Looking Back on the Jan 17th Chapter Meeting

This week we were back at First Baptist Church on King Street in Alexandria to do some more recording.

 

Thanks to Mike Kelly for all the extra work to haul in the equipment and set it all up and help us get good clean recordings.  Associate director Tony Colosimo conducted the sessions for the chorus and the section leaders worked with their men to refresh and prepare the two holiday songs – “White Christmas” and “Gloria” which we had done in the December show.

 

Executive director Terry Reynolds conducted a chapter meeting.  ALERT – the recently announced sing at the UMD was a conflict for the M-AD prelims weekend and thus we have to decline participation in the sing with the other men’s groups.

 

A new date/event was added tho – March 5^th concert with the Yale University Wiffenpoofs.  At Convergence Church.

 

In a follow up to the announcements last week, every member has been assigned to an operations team and those teams will meet next Tues nite at Durant.  Operations team members are chairs of those teams.

 

President Randall Eliason reported that Bob Wachter had fallen and broken his nose and did some other damage to himself.  But he is home now recovering along with his wife Jean.  Terry and Ginger Jordan continue to wade through their health challenges including some relocation for Ginger to special nursing care facilities. Dick and Carolyn Hall send greetings to all from their retirement location in MD.

 

Randall reminded guys that the bus trip to Lake George NY to sing at the Northeastern District contest is lining up but our members need to confirm their plans to make the trip, so busses can be arranged.

 

Finally, Randall reported that some guys go for an afterglow to Ramparts whenever we meet at the church.

 

Director Joe Cerutti is already at the BHS midwinter convention in San Antonio.  Several other members were planning to depart on Wednesday too.

 

From the floor, two other invites came out:  Casey Belzer’s school concert will be Jan. 31^st.  And Don Dillingham invited guys to hear him perform jazz at Mr. Henry’s on Feb. 2^nd.

 

Always great to have folks bring in goodies to share for break when we are at Durant.  Would also be good to get any extra hot cups or miscellaneous napkins left from the holidays.

 

The 2017 BOD for AH Inc. has been announced by outgoing president Ken Fess: Liz Birnbaum – president; Clyde Crusenberry – vice president; Bruce Roehm – secretary; Julie Rizzo – treasurer; Steve Sutton – director; Ken Fess – director; Randall Eliason – director; and Rick Wagner – director.

In other news, former Harmonizer Ryan Killeen has left the staff of Harmony Foundation. He has relocated with his family to Florida to serve on the board of his daughter's school and assume a leadership role in a family endeavor. Ryan did work remotely to help with the CEO search for the Foundation.  (The chapter welcomes new CEO Perry White to the 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 68^th year of the Alexandria Harmonizer Chapter. —YeEd

Looking Back on the Jan 10th Chapter Meeting

For historians, there was no chapter meeting on Dec. 27^th nor on Jan. 3^rd.

 

However, a number of Harmonizers went to the annual “Blast” party hosted by the Dundalk Chapter in Glen Burnie on Dec. 27^th.  Here are some notes from the event from reporter Kellen Hertz (thanks Kellen).

The Harmonizers who were there that I remember: Chuck Hunter, Sam McFarland, Tim Buell, Carl Kaufmann, Tony and Bill Colosimo, Tom Jackson, Christian Hoff, Andrew Havens and me . Sean Devine was there from Parkside and a bunch of other guys from Hershey).   Former district champs quartet ROUTE 1 sang. CAPRI was the judging quartet  and  Rick Taylor was emcee.  As far as the impromptu quartet contest went, second  place was the FREELANCERS 2.0, consisting of Bobby Seay VI (lead), Rob Seay V (tenor), Tyler Horton (bass), and Douglas Beach (bari). They sang a comedy song originally done by the FREELANCERS and 3 of them are descendents from the original members.

The Jan. 10^th meeting at Durant was back to normal.  Associate director Tony Colosimo did the warm up session and then turned the chorus over to director Joe Cerutti who is proudly starting his 10^th year at the helm. Prior to the 7 pm start, many members and family members helped get risers and chairs up.  In addition, the board was having its regular meeting in an office, a quartet was working in another room, and the music team was meeting on the stage.

Joe was excited to share news about the coming year and reported that he and the team have chosen all the songs that we will be singing in ‘2017.  Those songs will begin to appear on Groupanizer right away.

Since we are meeting on Jan. 17^th at First Baptist to do some recording, Joe worked with the chorus to polish up “White Christmas” and “Gloria” which we had sung in our holiday show.

