[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 60-01, January - March, 2006 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

Eastern Division entertaining actively

By Bill Vermue, Eastern Division Co-ordinator

Cornwall Chapter

• The C-Way Sound chorus now boasts a 20 plus membership, and is looking forward to growth and development in 2006.  On the development front, under the guidance of Doug Hill, they now have an excellent web site: http://cwaysound.ca/ that is constantly under development.  It is already one of the nicest web sites in the district.  

• Doug has also initiated a web link for Barbershoppers to stay in touch.  Check out: http://www.frappr.com/barbershoppers and add your name, if it is not already there.

• Plans are afoot to have a show in November, 2006, and the chapter is negotiating with other Eastern Division Barbershoppers to participate.  Other plans for 2006 include obtaining proper risers.  Eight members of the chorus travelled to Montreal on February 4 to attend the NE Harmony Education Day.

Kingston Chapter

• The Townsmen are working hard toward their annual show on June 10.  Guest quartet on the show will be Play It Again!.

• Taking Eastern Division’s motto of “Chapters helping Chapters” to heart, they have offered to bring their show to Brockville on June 9, donating their chorus and allowing Brockville to reap the benefit.  More on this under Brockville.

• Kingston had a very successful day doing Singing Valentines.  Seventeen chorus members singing in four quartets, delivered 42 Valentines.

• Barbershopper of the Year was Gerry Goebel.

Nepean Chapter

• The Northern Stars are working very hard to put their Gas House Gang tribute show together. Dates are May 26 and 27.  They are well underway in learning GHG music and a recent number off paper is Eine Kleine Not Music.  They will have a number of chapter quartets performing on the show as well as guest quartets Play It Again! and Polaris.  As with the chorus, all quartets must perform GHG music.

• Nepean also joined forces with Ottawa for singing Valentines, providing one quartet and one member to work in the Operations Centre.  Eighteen valentines later, they were very happy and satisfied men.  More on this under Ottawa.

Ottawa Chapter

• To say that the Singing Valentines program was a successful venture for the Capital City Chorus is a huge understatement.  With one quartet cancelling out at the last minute due to illness, they still fielded eight quartets plus one from Nepean.  They are writing a separate article in this Trillium so I will leave the details to that, but 170 paid Valentines at $50 per Valentine, well you do the math.

• Also separate from the Ottawa and Kingston choruses, the Capital Letterman whose members are Hugh Spence, John Batson, Sam Perrin and Digger MacDougall, did 21

• valentines on their own.  That in and of itself is noteworthy, however, the story has a twist.  During the second valentine, John Batson complained that he wasn’t feeling well, but shook it off and carried on for 19 more performances.  The next day, he was diagnosed as having had a heart attack and two stints later, he is in recovery.  We wish him well.

• The upcoming show is based on a radio programming theme, with music being presented by decades.  Quartets will not have highlight spots per se, but rather will fit into the theme and sing songs in various era packages.  Expect to be able to report great success next time.

• Ottawa has also totally revamped their web site, making it much more crisp and clean.  Check it out at: http://www.capitalcitychorus.org/.

• A number of chorus members and at least one quartet (Polaris), travelled to Montreal on February 4 to attend the NE Harmony Education Day.

Brockville Chapter

• Brockville’s Melodymen are currently the focus in the Eastern Division.  The Melodymen are down to about 12 men attending fairly regularly, and while these dozen men are very keen, they are in need of permanent director.  They have been without a front-line director for more than two years, and recently, Bob Panter and Paul Sheppard, who have been filling the void on an interim basis, resigned from the directing mode.

• To fill the void, a directing team has been established to direct the chorus on a rotational basis. To date, the team has run six nights for the chorus, generating much excitement.  The directors involved are: Dave Forrester, Rod McKenzie, Brian Kerr, Paul Tamblyn and Bill Vermue.

• Weekly report forms have been designed and are filled out promptly after chorus meetings and sent to all concerned.  Because all the directors involved meet on Monday evenings with their own chapters, Brockville has had to change their meeting night.  We have settled on Wednesday nights at the same time and location they have been using.  Coincidentally with the initiation of this program, the Kingston Chapter made the suggestion to do a show in Brockville on June 9. Timing is perfect, as this provides a goal and focus for the chorus and directing team.

• The directing team is intended to be an interim step, while the Melodymen do a proper director search.  But it will build the excitement within the chorus and hopefully generate a boost in membership, thus making the chorus more attractive to a potential director.  To my knowledge, the directing team concept has never been tried within the Society.     k