Looking Back on July 14th Chapter Meeting

Looking Back on July 14th Chapter Meeting

(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 at an Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter meeting. —Ye Ed.)

Things were a little turned around at the Rec Center as the staff there had to stash stuff in our storage area in prep for Vice President Biden speaking at Durant on Wednesday. But we found most of the things we needed to run the meeting (tho we opted not to dig for refreshment supplies).

There was a good crowd on hand early – Ye Ed thinks a lot of guys had withdrawal since this was the first Tuesday nite back for many after Anaheim. So they were eager. And they wanted to hear what was being said out there about our performance and by whom.

Director Joe and his musical team did the usual kind of warm ups and then Joe reminded all the men that we have just gotten to the end of one important goal and we can’t wait and rest. We are already working on the next goals – summer shows, fall show and fall contest and an all-important guest nite.

So back to singing – the chorus got to sing a bunch of tunes we have not done for a while (as show producer guy Ken Rub reports that we are going to sing about every song we know at Ft. Ward on July 23rd). Joe had the chorus sing through, work on notes, did some interp fixits as well reviewed stage presence. It was a solid work session, but the guys were “into it” as they were glad to review. All the new men were working hard to catch up on other songs so they can do shows.

K12 acknowledged Dick Newton for his work as chair of our trip to CA. Dick then had the chapter thank the various chairs (as reported in my convention wrap up). He particularly thanked Carl Kauffmann, who is back from his operation, for the initial planning he did before he got sick. And Ye Ed didn’t know that Bill Stewart built the crate to ship the new benches out west.

Membership VP Dan O’Brien had a lot of guests to introduce and welcome including member Alan Kousen who is back in the area to sing with us again.

After the break we got into a review session from Anaheim. Joe spoke about his pride, the feedback he has gotten from judges and coaches and barbershop musical leaders and friends regarding our successful shot and 9th place finish. By all accounts, we made a huge leap in our performance. And not surprising, Joe has challenged us to work to build the chapter by another 20-30 men – many of whom should be basses.

Terry Reynolds, who has agreed to take over for Chuck Hunter who is being posted in Damascus with the State Department and will vacate the music vp position in a couple weeks, did his usual statistical review of scores and comparisons of past years. He was able to help us discover some positive signs of improvement and growth musically and visually.

After the talking, we sang more of the show songs. Joe did share that the Peter Pan medley and package will be put on hold. We will use the Anaheim package in the fall at the district convention. Our goal would be to score more 90s from the judges at that event and to set our numbers high enough to go into the 2010 International chorus contest ranked as high as possible!

We have another big event in November when we sing a show with the Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus. That will be the last time we do the 2009 package. Joe promises that he is working on a killer ballad that shows off the great Harmonizer style and class and talent, plus he is looking for a great up tune. He solicited ideas of serious contender songs.

Before leaving and loading everything back into the truck, we watched our performance from Anaheim – that appeared on the web cast of the convention.

Ye Ed did see another crop of new member prospects headed off to have their auditions toward membership. Hurray.

The crowd at the afterglow was cheerful and the weather was nice enough for the tag singers to gather outside on the patio to sing. A great barbershop nite.

Until next time – editorjack!