Looking Back on the Retreat Oct. 17^th and the Oct 20^th Chapter Meeting

The chorus had an all-day retreat on Sat. Oct. 17^th at John Calvin Presbyterian Church on Columbia Pike from 9 -5.  Cindy Hansen was with us for the day to help us prepare for the fall chorus contest.  It was great to have her help us grow and improve even more and to add to what Carlos and the rest of the music team have been teaching us.

The chapter provided coffee and donuts for the early arrivals. Thanks to Steve White, Jack Pitzer and Kevin Kaiser for getting this organized.  As usual, Bob Blair and crew helped get the risers, sound equipment and stage props moved to the church early that day too.

The music team worked with Cindy to help make the day profitable. Great to have so many special forces guys with us for the retreat too.

President Terry Reynolds took time after lunch to review the results of the recent chapter member survey created by him and membership vp Rich Hewitt.  Response numbers were strong – 122 guys gave input.  The results were not too surprising but reinforced areas of improvement for chapter leaders in both admin and music.

We had fun learning the tag to “Mary Had a Baby” too which will we will sing on the holiday show.

On Tuesday nite, we worked hard and it was extra warm in the building!!  Something about the heat turned on. Luckily we own a bunch of fans that help a little.

Reed Livergood did the warm ups this week and got us ready for director Joe Cerutti to get right to work. We started on three of the new holiday songs after more time on the tag of “Mary Had a Baby.”

Then we worked on the contest package.  Choreographer Carlos Barillo and associate director Tony Colosimo helped Joe coach and encourage the chorus as we prepare for the fall contest.

Before our meeting started, Carlos and Chuck McKeever several new guys who will be singing on Saturday.

 Operations vp Todd Ryktarsyk conducted the business session as usual.

Fall convention coordinator Shawn Tallant reminded us to check the contest weekend handbook previously issued electronically.  Key points:  riser crew early 8 am, then front row at 8:30 and chorus at 9 am at the Holy Savior Catholic Church on 17^th Street; and bring two uniforms – the steam punk outfits from Pittsburgh and the black suit with special shirt, tie and stuffer from Toronto. Also bring your most recent medal. Bring water bottles to church.  Chorus will be released at 11 to go change and eat and get to the convention center.

Note that tickets can be picked up at a will call desk.  Friday nite’s        quartet contest starts at 5:30 pm.

YeEd suggests you should wear any Harmo gear on Friday nite while we cheer on the quartet guys from our chapter – Mike Wallen, Dan Cook, Pookie Dingle and the BRAVADO guys Doug White, Kevin McKenzie, Chris Odell and Todd Ryktarsyk.

Music vp Steve White reminded us of the Nov. 7 all-sections rehearsal at First Baptist on King Street at 9 am.  Josh Roots spoke about the Tag-a-Thon that will follow that rehearsal.  Joe plugged this idea as he wrapped up the rehearsal tonite.  Josh  mentioned there will be prizes for the most tags sung, the most money raised and such.

Steve also alerted us that the Nov. 10^th meeting will be a recording session at First Baptist.  Members are asked to bring chunks of carpet and packing blankets to use on the floor to swallow sound.

Ike Evans is taking mug shots of new guys for the Harmo picture board (and also offering to take pixs of guys who want theirs updated).

Bob Wells invited our support of The Singing Capital Chorus by attending their “Harvest of Harmony” on Saturday, November 7 at 3:00 and 7:30 in the Greenberg Theatre in Washington. Here is the live link to our web page with ALL the information, including a ticket purchase link:

http://www.singingcapitalchorus.org/harvest.html

The show will feature the “reunion performance” of LAST KIDS PICKED coming out of a six-year “retirement” exclusively for this special event! In addition, it will feature HALF & HALF, MAD’s new “Mixed Quartet Champions” with their special blend of great singing and fun!

President Terry Reynolds alerted the board of their meeting on Wednesday nite.  The new and old boards for 2015 and 2016 are having the annual board retreat Oct. 31^st.

After a good break, we worked more on holiday music.  Then back to contest work.

In other news, the Fairfax Chapter held its annual golf tournament on Thursday Oct. 15 2015.. The Harmonizers were well represented. A team of Vince Cazenas; Glenn Williamson, former Harmonizer; Norm Richards and Bruce Stephens won the tournament at the Osprey Golf Course, with 10 under par. Fairfax and the Heritage singers shot even par. Vince says, “They mentioned that they were not inviting us back for next year! They were just joking!” Congrats to our team.

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 67^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd.