*Update: Please note in the original post that “looking at” = “considering,” and nothing more. Also note that cost reduction is one of the reasons we’re looking at a more permanent membership card.*

The above is NOT a proposed membership card — just a very early proof of concept prototype. The point is, based on member feedback, we’re looking at changing our membership cards. No designs yet, but please participate in our poll about what might appear on the card.

We’re looking to create something more colorful and laminated, closer to the thickness of a credit card. It would be durable enough that the ink won’t rub off or stick to anything in your wallet and flashy enough that you may be proud to pull it out of your wallet and show it off. The idea is that this would become your permananent membership card and would not be replaced each year.

As to what information goes on the card, there are several options: Read the rest of this entry »

In reply to an earlier post on this blog, Tom Goldie shared some interesting suggestions regarding copyright laws and how the Society had get music into members’ hands more easily. With his permission, quoted below are Tom’s ideas (in quotes) and responses from Julie Grower, who manages the Music Library and Licensing for the Society.

Tom brings up some interesting possibilities. What do you think?

Julie begins:

Tom,

Thank you so much for taking up an issue which I know many barbershoppers feel strongly about. Your ideas are very positive and forward-looking. We always appreciate hearing about the issues that mean the most to members. I will attempt to address some of the comments below as best I can.

I believe a great place to start would be in copyright issues. An immediate change would be to allow society members the rights to record and post songs to which the Society holds copyright as long as its for non-commercial purposes. This would allow for many more performances to link to on YouTube, and for a lot more “free” distribution of high-quality .mp3s.

Read the rest of this entry »

As opposed to “What did we start doing that we never should have started?”

This one’s for the old-timers, or at least the historically enlightened. It’s the promised follow-up to my last post, “System reboot: If we’d started the Society today, what would be different?” (In retrospect, maybe today’s post should have come first.) In either case, I’m hoping for some insightful answers and discussion.

We’ve had a lot of wise men among us during our Society’s 72 years. Still do. At headquarters, we have access to every copy of The Harmonizer ever printed, going back to 1941. (And we’d love to digitize all those issues and provide them to our members online. Biiiiiiiig scanning project. Any volunteers?) These old Harmonizers record many trends that have come and gone, some things that never change (style debate anyone?), and occasionally a cringe-worthy image or sentiment from a bygone era that has thankfully not survived to the present.

But what about the stuff from our past that should have survived but didn’t? Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s something for all you snowed-in barbershoppers to chew on: How would we have structured things if 30,000 barbershop singers had somehow gotten together just today to form a singing Society? How would we be structured? What would we do that we don’t do now? What would we modify or drop that we are doing?

On balance, we’re far too critical of ourselves as barbershoppers. We’re so intimately aware of our own warts and unrealized hopes that we rarely realize that the outside world is far more impressed with us than we are. Ever heard the “Wow!” from a sharp music professional once he starts to become familiar with our educational system, our contest and judging system, our organizational structure, youth outreach, fraternal culture, etc.? (Maybe that’s a post or Harmonizer article for another time!) So I don’t want this to devolve into a gripe session of “What’s wrong with the Society,” cuz frankly we hear plenty of that already.

That said, organizations can be like computers. After you’ve had one for a while, installed this program, tweaked that, added this data, both a computer and an organization can start become sluggish. There’s really no way to avoid it, but all those necessary tweaks and changes can build up “lint” that can hamper system performance. For all the customizations you can’t live without anymore, you still wish your machine were operating the way it did when it came out of the box. Read the rest of this entry »

The long anticipated release of the 2009 Anaheim Convention DVDs has finally arrived … TWO DAYS prior to our original projected shipping date!

Your HQ staff plus several of our wonderful volunteers worked together to get these out the door to you as quickly as possible.  And I mean quick!  The DVDs arrived to Harmony Hall from the duplicator this morning at 9:15 a.m., and as I write this at about 11 a.m. they are all out the door and in mail streams!

If you haven’t ordered your’s yet, there is still time to do so and receive it in time for Christmas.  But you must act fast.  Visit the Harmony Marketplace online to learn about what shipping options are available for the quickest delivery.  Or call 800-876-7464 and order yours today!

Here we are six weeks away from the Midwinter Convention in Tampa, Fla. (January 28-31, 2010) and we’re headed towards what looks to be our largest attended Midwinter ever. As of this morning we are sitting at 1210 registrations! Last year at this time we were at 893 registrations and by the time everything was said and done we had 1291 folks in Pasadena. Where will Tampa finish? Come on and find out!

As you can imagine, we here at HQ are very excited about this. I am especially excited because quite simply, more barbershoppers in the same place at the same time=FUN. Even now, however, the convention is still somewhat of a “best kept secret” in the Society. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s talk about why your latest Harmonizer is so late and what we’re doing to change that. We ran a Q&A on this subject earlier this summer. I won’t repeat much of what’s there, so if you have any remaining questions, check that post first. For now, here are some basic statements of fact, followed by some details.

Your Harmonizer’s information is not old, it’s just that the cover date has been out of sync.

You’ve still been getting six issues per year, every two months on average, with info that was up to date in the weeks before each issue was sent to the printer. It’s just that ….  (CUE WORLD’S SMALLEST VIOLIN) .. if you’d read the previous Q&A, you already know that the actual schedule slippage occurred several years ago as the result of resource decisions made by officers who haven’t worked on Society staff for a long time. (Hint: It’s not any past editor’s fault.)  Just wanted to point out the difference between “causing the slippage” and “failing to fix it in a timely manner.” (DEFENSIVE CRYBABY ALERT OVER) That said, it’s my mess to clean up, and I acknowledge I haven’t been cleaning it up quickly at all.

I feel your pain.

You think YOU find the out-of-synch cover dates embarrassing? The only question staff ever asks me is, “When is the next issue coming out? We’re getting a lot of calls.” I have permanent indents on my bedroom wall because I wake up every work day, remember the day’s date vs. the cover date I’m working on, and the head-banging commences. If you believe heads need cracking to get this problem fixed, consider my cranium thoroughly knocked. My family can tell you, it ain’t a lack of overtime hours that’s responsible for the slow catch-up! (Oops, just let another whiner statement slip in.) Read the rest of this entry »

God bless the realists, the folks who tell it like it is—who call a spade a spade, who never stick their head in the sand, and who know they aren’t doing anyone any favors in varnishing the truth. The Barbershop Harmony Society needs all the reality it can get. If the preceeding words describe you, this post isn’t directed at you.

On second thought, this post may be ESPECIALLY for you.

What I say next will probably brand me as a blind Pollyanna skipping to the precipice, but oh well:

STOP BEING SO NEGATIVE! YOU’RE ONLY MAKING THINGS WORSE!

Realism is vital, but it is severely overrated. If that last sentence made you cringe, I’ll point out that science is on my side for this one.

It turns out, a large portion of self-described realists are also pessimists. And because they are pessimists, they will not have access to the thoughts and actions that will lead their chapters and our Society to better days. Want proof? Want examples? Keep reading. Read the rest of this entry »

You told us loud and clear in surveys that the convention schedule must change. You wanted fewer overlapping events, fewer awards and more singing, and events that ended early enough that you could get an hour or two of tagging in before bed and still get a decent night’s rest.  Take a look at the Philly convention schedule and you’ll see some exciting changes that will give you more breathing room–more time to convene at barbershop’s international showcase.

But you didn’t want us to drop any of the events that have always packed our week. To give you that more open schedule you want (and not by inviting fewer competitors) we went back to hosting our first major event on Tuesday evening. (As an added bonus, it also helps keep the registration costs as low as possible–we actually reduced it from 2009!)

Here are some highlights from the schedule: Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not unusual in the world of meetings and conventions that a convention city reserved for one organization’s convention might find themselves in a situation where a different organization with exciting opportunities wants to hold their convention over the same dates.  In some cases it’s workable but in other cases it is not.  We found the latter to be the case for the Barbershop Harmony Society’s 2011 Midwinter Convention in Tucson, AZ.  Read the rest of this entry »

27 of the world’s best seniors quartets come together in Tampa, FL on January 29, 2010 to compete for the coveted gold medal.  Come to the Midwinter Convention cheer them on! Read the rest of this entry »

26 Society choruses and two affiliate choruses will compete in the 2010 International Chorus Competition in Philly.  Order of Appearance: Read the rest of this entry »

Les Weiser – The Master of Harmony-oomphTV.com from oomphTV on Vimeo.

This is a well-produced piece about Les Weiser, a barbershopper out of California who sings with 7-time International Gold Medalist Chorus The Masters of Harmony. It shows the joy and satisfaction of performing in a top barbershop ensemble through the eyes of a man who has dedicated much of his life to the artform, and perhaps puts into words (and picture) what many barbershoppers also share in their own quartets and choruses.

Keep singing, Les!

