On Jan. 26,1998, our 1997 Barbershopper Of The Year was presented with the official "Bow Tie" and the "BOTY" plaque. This year's winner is one of those guys who sits quietly in the background, not only doing his job(s) but whatever else we ask him to do, without any great fanfare. He just does it and it gets done. Our honoured Barbershopper this year has been on the executive for several years. He holds 2 vital positions in our chorus and does them well. He has been Chapter Secretary for several years, and as our Librarian, he makes sure that we all have music, folders, etc. PLUS he has been our Show Secretary for the last 2 or 3 years. If you don’t know by now - this Years "BOTY" winner is WAYNE KEYS. Congratulations Wayne, you are a deserving winner and have truly earned this recognition from your fellow barber shoppers.

Our next Bingo is scheduled for Wednesday February 11,1998 at the Silver Sage Bingo hall. We need workers from 5:30 to midnight. This is our only Bingo for February, so if you can help out, please contact Lynn. Remember 10% of our Bingo earnings go to our two charities -- Heartspring and the Early Learning Centre and you earn dollars which can be used for competition travel, membership dues or whatever you want them for.

With all the changes going on as to the date of our show, availability of local Quartets, availability of members, a place to hold our show etc., the Show committee is now looking for a location with the new "tentative" date as being April 18,1998. Please clear your calendars and "get ready for the show".

If I Could Write a Song

Song and Dance Man

Welcome back for another year of song, laughter and friendships that last a lifetime. Congratulations to Eric Neufeld 9 years!

Congratulations and welcome back to John Stecyk.

Valentine's day is known as the festival of romance and affection. It also goes back a long way in history.

According to the encyclopedia, a festival in ancient Rome was celebrated every February 15. It honoured Juno, the Roman goddess of women and marriage, and Pan, the god of nature.

In the year 496AD, however, the Christian leaders thought that it was unbecoming to have a festival that was pagan, and Pope Gelasius ushered in a festival in the memory of two martyred bishops, named Valentine. They were beheaded when the state religion was still anti-Christian, and picking off Christians was considered good sport. Less than 50 years later, Christianity became the recognized religion under Constantine, early in the 4th century, and Romans had to look for a new sport. Pope Gelasius called the new festival St. Valentine's Day, and chose February 14.

Little is known about how well it succeeded in replacing the pagan holiday because the Dark Ages intervene. However, it is believed that St. Valentine's Day was celebrated in Britain as early as 1446. The early British who emigrated to North America probably brought the tradition with them. However, it is celebrated in many countries of Europe, and around the world, and the customs associated with it are quite varied.
One custom, going back a while in England, did it this way. Young men chose their Valentine by writing names on slips of paper, then drawing them by chance from a vase. After drawing lots, the young men wore the paper with his girl's name on it, on his sleeve for several days. It is thought that the expression "He wears his heart on his sleeve" dates from that custom.

It is a good thing to set a special day aside to recognize and celebrate romance and affection. It gladdens the heart, and makes us tend to remember that we need to care about our neighbors, too, especially those who are denied the opportunities we take for granted. The two charities we support financially look after some of them, and we can be glad that our dollars help out. But we are reminded also, on such glad occasions, that there are others, whom we can help in other ways, by sing-outs, or just by visiting when in hospital, or in other non-financial ways.

Hooray for St. Valentine's Day! May our quartets have a great day.

Close Chorders and Bridge City Four put together a promotion with the Heart & Stroke Foundation. (February is Heart Month). We provide the quartets, (looks like at least three), have arranged for boxes of locally made chocolates in fancy wrappers, and Valentines day cards and will deliver them from 8:30am to 8:00pm on Friday and 11:00am to 6:00pm on Saturday.

Heart & Stroke are taking on the promotional work, getting us into the radio stations and the various other forms of media that we have up here. They also were instrumental in getting us a 50% discount on the chocolates, and also have the charge-card capability. Each quartet will be equipped with a van, driver, and cell-phone, and is booking three SVs per hour.

