice to have scheme validated by such an eminent authority.

In response to my ongoing support in this column, Anne has written a letter to SPEBSQSA, addressed to me. Here it is.

Dear Friends:

New legislation requires us to transport our children (20-40 pounds) in forward facing car seats, secured by seat belts and tether straps. This is a costly project; we need 30 of these car seats at an estimated cost of $100 each. We are applying for a grant, up to $1000, through SGI; we will know in April how much we will receive.

We are asking our friends at SPEBSQSA to help us in the purchase of these car seats. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Anne Luke, Executive Director.

I am putting the original letter into the hands of the Secretary.

I'm personally contributing $100, which will buy one of those seats. If SGI comes through with the amount requested only 19 more will be outstanding. Hopefully, some of our Valentine money can go towards reducing that number a bit more.

Jack Boan,
Community Relations,
Services & Brotherhood

Chapter Promotion & PR

What is chapter Promotion? Public Relations? Who’s responsible for making these things happen?

The way I see it, chapter promotion and public relations are everyone’s responsibility. But I’m prepared to spearhead this part of our program with your support, the operant words being, "with your support". So, how did you promote the chapter and barbershopping last week? Did you give a chorus business card to someone, hand out one or two flyers promoting the chapter, tell a friend, associate, relative about barbershopping?

That’s what I mean when I say, "with your support". My point is everyone can do something every week.

You have ideas, let’s hear them. How can we spread the word about our hobby more efficiently? More about this later.

If you feel you have nothing to advertise or talk about, read on!

Dave Pearce,
Public Relations VP

Remember – Every night is a Guest Night!

Annual Show

We will be conducting a weekly press campaign for our show, starting in early March. The highlites will be

• a welcome reception for our guest quartet at the airport;
• a "Get to Know You" reception at the Regina Inn on Friday evening, April 6th;
• our show on the 7th;
• the Afterglow at the Regina Inn following the show; and
• a Chapter Brunch on Sunday morning, April 8th.

Is this going to be a great weekend or what? Your job? Get out and sell show and afterglow tickets, because we’ve promised 150 guests for the afterglow. Don’t let us down.

Harmony Week

Regina Harmony Week is planned for Sunday June 3rd to the 10th and a proclamation is being drafted for the Mayor’s signature as we speak. Both Sweet Adeline choruses are on board, which means the entire barbershop community will be involved. The week will kick off with the Mini-Hep in Clear Lake and conclude with the GREAT SASKATCHEWAN BARBERSHOP SINGATHON, Saturday, June 9th. Proceeds go to our charities, so let’s get on board and make things happen!

We are also looking for other activities/events/appearances to promote our brand of harmony. If you have an idea, let’s talk.

Great Saskatchewan Singathon

What are you doing on June 9th? That’s the date of the Great Saskatchewan Barbershop Singathon. This will be a marathon (10 hours) sing out, barbershop style involving the entire Regina barbershop community. But we will need a few volunteers to tie up the details. I need someone to liaise with the Early Learning Center, how about it Jack? We also need two members to be our links to the Sweet Adelines, choruses so Ken and Ron seem to be the obvious choices for that. I’m also looking for school liaisons to somehow get them on stage singing barbershop. If you want to get involved in this ground breaking event, let me know. Incidentally we have formed a joint committee with the Sweet Adelines to ensure everyone participates. Any ideas?

What are you prepared to do to contribute to our success in these events?

Dave Pearce

Classic Tags

Dear Friends. I, together with Kevin Keller, David Krause, and Jim Bagby, have put together a booklet called Classic Tags. It is a compilation of 116 popular tags which have "made the rounds" out in barbershopland. It will be used in the Tag Singing class at Harmony College. You might find it fun to look at, or useful for your chorus or quartet or in your coaching. You can download it as a pdf file (both men's and women's versions are available) from my web site at library.wustl.edu/~prietto/tags.html. It is fully indexed and contains tags from many arrangers, including many of you. Since the manual is an ongoing project which will be updated from time to time, we welcome any suggestions or corrections you might have, including proposing tags for future inclusion. Enjoy!

Regards, David Wright
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO USA
<wright@einstein.wustl.edu>

Calendar of Upcoming Events

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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