Then Joe spoke some about our efforts in ’17 to work on diversity and to discover the musical roots of our barbershop harmony music – with help from the recent grant of $15,000 the chapter received from the BHS. Related to that, Joe taught us part of a gospel song, “There Must Be a City,” by rote. It will be part of our work and our shows with the Grammy winning gospel quartet FAIRFIELD FOUR this year. We will also co-sponsor the city of Alexandria’s Gospel Fest at Durant.

Joe also clarified that we will be singing some of our former top-hits like “Summertime” and “New York New York” next year – especially for our road trip to the sing for our barbershop friends in the Northeast District in up-state New York.

Executive director Terry Reynolds conducted the chapter meeting.  There was a plea for all guys to turn in Santa hats to Bob Blair.

President Randall Eliason reported the latest updates on Terry and Ginger Jordan.

He also encouraged every member to attend the annual Presidents’ Banquet on Sat. Jan 28^th at the Elks Club.  See Art Medici to pay for or at least reserve seats.  Just $25 each.

Secretary Chris Buechler thanked all those members who had paid dues recently.  Chris also reported a little on his health situation and his need for a kidney and thanked all for cards and calls.

Membership director Rich Hewitt introduced four singer guests and welcomed Doug Smith who came by to see old friends.

The break was a busy one and many guys grabbed some goodies and drinks.  Thanks to those who brought in things to share – always welcome.

After break, we were seated for a State of the Chapter session. Terry reviewed our accomplishments for 2016. He thanked men who are leaving the operations team and welcomed some new appointments.   (Readers should watch for the report to be released by Terry soon.) He did stress that this year’s goal is to have the ops team folks actually lead teams and not do all the work themselves.  Every member will be asked to serve on some team.  Family members can serve too. And some Tuesday nites will be used for team meetings!

Then Joe spoke from prepared notes about major efforts this year to improve the singing quality of the performing chorus.  He shared that there will be some changes in the audition processes used for new members including more efforts on the integration of new men into the chorus with emphasis on helping guests not be overwhelmed. There will be one-on-one meetings with every singer to share with them the personal goals the music team sees for that person after reviewing skills and abilities.

The musical leaders will enforce and uphold four standards - every Harmonizer must (1) demonstrate the ability to learn and sing accurately; (2) know individual strengths and weaknesses; (3) be able to convey the message of the songs vocally and visually; and (4) demonstrate the drive to be passionately committed.

Joe thanked the current section leaders: Rich Savage who has been the tenor leader for many years; Josh DesPortes, lead; Reed Livergood, baritone; and Andrew Havens and Tom Jackson, bass.

New section leaders will be Brian Ammerman for tenor; Reed Livergood for lead; Chuck Hunter for baritone; and Andrew and Tom again for bass.

The repertoire is set for 2017. There will be four contest songs released and prepared for the chorus to take to Harmony University this summer in Nashville. There will be a few songs added to the Patriotic package that we do – one neat feature is that these songs will include some standards that alumni members of the chorus can sing at Dog Days and Market Square and Veterans Day.

 

 

There will be the gospel songs for the special efforts in ’17; return of some show songs and a few new holiday songs to use on the December show.

A full calendar of dates and shows and events was also projected on the screen and Terry promises it will also be distributed to all members.  Stay tune

In other news, Craig Kujawa, coordinator of our chapter’s SCRIP sales program, reports that we earned $1.824 in 2016 by using the program.  Last year it was only $915.

Some stats: over $39,300 worth of plastic and electronic/mobile gift cards were purchased by program participants; the average rebate earned was 4.64%; 95% of the revenue was earned by just 10 (ten!!) people, whose average for the year was $173.12 each. Here are the Scrip Champions for 2016:

Fifth - Craig Kujawa  Scrip purchases: 38. Rebate Revenue: $161.00. Average Rebate: 6.79%. No ‘big’ purchases here, but he bought everything from Starbucks, Chipotle, Southwest Airlines, Groupon, Home Depot, IHOP, usually all from his phone in the store (ScripNow!).

Fourth - Chuck McKeever  Scrip purchases: 9. Rebate Revenue: $243.00. Average Rebate: 5.22%.  Chuck is a relatively new participant, but is a great example of how easy it is to have a big impact. As one would expect, he’s “all in” and purchased everything from iTunes gift cards, Home Depot for a major home improvement project, and Hilton for use at Midwinter in San Antonio.