For $35 we deliver a tuxedo'd quartet on the day of your choice, who sing an appropriate song, deliver the chocolates and the card.

For $45 you get the same package but delivered within a three-hour time frame. We expect these to be the 'You JUST get there in the morning' folks.

For $65 you get the same package but delivered within a 15-minute time frame. These will be the 'I need you for eleven o'clock, so that I can propose to her...' crowd.

We're going to open up for bookings next Monday, and I expect that we'll fill whatever capacity we can provide. (my naive optimism is showing).

As for songs, we're using the polecat version of Sweet Adeline, with the word Valentine substituted for Adeline, Caroline (Boston Common) again substituting Valentine for Caroline, and Let me call you Sweetheart. Our Sweet Valentine would be used where we have spare time and there is demand for an encore, or for quick advertising ditties.

'Valentine Central' can be reached at 242-7204 in Saskatoon.

Cheers,

This year our Chorus collected 921 labels from Campbell's Soup cans. We also received 660 from the Watrous Ladies United Church. These were counted, bundled and sent of last week. We received a surprise on Monday when the Watrous Evangelical Lutheran Ladies also sent us more labels, 1800 in total. As a result we will be submitting 3381 labels to the HeartSpring Foundation.

Special thanks to all those members who took the time to properly cut, count and bundle the soup labels for me. Remember, I only need the portion of the can that identifies the Campbell's name. Not the bar code and not the whole label. I will ask all members to cooperate with this request and prepare them appropriately before they are submitted to me.

I am going to investigate a challenge with the Saskatoon chapter to stir up some enthusiasm for this very worthy charitable project. More to come...

As Program V.P., I am responsible to ensure that the practises are organized in such a manner that they are enjoyable to the participants and also allow us to improve in our ability to perform Barbershop Harmony. I have many thoughts on how this can be accomplished that I have already outlined for the Executive to review. I hope that you will welcome some of the new initiatives that will be forthcoming in the New Year, by the entire Executive & Ken, so that we may continue to develop and attract new members to our Chapter.

One of the first areas I would like to discuss is the organization of practise. A lot can be accomplished in two and a half hours, if everyone is focussed and pulling in the same direction.

I would ask everyone's cooperation in getting to practise on time. The pitch will be blown at 7:30.

A well-run practise should start out in a way that motivates the participants and provides some momentum to the evening. If everyone is ready to go prior to the pitch being blown this will be a vast improvement to our chorus.

I would also appreciate if people who have material to present, during the break, could organize themselves in a thorough manner. If you want to get on the agenda let me know, preferably before 7:30, and we will add it to the whiteboard. Each topic should take no more than 30 seconds to a minute. If the topic does not involve the group as a whole I will ask you to meet at the break or before or after practise. I thank you for anticipated cooperation.

It is important that we do riser work each evening. I will ask each section to be responsible to set up the risers by 7:25 each night and to take them down after the practise. This will begin next week with the Tenors, Leads, Baritones and then the Basses. Failure to comply will result in some devious form of group humiliation so be fore warned!

Videotapes are available that we have purchased recently. The titles include 1997 International Quartet and Chorus Video’s, 1996 Chorus (was the Masters of Harmony rendition of "Love Me And The World Is Mine" the finest Barbershop chorus performance ever staged at the international competition? Judge for yourself. Witness the Masters win the right to be named 1996 International Champion Chorus. Delight in 90 minutes of spectacular performances by twenty-two wonderful choruses.) and What Are We Trying to Preserve (in this taped version of a live presentation made at Harmony College, Dave Stevens, in his humorous and down-to-earth style, presents the four elements which make barbershop harmony a truly unique form of music). We hope that you will all take the time to check one out from me. They are available for one-week loaner periods.

If you have any suggestions as to how we can improve our evening program or the overall program please let me know.

