Thursday, May 5, 2022

Looking Back on the May 3rd 2022 Harmonizer Hybrid Chapter Meeting

 Looking Back on the May 3rd 2022 Harmonizer Hybrid Chapter Meeting 

The successful Spring2ACTion (STA) event last week (April 27th) was a big topic for all the Harmonizers as they arrived at Scottish Rite Temple. 


We hit our public goal of $30,000 around dinner time on the 27th,  and then increased it to $35,000.  As of the start of this week’s meeting,  we have gone over that figure to $35,090 - that's great news!

 

In addition, we won two prizes: $750 for the mid-size organization with the second-highest total number of donors for the day (343 donors), and $500 for raising the most money during the 3-4 "Power Hour."  (Each Power Hour gives out two $500 prizes, one for the most donors during the hour and one for the most dollars. We actually were first in BOTH - but they will only give one award per organization in the same hour. So they gave us the "most dollars" prize and the organization that came in second on number of donors got that prize.) This is the sixth year in a row we have won that Power Hour - no one can touch us in the 3-4 time slot!

 

When you add the prize money to the total donations, this will end up as one of our top 2 or 3 S2A days ever.

 

What's really impressive is that more than fifty members raised at least some money by using their personal donation page! A huge thank you to Ken Rub who is the new development officer for the chapter and added the personal goals idea for this year.  New chapter general manager, Susan Fitzpatrick, also helped Ken.  They were joined by Randall Eliason who has been STA chairman for us and helped us get a good system in place to use every year!

 

The top ten STA fundraisers in the chorus were Randall Eliason, Joe Cerutti, Jason Lee, Jim Kirkland, Dean Rust, Brad Jones,  Ken Rub, Jacob Broude, Michael Schwartz, and Dave Welter.


For our rehearsal on May 3rd, there was also energy among the attendees to get to work on the two contest songs after last week’s significant coaching session on “42nd Street.”


Associate director Tony Colosimo was at the helm this week as artistic director Joe Cerutti was in Sweden as a judge at the European Barbershop Convention in Helsingborg. After Tony conducted the warm up session for the singers, he did a vocal placement for all attendees (each man sang “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and Tony placed the singers with like-sounding voices.  Members were asked to remember who they were standing next to and around, plus music team admin manager, Terry Reynolds, filmed the final lineup.  Likely this work will yield new riser placements soon.


Tony welcomed Rusty Orvik who was in town from AZ and Paul Grimes who was on the risers to sing the contest songs.  


The first chorus work was to review choreo plans that have already been presented to the chorus with Turner Arndt as demonstrator. Tony stressed the importance of everyone reviewing the videos showing the choreo as taught by coach Cy Wood at previous meetings.  Following that, there were full-length sectionals on “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”


When the chorus returned to the risers, the chapter business meeting was conducted by communications director Sam Whiteoak. First up was president Noah Van Gilder who reported on the recent M-AD House of Delegates meeting that he attended.  He announced that the district is eager to fill some leadership positions and Noah invited anyone interested to speak to him about the openings.


Noah also encouraged our members to consider attending the M-AD Harmony College East that will be June 16-17 at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD.  Two Harmonizers are deans of that event – Bill Colosimo and Sheryl Berlin. You can register at midatlanticdistrict.com – deadline in June 9th.


Finally Noah reminded all members about our COVID policies and that anyone exposed or testing positive should report to the chapter and follow guidelines for their return to the meetings.


Secretary David DesPortes presented a membership renewal card to Steve White for his 45 years in the chapter.  


Terry announced that next week singers could sign up for quartet singing of “Beautiful Morning” the following week. (An effort to give more notice to the singers and listeners.)


Jack Pitzer welcomed Mark Wheeler, a bass singer who was with us for this second visit.  He sang barbershop in WI and resides in Fredericksburg, VA.


With everyone back on the risers, Tony asked the chorus to sing parts of the song that had been worked on during the sectionals.


He wrapped up the evening with a return to “Chorus Line Medley” and “Help from My Friends.”


At the afterglow this week, there was a good crowd of tag singers in the basement at Harmo House.  There was also some chatter about guys who are using scrip cards to earn monies to cover their tickets for the Togetherness Dinner in Charlotte.  We learned that Terry and Joe have scrip cards that they use to order the pizza each week – they earn about 8% on each order. And another afterglow-regular told YeEd that he has added a scrip card for Panera where he often has breakfast before work.


These scrip tales made Craig Kujawa smile as he is coordinator of the scrip fundraising program for the chapter.  Craig is also contest director, and that means he is coordinator of the upcoming chorus retreat.  He urges all members to settle their account for fees as attendees for the June 3-4-5 weekend in Westminster, MD. This year we will be sleeping at the Best Western which is very close to the McDaniel College campus where the coaching sessions will be held and where we will have lunch, dinner and the afterglow on Saturday.  Breakfasts will be at the hotel. For sure, guys should start organizing car pools.  And for those who will arrive early on Friday evening, we have often found a lot of our fellow Harmonizers having dinner at O’Lordans, a restaurant offering Irish dishes, at 14 Liberty Street in Westminster.


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 for the great things going on each week during the 73rd year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. - YeEd)