Video produced and directed by Tammy O’Connor and David Dowell
(Note: Load times for video may vary, depending on Vimeo.com’s bandwidth capabilities)

In an upcoming issue of the magazine, we’re going to be running an article on how some chapters and quartets are using Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. to get new fans, new members, new audiences and build new relationships. I know of a few examples of barbershoppers who are using Facebook to sell more tickets and locate potential members. I would sure like to know some more.

• Do you know any success stories? (Yours or another group?)
• Do you you have any expertise on how to use social networking effectively in a barbershop or other singing environment?
• Do you have any questions that you want answered in an article like this?

Please share what you know or what you want to know right here!

(Note: Feel free to provide links in your response (if you know they’re clean), but know that comments that contain multiple links will usually go into moderation before they can be posted. If you comment doesn’t show up immediately, that’s probably why.)

“Some people try to find things in this game that don’t exist, but football is only two things – blocking and tackling.“

— Vince Lombardi, ESPN’s Coach of the Century

Thanks everyone who responded to our Commanders Intent post last month. We discussed how an army commander ensures his forces cannot lose sight of the core objective and then we asked you to fill in the blank, “If a chapter does nothing else, it must _____.” So many insightful answers! If you haven’t read them, click on the above link and please do so.

As promised, we looked at everyone’s comments and discussed them at our Sept. 16 meeting. We’re not done processing and reacting to everything we learned from your participation, but I’ll say this: We didn’t see anything in your feedback that surprised us, and that was great news. I hope the following explains why.

While it might be wise to stick with the military motif for this post, please indulge me in switching to a related analogy: winning football teams and winning chapters. (To be clear, staff doesn’t define winning chapters by competitive scores but by whether a chapter is a exciting and fulfilling place that’s attracting more and more men. High-level performance and a healthy chapter culture often go together, but it’s very common to find one without the other.) However, successful chapters of all types are strong on similar key fundamentals. One goal of the commander’s intent post was to determine whether we’ve identified the same key principles as you have. 80+ insightful responses later, our strategic planning appears to be well in line with what you consider most important.

Now, a few words about arguably the best football coach of all time, and what fundamentals mean to strong barbershop chapters. Read the rest of this entry »

The discussion of the 33% criterion in the last issue of The Harmonizer has generated a lot of great feedback and discussion, including at this relatively recent post at barbershophq.com. An extremely informative private exchange occurred when “Montana Jack” (the Internet handle of an influential barbershopper who regularly posts on the Harmonet) sent a private email to Music Category Specialist Kevin Keller, who privately responded. A member of headquarters staff cc’d in the email suggested all barbershoppers could profit from the exchange.

With Jack and Kevin’s permission, here’s the text of Jack’s email, with Kevin’s comments interspersed. Please add your own comments! Read the rest of this entry »

With the launch of the updated Society website (www.barbershop.org) and an impending upgrade completion to the backbone of Ebiz (https://ebiz.barbershop.org/ebusiness/), we are entering an era of new and exciting growth for the Society’s online presence and membership services. To that end, we humbly ask:

So what do you want?

While suggestions such as “Make it work all the time!” may seem dreadfully helpful, we would encourage feedback for very specific features that perhaps have been overlooked, lost over time, or would make a nice addition to our web services.

For example, these are some on my “wish/to-do list”:
1) A searchable list of each and every quartet name that’s ever been registered in the history of the Society, past and present.
2) A comprehensive historical record of all past champs with photos and video
3) An iPhone app for tags
4) Google Maps chapter rehearsal venue locator synched up with Ebiz
5) Downloadable Excel files for every viewable list in Ebiz

We’re excited about what’s possible and would love to know what’s on your wish list. Let us know!

I’m about to launch into what amounts to a pep talk, and I hate pep talks. They don’t work for me. The emotions fade quickly, and then I’m left with the same circumstances and no more solutions than I had before. I’m left even more cynical. Don’t give me a pile of shiny, trite mantras that don’t point me where to go next.

I’m not pretending to have all the answers here, so why am I even writing this? Because I see a lot that makes me feel positive about the future. You choose whether I’m being trite or not. If I get to be dismissive about empty motivational speeches, it’s only fair that I be equally dismissive toward the gloom and doom demotivational speeches many of us have been giving lately, even if unintentionally. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for visiting the blog concerning the 33% criterion.  The position paper mentioned on page 24-25 of the July/August 2009 edition of  The Harmonizer is here: 7th Chord Position Paper. A copy of the article in The Harmonizer is here: The Hallmark 7th Chord.