Newcomer (oldcomer sounded weird) John Stecyk arrived on the scene and was instantly signed to a contract by the hot new quartet that has yet to be named. With Bruce Fish as lead, Doug Pederson as tenor, John Stecyk as baritone and Dave Pearce on bass the group is sure to be in great demand in no time. Now if Dave Pearce would get back from the States maybe they could actually practise.

Another new group is also working out their routines and has indicated they will be ready for the spring show. Lynn Lowes as lead, John Leitch - tenor, Eric Neufeld - baritone (we're not sure what this is about but we wish him luck) and Ron Evans - bass. The group promises to bring lots of humour to the stage as well as much experience. Look for them in a theatre near you.

It appears things are looking very positive for Quartet activity in our Chapter. Michael Frolick is also working on pulling a quartet together and of course the Queen City Slickers are always a highlight. If we can manage to have 4 quartets in a chapter this size we are on the right track.

I encourage everyone to initiate some quartetting on a weekly basis. Sing a tag or pull some guys off to the side at the break and strike a few chords. There’s nothing better.

We now have a brand new Quartet practicing and they hope to perform on our Annual Show. The members are: John Leitch - Tenor Lynn Lowes - Lead

Their new name registered with Kenosha is the "CHORD JESTERS".

Kirk Young, a Barbershopper and music educator from the Northeastern District, has accepted the position of music specialist on the headquarters staff, joining Jim DeBusman and Bill Rashleigh in that field of service. He will assume his duties about March 1.

Young joined the Society in 1989 as a member of the Portland, Maine, Downeaster's chorus. He has been singing bass with his current quartet, The Management (1994 NED quartet champion) for just as long. He has directed the Narragansett Bay Chorus, from Providence, Rhode Island, in two international chorus contest appearances, and currently directs the Hudson, Mass., Chapter's Pride of the Commonwealth chorus.

Young received his bachelor of music education degree from the University of Maine at Orono in 1993 and has graduate credits at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. He is the director of instrumental music at Cumberland High School in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Kirk's quartet (all four members of which are music educators in New England) went on annual public school tours throughout the Northeast United States during the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) "Music in our Schools" months to promote both involvement in music and barbershop singing in general. This work in the public schools garnered the quartet the prestigious 1995 MENC/SPEBSQSA Award and NED's 1995 Barbershopper of the Year, and it has been chronicled many times in both The Harmonizer and MENC's journal, Teaching Music. The quartet assembled a 100-plus-voice high school barbershop honors chorus to help celebrate the NED's 50th Anniversary at its 1996 fall convention.

Kirk and his wife, Heather, will reside in Kenosha.

Our Unified Service Projects enjoyed a good year in 1997. Total Society donations to SingAmerica/SingCanada and Heartspring were US$479,352, US$48,283 more than 1996. That translates to an 11.2 percent increase. The Heartspring total was US$388,242 (up 1.1 percent) and the SingAmerica and SingCanada total was US$91,110 (up 93.2 percent).

You are showing that you really care about life and quality of life as represented by these projects. As a reminder, Harmony Foundation is now the friend and fundraiser for all Society Service projects. An unofficial goal for all our service areas-SingAmerica/SingCanada, Heartspring, Heritage Hall Museum and the general fund is US$700,000 for 1998. That shouldn't be difficult. Remember, in 1988 (10 years ago) we raised more than US$1,000,000 for our single service project.

We urge chapters and individuals to donate to Harmony Foundation Service Projects. The trustees can then see that all our projects are properly funded. Of course, you are free to specify one or more projects for your donation. The Foundation is working hard to help hundreds of young people and others have a better quality of life.

We urge you to: Sing . . . for life.

Nothing tells someone you care like a Singing Valentine sung by a barbershop quartet. For as little as $25, a barbershop quartet will serenade your sweetheart at home, at work, or anywhere else you choose -- nationwide! Find a Singing Valentine in hundreds of cities across the continent! Hundred of barbershop quartets will take to the streets on Friday and Saturday, February 13-14 (and even earlier in some locations), bringing tears of joy and surprise to thousands of lucky sweethearts.

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.