Third - Ken Ives Scrip purchases: 20. Rebate Revenue: $256.00. Average Rebate: 4.00%. Ken has one plastic gift card (Safeway). It’s registered to his ShopWithScrip.com, and he reloads it (often) from his bank account because he’s signed up for PrestoPay. Result? $250 a year for the chorus. Simple. Boom.

Second - Ken Fess Scrip purchases: 25. Rebate Revenue: $296.80. Average Rebate: 3.04%.Although he didn’t earn the most in rebates, Ken purchased the largest quantity of scrip by face value, and all of it was electronic (no plastic). He could have used it to purchase practically anything because over 98% of it was for Amazon.com.

First - TJ Jones (last year’s runner-up) Scrip purchases: 21. Rebate Revenue: $310.15. Average Rebate: 5.55%. TJ bested everyone (and his total last year of $239.65) because he did it all. He has a reloadable plastic Safeway card, like Ken Ives, but also a reloadable Subway, Taco Bell, and even ExxonMobil and Sunoco plastic cards for gas. He made plenty of ScripNow! purchases on his phone like Craig, too, including everything from Potbelly and Panera, to Buffalo Wild Wings and the Container Store.

Here are the rest of the Top 10, who deserve honorable mention: Randal Eliason, Ian Poulin, Carlos Barillo, Christina Ammerman and Ninamarie Maragioglio.

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

Looking Back on the Dec 20th Chapter Meeting

This annual “pub crawl” event is really fun for all of us.  We met at Durant at 7 pm as usual.  A little warm up time for the singers, and a little admin time for any chapter announcements.

 

A major one – there will be no chapter meetings on  Tues. Dec. 27^th nor on Jan. 3^rd but come back on Jan. 10^th for major announcements about plans for 2017 and beyond.  Director Joe Cerutti hinted that there are some major events on the horizon that are new to all. Also watch for the weekly announcement email so you can sign up for the annual Presidents’ Banquet that is on Sat. Jan.28^th at 6 pm at Arlington/Fairfax Elks Lodge, 8421 Arlington Blvd.  See Art Medici to make your reservations. . Let’s all attend this year to kick off things for 2017.

 

Note that there is a guest nite on Jan. 24^th at our chapter meeting that nite.

 

And mark your calendar to attend the BLAST party Tues Dec. 27^th hosted by Dundalk MD Chapter – fun tag singing, pick up quartets, guest quartets, cold drinks and hotdogs to eat.  There is a $15 fee at the door. It goes from 7:30 to midnite at Michael’s 8^th Avenue club, 7220 Grayburn Dr., Glen Burnie MD.  It is fun and there are always a lot of our guys and their guests there.

 

So about 7:30 pm everyone headed down into Old Town Alexandria and re-assembled at Market Square.  Bob Blair brought the Santa hats for guys to wear. Then we followed chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer from restaurant to restaurant where we sang two holiday songs and then left right away singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”  Mark and Joe Cerutti Sr. were downtown early and prearranged for us to make the stops, but this year, some of the firms called and wanted to be sure we were coming this year again, so they could alert their favorite dinner customers to be there.  Every year the customers in the restaurants are really happy to see us and hear us and sometime join in on the songs.

 

Alan Wile noted that all the members of the Alexandria Commission for the Arts were at Virtue Feed & Grain when we stopped to sing there.  Also the director of the arts for the City of Alexandria was there with them. 

 

After singing in six or seven places, those that wanted a little afterglow time stayed at our last stop to unwind.

 

It was great to see Ian Poulin up and about this past weekend for the show and at this week’s sing after the recent knee surgery.  Great to have Lew Klinge come along and sing with us this week too.

 

President Randall Eliason reports two items of family news:

 

Dennis Malone posted on Facebook that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. He is currently on a "leave of absence" from the Sound of the Rockies. He will be remembered by many of our longer-time members; he was a musical leader in the chapter for 10 years back in the '90's. He was a member of the SIDE STREET RAMBLERS gold medal quartet in 1983. In his typical style, Dennis posted: "Been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer.. got my first shot of a hormone loaded with estrogen. Estrogen shrinks the prostate and the cancer along with it. Side effects include hot flashes and having to buy a training bra. There is no cure but is manageable."

 

Terry Jordan's wife Ginger had what the doctors have diagnosed as a "full bore" (Terry's words) stroke this weekend. She has been moved from the hospital to a rehab facility, HealthSouth Rehab Hospital of NoVA in Aldie VA.  Meanwhile, Terry is still unable to walk or drive, so things are complicated. Friends and neighbors have helped get him to the hospital.

