Spring has sprung so the pollen is thick and many Harmonizers are fighting it as part of their singing health.
But the chorus climbed up onto the risers for a warm up session conducted by associate director Tony Colosimo.
The front row had worked in the cafeteria from 6-7 pm.
When director Joe Cerutti took the helm, he welcomed education director Sheryl Berlin and the chapter members applauded her work in coordinating our Youth Harmony Festival. She offered left over YHF tee shirts for $10.
Joe welcomed Tom and Emily Kraus and their three children – Ben, Ryan and Morgan. Tom helped start TBD and was a front row guy before their jobs took them to Rochester NY.
Joe also welcomed Bob Wells, Sam McFarland and Mark Klostermeyer who are recovering and able to get to the chapter meeting.
He reminded all of us that our coach David Wright (who has often been the major coach at our pre-International retreats) will be with us next Tuesday nite.
The coaching session with Cy Wood for the Memorial Day weekend will be on Sunday afternoon, May 26th to continue development of the visual plan for “Brotherhood of Man.” He will also work with the front row that weekend, then stay in town to be at our chapter meeting on Tuesday, May 28th.
Major music work in the first half of the nite was on that same song with Bruce Roehm as visual coach (each major song for 2019 will have a specific visual coach within the chapter.) Tony was director for the song.
As part of the evolving effort to provide small group learning opportunities, our quartet SILVER ALERT (Savage, Edison, Cox, and S. Murane) taught the chorus a tag – “I Will Dream of You Til I Die.”
Secretary Chris Buechler coordinated the collection of Social Security numbers and such for all singers who will appear on the show for the Supreme Court on June 3rd. Chris also presented a membership renewal card to Dennis Ritchey for 27 years.
This was the last chance to turn in payment for the Scotland trip to Brad Jones.
Executive director Randall Eliason reported on the Spring2ACTion effort – final count is creeping close to $20,000. Next week there will be the drawing for the gift card for anyone who turned in their prospect list to Randall.
President Shawn Tallant asked for a volunteer to coordinate a tee shirt distribution effort for the trip to Scotland. A logo is being developed.
He also reported several items regarding our fellow members: that Steve Szyszka had heart surgery today and he had called to say he was doing great; that Ken White’s dad, Orville, died on Sunday - he and Ken sang together when Ken was a teenager; that Clyde Crusenberry is having a foot operation; that Bob Wachter is up and on the mend; that Alan Wile is recovering from his heart surgery and accepting text or email messages; that Mike Vlcej has done well after his heart surgery in PA; and that Chris Huber will be out of his foot boot soon.
Jon Frank welcomed a guest of Gary Cregan.
After the break, Joe had the chorus sing the tag again they learned earlier in the evening. Then he spent a chunk of time reviewing the results and information he gathered during the interviews with each of the Harmonizers. Joe shared the big realizations he gained from the interviews. He reminded us of the importance of the Harmonizer Handshake Award that we had during the 1960s and perpetuated by Dick Hall.
Joe shared some of the “take-aways” he gained – more small group work; chances for more individual feedback; chapter business sessions too long (not a new issue with the Harmonizers!);a major split about 50-50 on drilling reps of songs vs. not drilling; and our new location is not Metro accessible and local traffic is making it lots harder to arrive by 7 pm on Tuesdays.
After this session it was back to work on music for the second half of the nite, including a good chunk of time on “Anything Goes” with Joe and Chuck McKeever.
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 70th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd
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