Our Current Executive

Hello Everyone,

Today, I will introduce you to the Executive of the York Region Community Choir for the 2011/2012 Choir Year. We elect the Executive every year at our Annual General Meeting, AGM, in June. The Executive works together with the Director and Accompanist, and the Reading Committee to choose music, decide when and where we sing, and make sure people are there to sing and to hear us sing, and take care of our equipment and music library.

First of all, our President is Heather Vickers (hvickers@rogers.com). She took over from Steve Loweth, of Mayfair Music, who is hoping to be a very active Past President. Heather is responsible for everything happening.

Our Vice-President is Lauren Solar (laurensolar@gmail.com). She'll be there to help Heather and anyone else on the executive when they need a hand.

Sandra Winters (s_winters@bell.net) has stepped into the gap that Heather left, and is our new Public Relations Committee Chair. She's the one you need to contact if you'd like us to sing for you or if you'd like to give us a free advertising spot. Contact Sandra if you'd like to join us and want more information.

Michele Horton (michelehorton@hotmail.com) is our Secretary/Treasurer, and she does all kinds of wonderful things for us besides taking notes at meetings and keeping track of our money. She is presently the longest-standing member of the Executive.

Trix Verge (trix.verge@gmail.com) is our Music Librarian. She has our music collection in her basement and makes sure we all have music to sing every Monday, and has extra binders made up for guests, or people who are checking us out. If you have a binder of music that belongs to us and want to know how to get it back to us, contact Trix.

Carol Ford and Debbie Hood are the Registrars. They make sure the membership list is up-to-date and coordinate our Coffee/Social hours, among other things. Debbie's had our coffee (and tea) equipment and supplies in her basement for many years. She buys good Decaf.

We have a Reading Committe which is not elected, but appointed. They are Heather Vickers, Teija Cumming and Enid Maize. They help choose music and order it from the publishers. They are chosen for their ability to read music and knowledge of our strengths and weaknesses.

Our roles are not all very well defined because we mostly work together, brainstorming and planning at meetings, and sometimes at the beginning or end of our Monday evenings. Being on the Executive is fun and rewarding. From time to time, we work really hard, and then we sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labours with pride.

We'll be getting together next week to make sure everything is in place for September 12th. It's only a bit more than a week away! Can't wait to see everyone!

Yours in harmony,

Renate

Ain't We Sweet!

Hello, Everybody!

Jokes

I have some jokes that I use when we go out singing with the seniors. It feels good to make them laugh, and it sets the tone for informal fun. I think it helps the choristers to relax too. Sometimes we get a bit nervous performing J

One of my regular jokes is a comment on the sing-along sheets that we hand out. Each song is a page. The songs are numbered, but we don’t use all the songs. So, page one is #4. When announcing the song, I’ll say: “Go to number four. It’s the first page. That’s new math.”

It's about me
Number 4 has its own joke too. The song is, “Ain’t She Sweet.” I’ll say: “Now we’re going to sing one of our favourite songs. It’s about me!” So, we have groans and giggles in the choir and shock and laughter in the audience. Later, we might sing “Hey, Good Lookin’!” I’ll say, “Hey, another song about me!”

Sometimes, I’ll switch it up a bit and say it’s a song about our accompanist. Sometimes, it’s Debbie-“Five-foot two, eyes of blue”.

Thanks
Yesterday, we had our AGM. We met with pizza and treats, and got the business of the choir done. The evening is an opportunity to acknowledge everyone who helps out with the various tasks that have to be done to keep things going. I am the conductor, so nice things are said about me and I get a pretty card and a generous honorarium. I like that part of the meeting.

My song
This year I got the best gift ever. My choir sang for me. It was better than all the Happy Birthdays I’ve had sung to me. It was totally impromptu. Robin put up her hand and said something like “I think we should sing Renate her song.” They sang “Ain’t She Sweet”.

Now, I ask you very confidentially, ain’t they sweet?

Thank you, my choir! I love you!

Yours in harmony,

Renate