 

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

 Looking Back on the Dec. 16-17^th Holiday Show for 2016

This year’s holiday show was a great success with lots of musical diversity with our outside-the-chapter talent groups. The shows were at Harris Theater on the campus of George Mason University on Friday nite, Dec. 16^th at 8 pm; and on Saturday, Dec. 17^th at 2 pm and 8 pm. The bad weather on Saturday morning was a bit of a challenge, but things worked out.  The parking garage hassles caused us to delay the start of our shows for a few minutes so more guests could make it into their seats.

 The theme was “A Family Christmas with the Harmonizers” and the show included The Reen Family Singers from the Ohio/Indiana area, the VINTAGE MIX QUARTET  from WI, guest baritone soloist Jobari Parker-Namdar; and percussionists Josanne Francis playing the steelpan and Kelton Sherry on drums.  Members of the Pride of Baltimore Sweet Adeline Chapter sang with us on some special numbers, as well.  Our own a cappella group TBD sang in each half of the show. Harmonizer soloists for the show were Mickey Robertson, Jeff Burkey and Andrew Havens; plus Heather Krones from POB.   Mick Stamps was producer for this major show.

The stage was decorated with lighted trees, and many wrapped gift boxes plus some lighted box pieces.  Gift boxes also lined the path from the parking garage to the lobby.

The chorus wore red, green or blue sweat shirts with a white felt scarf in the first half, and our black suits with a solid red tie for the second half.  When the SAI members joined us, they wore black with red accent pieces.

There were some funny moments in the shows – Will Cox and Mickey Robertson did a gag bit with Mickey teaching Will how to use a cell phone while the chorus vamped during “Text Me Merry Christmas;” and Mike Edison, dressed in his auto repairman garb, explaining to show emcee, Terry Reynolds, why the chapter needs a new truck (as a hint to the audience to contribute).

There was a very special moment in the afternoon show when Joe dedicated a song to Dick and Carolyn Hall who were able to attend the matinee thanks to former chapter treasurer Bob and Sally Hoffman.  Joe said “no chapter meeting was complete without a handshake from Dick,” and then Joe left the stage and did a handshake exchange. Tough to sing a ballad after that tender moment.

Robyn Murane thanked the following volunteers for their help in making the lobby and house run smoothly; “Saundra Deltac, with help from her husband, Don Dillingham and Randall Eliason coordinated a very successful raffle, with four prizes at each show. She did a great job and put over $1000 into the AH bank account!”

 “Carol Dangel and Sandi Ulibarri sold CDs; Sandy Stamps sold White House Ornaments and fluffed the trees on the stage; Mike Mullen and Kristen Colby helped the chorus arrange their scarves; and Peggy Wagner hosted the Reen Family. Carol Fuller, Krissi Folsom, Ginny Wells, Ninamarie Maragioglio, Patti Edison, Naida Harrington, Judi Kern, Charity Struthers, and Lydia Golden sold raffle tickets, stuffed programs, sold raffle tickets, answered patrons’ questions and sold raffle tickets. Sam McFarland acted as goodwill ambassador. This year's Holiday Show volunteers did their very best, in a very cold lobby, and made each patron feel welcomed!!!”

 

Thanks to the members who donated or solicited items for the raffle.

Rich Payton and his family hosted VINTAGE MIX for the weekend too (at one point the Reens joined them so there were 17 kids all at one table!).

 

In addition to all the guys on the risers (plus producer Mick Stamp and production assistant Ben Roberts), attendance-meister Keith Jones reports the following current or former chapter members attended one or more of the shows: Dennis Ritchey, Tim Buell, Jacob George, Shawn Tallant, Phil Ashford, Mike Moncibaiz, Jeremy Richardson, Sam McFarland, Dean Sherick, Walt Page, Martin Banks, Bill Colosimo, Austin Cotton, Ken Fess, Ross Johnson, Lew Klinge, Dave Reyno, Joe Wagovich, Bede Bender, Len Dornberger and John Thompson

 

This weekend was the first performance (and definitely their first Holiday Show) for Johan Westberg (bari) and Derrick Smith (bass).

 

Thanks to our music team for helping us prepare for the show and for creating another great musical experience for our families, friends and patrons: Joe Cerutti, director; Tony Colosimo, associate director; Carlos Barillo, choreographer; Terry Reynolds, assistant director and executive director; the section leaders; and Reed Livergood, musical director for TBD.

There was a fun afterglow on Saturday nite at Oh George Tap and Tables across the street from the campus.  There was lots of tag singing, performances by our guests and good food and fellowship. Ken Rub made arrangements for the location.