Although this is not technically a change to the definition of the barbershop style, this criterion has been used for almost 40 years in defining the style that we are treating this change as such.  Given that, the process for change is as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

This is a VERY important post—so important that staff will be meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 16 to discuss your replies. It’s a little long, but worth it.

If you can fill in the above blank without hesitation, you probably misunderstood the question. Read on, your answer will require some pondering. Your answers could also help focus staff, Society, district and chapter efforts for years to come. We look forward to some thoughtful discussion! Read the rest of this entry »

We’d save a lot time if we’d all been born with a big scrolling LED sign implanted on our foreheads, one that displayed our brain’s default settings. We would think twice about engaging someone in a discussion about the Society’s future if we saw the following message scrolling just below his toupee: “I am the messenger of truth and light, and I share no arguments or perceptions—only facts. Disagreement proves that you’re trying to bring down the Society!”

Most people are much more reasonable than this, although many folks seem to drop 30 IQ points the moment they sit down at a keyboard. Wouldn’t it be great if we could access everyone’s default settings menu, like we can with our computers and cell phones? It sure would help the folks “debating” (i.e., talking past each other) regarding U.S. health care legislation. The defaults of opposing sides reveal far more than particular policy points: Read the rest of this entry »

Like of lot of you, I’ve just come off back to back barbershop barnburners – the International Convention in Anaheim and Harmony University. And I’m overwhelmed at the number of young people who were at both! All over Anaheim, kids were singing, riding busses, skipping over cracks in the sidewalk, jamming with their Ipods, and doing all the things that good kids do. The energy in the hotels, at the contest venue, at the shows, in the restaurants, and on the street was simply unbelievable. Then – THEN – I went to St. Jo. WOW! I bet almost half of the 660 of us there were under 30. (And most of the staff was young, too!) No, I didn’t count them, but they were everywhere. And – same thing – energy, enthusiasm, round the clock tag singing – everything that youth hooked on barbershop can bring to the party.

Lots of good folk are working hard to discover the things we need to do to reverse our decades-old decline in membership. And, while I’ve always been convinced that we’ll succeed at this crucial task, I must now say that I’m suddenly more optimistic about the future that I have ever been before. As a consequence of the college quartet contests and our other youth outreach programs we are looking at a very bright future, indeed!

Barbershop lives! And THRIVES! Hallelujah!!!

Incidentally, our youth programs are largely funded by us – you and me – through Harmony Foundation and Sing Canada. Why not make a pledge now? Together we can insure the future of this great hobby. For more information, click on the names below.
Harmony Fundation
Sing Canada

I have been musing about the variety of music we hear on the International stage and how much of it is, well, not so good. I don’t mean it’s not performed well – of course it’s performed well, these are the best practitioners of our style in the world! I mean it’s not all the very best music. Seems that, in an effort to do something unique, many of our competitors find some obscure song no one’s done before and, after it’s arranged to the hilt, they sing it for us.

This put me in mind of an experience I had ‘way back in school. I was opining (I tend to do that) about how contemporary music – 20th C. stuff – just didn’t hold up against the “classics”. Didn’t have the musical depth and value of the earlier stuff. A musicologist professor of mine said, “Well, you must remember that you’re hearing almost all the music that’s being written now and the music you hear from earlier centuries is only the best of the best. Time has winnowed out the stuff of lesser quality.” When you think of it, that’s true about all music of all times. I have a 40s channel on my Sirius radio. All 40s all the time. And lots of it is pretty bad stuff. Once in a while a “classic” will pop up, but for every “I Thought About You”, there’s several lesser tunes that have faded from the scene. Same is true of the 50s hits I hear at Wendy’s or whatever. Just the best stuff survived.

So, consider that we’re pretty much hearing everything anyone wants to sing on the contest stage each year. And that the “good old songs” that we remember as great (Thank you, Old School) represent a small fraction of all the songs that were sung on the contest stage in the 50s, or 60s, or 70s, or…

Just a thought. Might help with your bloodpressure next July. I know it will with mine.

Paul Wietlisbach will lead the Society’s education and training programs as the new Director of Education. Having discovered barbershop harmony in 1971, Paul is a past member of four Society choruses and six quartets in four districts. Paul brings years of experience as an accomplished professional educator and creator of multimedia training programs.

“Paul’s past experience in the areas of training and education, as well his long history with the Society, makes him the ideal candidate for the new Director of Education position,” said Society CEO Ed Watson. Read the rest of this entry »