Looking Back on the December 8th Chapter Meeting

The lousy weather hit again on Tuesday but a good crowd of guys made it to Durant and at 7 pm Mark Kostermeyer called for guys to “take their seats” as chairs were set up for us. It was planned to be a short meeting to warm up, make announcements and take care of business including sales of ornaments and scrip, then head into Old Town to do some Christmas songs.

Tony Colosimo did the musical warm up. He noted that we will be working on new habits for the big goal in Philly. This plan is important since there are so many new singers in the chorus now.

Director Joe took the podium and first off thanked Jeremy Knobel for his hard work, dedication and success in producing and managing a great Holiday Show. Jeremy was organized right to the end including this list of people that he thanked publicly. The guys gave the traditional one-clap salute to each.

VP of shows – Ken
Food - Brad, Mick
Dessert - Jack
Kitchen - Bill S. and sons, Scott , Yaritza, Sofia (and staff)
Script - Scipio, Noah, JP
Actors/MCs - Terry, Tom, Joe, JP, Dennis
Sound - Scott, Dennis, Yaritza
Lights - Dixie, Chris Cunningham (assistant)
Truck - Bill D, Bob B
Props - Dennis, Bill S
Silent Auction - Phil, Mick
Decorations - Roger and Friday volunteers
Raffle and table sales - Sandy, FiH, Joe’s Mom
Video Cameras - Dan O, Mike, Joe Sr.
Photographer - Handan
Tickets - Steve Murane, Keith Jones
Marketing - Scipio, Nick Auito
Photos w/Santa- Ike, Tim Buell, Ken, Bill DePuy, Handan, Emily (Tom's wife)
Guest greeters - Ken, Scipio
Singing Vals - Joel, Ike, Bill Curtis, Randy, Gary
Guest performer - Will Cox
Waiter sign-ups - Ian
Santa and Mrs. Clause – Bruce and Ginny
Chorus management - K12
Maintenance - Archie and church staff
Auction item donors - K-12 for certificates and mats
Volunteers on Thurs, Fri for set-up
Waiters and captains
All the Harmonizers!

The word is that we will do well financially on this show too!!

Joe announced that learning tapes for the contest songs are out. And that on Jan. 12th, Cindy Hansen will be here to help us with the up tune.

Next Joe introduced a special guest for the evening, former Harmonizer and now staffer with the BHS Foundation, Ryan Killeen. Ryan thanked our chapter for being the leading chapter in the Society in gift giving to the Foundation. (There are many members and friends of our chapter who support the President’s Council.) He was also eager to have others of us know the need to support the Foundation and its work in providing support for youth activities in the nation.

Ryan was also eager to sing some tags and went with us to sing later.

Terry Reynolds conducted a contest as to how many songs guys thought were still in our repertoire. It was fun – many of us were wrong on some old songs. In short the list is ever-changing since as soon as some songs are ready to perform, other songs will be taken off the list. See the list on the web or see Terry.

The mic was back to Joe for more important announcements about our contest planning for Philly. He relayed again the plan to have Cindy work on the contest up tune. And he announced that he had met with Geri Geis and invited her to work on the ballad. She will be coming in early January to start the plan in helping us deliver the message of the song. His goal is to be “worthy of a medal” in the contest this summer.

Final announcements included the usual word of lost and found stuff from a show, and then instructions for meeting at 8 pm at Market Square. We sang at four restaurants, as we have the last three years, to cheers and smiling faces. Some places the crowd joined in our singing. The rain was not fun, but the comradeship was! It is a great tradition.

We all headed over to the afterglow and there was big crowd since we had finished singing early.

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