Here is the historical record of the songs on the show:

Act I

armonizersHHarmonizers – “Welcome Christmas,”  “What’s This?” with Jeff’s solo and “Let It Snow”

Vintage Mix – three songs

Harmonizers – “Text Me Merry Christmas” (We had fun with this one – many chorus members played with their cell phones and texted each other during the song!)

TBD – “Here Comes Santa Claus” and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”

Harmonizers – “White Christmas”

Act II

Reen Family – a variety of vocal and instrumental numbers including  “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (boys barbershop quartet THE REEN BROTHERS)

 Reen Family and Vintage Mix together for “Go Tell It on the Mountain”

 Harmonizers – “O Come O Come, Emmanuel,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” followed by audience sing-along “Joy to the World” and “Silent Night,” “Gloria” with Mickey solo, “Mary Had a Baby” with Jobari solo

 TBD – “We Three Kings”

Harmonizers – “This Little Light of Mine” with Jobari and SAI, “Kyrie” with percussion and SAI

All – “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” with curtain calls

The riser crews worked hard to get things set up Friday nite despite traffic with many members lending a hand on stage for set up and take down. Matt Doniger was Harmo truck driver for the weekend.

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

Looking Back on the Dec 13th Chapter Meeting

This week’s chapter meeting and tech rehearsal for the holiday show was at Harris Theater on campus of GMU.  Guys had a challenge to beat traffic and find their way on campus but there was a full chorus before chorus manager Mark Klostermeyer gave the familiar, “Harmonizers on the Risers.” The truck and riser crew set up the new set for the show.

 

Associate director Tony Colosimo was director up front for the nite and show producer Mick Stamps helped navigate the many non-singing details the chorus had to practice such as entrances and such.  The staff at the theater seemed to be on top of things too.

 

Mick has done a good job of sending our reminders and details for us all.  And a suggestion we tell our show patrons the tips he offers for parking. (Free in Lot K, or if you use the pay parking deck, exit on the third level to exit right toward Harris Theater.) The chapter announcement emails also informed  us about call times (5:30 pm Fri nite and 11:30 Sat morning). Suggesting pay attention to details about avoiding evening rush hour traffic, and eat before you arrive.  Dressing space is not really available, so wear slacks and shows and just plan to change shirts back stage.  Don’t bring anything you don’t need!  BUT two wrapped empty boxes, in colorful paper, for stage decorations should be brought in Fri eve.

 

Be sure to check your red, blue or green sweat shirt and white scarf.

 

Tuesday was the last time to turn in unsold WHOs to Sandy Stamps.  Rick Wagner was issuing consignment show tickets too. Robyn Murane was helping with getting guys their sweat shirts, and Tom Kern getting uniform parts to our newest members who are doing the show.

 

Great to see Ian Poulin on the risers (with a crutch to support the knee/leg where he had an operation last week). 

 

Chapter secretary Chris Buechler reports the following men have renewed – guys who are not able to attend chapter meetings, so good to see them still members!

 

Ross Johnson 40 years - with a new lapel pin

Larry Walker 37 years
Jeff Ashford 32 years

Vince Cazenas 30 years - and a lapel pin

Bert Phillips  8 years

 

Chris also sent this note: “Thanks also to the many men who sent notes and cards wishing me a speedy recovery. I’m getting around slowly but improving each day. Still need a kidney transplant, but this procedure is keeping me going for awhile.”

 

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

Looking Back on the Dec 6th Chapter Meeting

We got to use the new risers tonite.  Thanks to the crew that helped haul them in and set them up.  Very comfortable.  And no squeaks!! The large chorus went right to work on the holiday show music after warm ups by associate director Tony Colosimo.  Director Joe Cerutti was excited about the show and he prompted us to be ready for a busy nite with guest artists for the show who would be coming to Durant. He also welcomed the many ladies from the Pride of Baltimore SAI chorus who fought their way to Durant thru traffic on a cold and really rainy nite!

 

Past President Rick Wagner arrived early to continue issuing consignment tickets for the show.  And Sandy Stamps was issuing White House Ornaments to salesmen Harmonizers. An new team was on hand too for selling 50/50 tickets – Bob and Sandy Ulibarri and Walt Page.

