Looking Back on the October 22^nd Chapter Meeting

Before the chapter meeting, there were a lot of members and leaders of the chapter at Hard Times Café on King Street for some dinner and a couple booths had next year’s officers visiting with other members in preparation for chapter leadership in 2014.  In fact, there are always folks there for dinner on Tues, so stop by too if you get to Alexandria early some week.

The chapter meeting at Durant started right on time with all equipment set up as needed, and goodies in the kitchen for early snacks.  Assistant director Will Cox conducted the warm up session. And then director Joe Cerutti took over and we went right to work on the holiday show music – especially the new songs added this year.

The evening included some music work on the repeating songs for the show and other holiday concerts, with a sectional in the second half to particularly run thru spots that are often hang-ups for us in the regular holiday songs. Assistant director Terry Reynolds offered to host an extra rehearsal for the many new members who have a lot of songs to learn. Watch for an email announcing the final decision of a date and time and place.

Terry also alerted the chapter family that he is looking for a few more folks to be “monks” for the show.  See Terry or email him.  And then if a singer wants to try out for the several solos during the holiday show, watch for an email with details of how to audition.

Also during the second half of the evening, choreographer Carlos Barillo taught us a visual plan for “Fa La La La La” which will make it even more entertaining for our audiences.

The chorus was working fast and we got the whole agenda finished so early, we had time for a 30-minute break after the chapter business meeting.  Operations vp Bob Rhome began the meeting with some general announcements about business items guys should take care of over the break – especially getting info to the Normandy planning team and getting White House Ornaments to sell.

There were a couple announcements of Sweet Adeline chapter send-off events in the DC Metro area as the SAI convention is in Hawaii this fall.

Terry also urged all members to sign up on Groupanizer for the MANY upcoming events the chapter has on the calendar.  Your signing up helps chapter leaders greatly. Terry listed several events as a reminder: the Veteran’s Day sing at 9 am Monday Nov. 11th; the extra show rehearsal at First Baptist Church on Thursday Dec. 5^th at 7 pm and of course the three shows on the weekend (stay tuned for reporting times); our hospital sing on Tues Dec. 12^th before we go down into Old Town to sing in restaurants; a possible show for the Knights of Columbus on Rte. 1 in Alexandria on Dec. 14^th; a show at the Masonic Temple on Tues Dec. 17^th. BTW, we will not meet on Dec. 25^th.

Also be thinking about helping with the set up and decorating for the show at the church on Friday, Dec. 6^th.  And, all members will be asked to bring four dozen holiday cookies to the show for our guests’ dessert.

We were reminded to let Ike Evans take our new mug shots for the picture board display in the meeting hall.

President Alan Wile reported that John Hohl has made good progress after his operation recently.

Alan has asked us all to nominate our fellow members for the major chapter awards that will be presented at the annual banquet on Jan. 25, 2014.  Also mark your calendar and plan to attend.  It is a fun easy evening and something everyone should try to get to.  New members especially, should consider attending and bringing their significant other.

The chapter is eager to know if the employer of any member makes matching donations to non profits.  If so, please speak to Shawn Tallant.

Brad Jones alerted us that the major auction will go live online Nov. 1^st and he sent out an email explaining it, as promised.

Great to see so many of us wearing our name tags. But let’s keep working to make it automatic – keep the badge in your briefcase or car!

Membership vp Mark Klostermeyer with help from Rich Hewitt welcomed guests for the evening including lead of last year’s M-AD quartet champs, FRANK THE DOG, Tom Halley; and long-time member Bill Sowers and his wife Charlie.

In other news, YeEd learned that Dave Hood ran the Army Marathon over the past weekend! Afterglow was fun with director Joe there to share stories and news from around the BHS.

Until next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical record of the great things going on each week during the 65^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.)