 

Executive director Terry Reynolds reported more donations from the “6^th Row” campaign.  He also reported several thank you notes received from the Ladies Club some of us sang for last week.  Terry also thanked the guys who made the trip out to Fairfax Country Club for the lunch time gig. As always, there was great response to Will Cox reciting “The Night Before Christmas” in his comedic delivery! Thanks to Chris Huber’s wife, Judy, who introduced us at that show (and brought two yummy chocolate cookies for each guy after the show.)

 

Holiday show producer Mick Stamps reported a decent tickets sales progress and reminded all that consignment tickets must be returned or you pay for them. He reminded us that next Tues nite is a tech rehearsal for all of us to attend.  He needs a riser crew at 5 pm at the GMU venue. He promises maps and a detailed call-time schedule for show weekend.

 

President Randall Eliason reported a couple family matters: Ian Poulin is having knee surgery on Wednesday.  We wish him fast recovery.  Randall also heard that Chris Buechler was in recovery room following his kidney operation today.  Again our best wishes to him.

 

Randall explained the road trip to Lake George NY to sing at the Northeastern District convention the weekend of May 6.  He asked for a show of hands and almost 100 % of the men on the risers said they would want to go.  Sooo – we are off on a road trip.  Has been a long time since we did one.

 

Next, Randall announced that Art Medici is taking reservations for the Presidents’ Banquet on Jan. 28^th, 2017.  Tickets are just $25 each.  Certainly hope all of the members will come to celebrate our year, honor our award recipients, and socialize with the gang.

 

Mr. President thanked the new 50/50 team and also reminded everyone to drop in a buck or so in the coffee fund container at break. (The response was good – many thanks all!)

 

For those marking their 2017 calendar, don’t forget to set aside July 23-30 to go to Harmony University with the chorus in Nashville, TN.

 

Terry returned to the mic offering to collect any pledges from guys for the matching fund campaign for a new Harmo truck.

 

Membership director Rich Hewitt welcomed guests and applicants.

 

After the break we worked more music including with the male soloist for two songs.

 

Before we closed the hall for the nite, we sang farewell to Mike Moncibaiz who is going to work in Mexico for the State Department.  He will be missed in the bari section. Mike directed “Keep the Whole World Singing” as our sign-off for the nite.

 

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

Looking Back on the Nov 29th Chapter Meeting

The large chorus working on the holiday show music was back on the risers this week at Durant.  We had some applicants who did their auditions and passed!!

 

Past President Rick Wagner did a brisk business issuing consignment tickets for the show.  And Sandy Stamps was issuing White House Ornaments to salesmen Harmonizers.

 

Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups and then director Joe Cerutti launched the nite’s singing on the holiday songs.  During the nite we auditioned three soloists who were all great on the “What’s This” number. Joe also explained some of the plans for transitioning between songs, how the audience sing-a-long with work, and what the guest artists will be doing.

 

Chorographer Carlos Barillo taught us a plan for “Text Me Merry Christmas.”

 

Executive director Terry Reynolds started the announcement period with a terrific heartfelt letter from director Emeritus Scott Werner thanking all for including him in the Nashville contest package.  He called it another championship for him!

 

Terry offered apologies for the hundred plus emails each guy got today because of a computer glitch.

 

Jeff Burkey did a demo for each man to do with his cell phone top promote our show via FaceBook.

 

Tom Jackson thanked the members for their support during this period after his Mom passed.

 

Terry gave more details about the show on Thurs Dec. 1^st and promised final details via email.  Call time is 10:45 am at Fairfax Country Club, 5110 Ox Rd.. Dress is holiday sweater or tie if possible, no jeans or tennis shoes.

 

President Randall Eliason is eager to get nominations from everyone for the chapter’s distinguished service awards.

 

Next Tuesday we are at Durant and will run the show with the guest talent. Then Tues Dec 6^th is at GMU.

 

Secretary Chris Buechler announced his is having kidney operation on Tuesday and thus not singing in the show.  We all wished him well for the serious situation. 

 

He presented a 49-year membership renewal to Chuck Harner.

 

Liz Birnbaum, chair of the chapter development effort, announced that monies members give in an end-of-the-year donation toward a new Harmo truck fund, will help raise a fund that will be challenged to the show patrons to match.  You each man’s gift could be doubled.

 

Membership director Rich Hewitt welcomed guests and applicants.

 

After break, it was more work on the music. (Speaking of break – the coffee collection cup is getting pretty low, so please drop in a buck or five as you pass thru the kitchen.)

 

Before we left, Joe announced that the terms of our section leaders are about to expire.  So applications are being accepted for anyone interested including those who are currently section leaders.  This is part of a new plan to refresh as needed.

 

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