Thanks man! I think a lot of groups make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people at the same time. This approach would allow us to be unapologetic in focusing on contest for one weekend a year (with a bit of variety of course), and then the other weekend we can be unapologetic in not focusing on contest.

If I could take one thing back it would be the word jamboree. I’m not sure anyone born after 1970 would be excited about going to something called a jamboree. Maybe call it Spring Jam, or even Spring Break.

Wow, that’s thinking outside the box! Just the kind of comments I was hoping to generate! Sort of a “knowing what we know now, what would we do with a clean slate?” kind of question.

Great thoughts!

Of course that would mean folks would only convene at a regional level once a year, and we’d lose out on camaraderie. Not so!

If we had the competitions in the Spring, then we could have regional jamborees on in the Fall. Each jamboree could include a quartet brigade for the extreme quartet singers, an all-star chorus for the extreme chorus singers, and a joe barbershopper chorus for guys who just want the experience of singing in a bigger chorus. Throw in some HU-style classes for guys who don’t want to sing in a chorus. Top the whole weekend off with a show, open to the public, that included the choruses, brigade winners, and maybe even the winner of the previous Spring’s quartet. The show would help defray the cost of the weekend and would also bring great barbershop performances to more areas of the country.

–Mike

All I did was make a suggestion, planted a seed if you will. If it sprouts, it will need to be watered, fed and pruned. That’s where all you guys with the talent come in. I think it has merit and will serve to provide a much needed Society and District presence in our chapters and chapter meetings.

I’ll bet there are plenty of guys out in the bushes who don’t even know we have a code of ethics; never been shown how important proper use of vowels and consonants are when singing; directors with hidden talents that need to be drawn out; and quartets that can’t afford to pay a coach but want to do a better job.

Soon, more seeds will drop and spread. It’s not a no brainer though, and will take some careful and thoughtful planning to implement.

So, hopefully others will chime in on this. Thanks again Dave for you encouraging words.

Art

That 15 minute time frame is genius! Simple, effective and … why didn’t I think of that? Lorin, we need to listen to this guy.

I especially like the Orientation idea; it could be married to a local orientation package and shown to new members the same evening they sign up, maybe even earlier so they really have a clear picture of what we are as a Society and what the chapter they’re joining is all about.

Lorin or somebody at HQ needs to research this and find out costs and get this program rolling. Harmony Marketplace will probably be the best way to distribute the media (DVDs will be the way to go) at a reasonable cost to chapters.

Thanks for your post Art!

-Dave R

Thank you for your thoughtful posts on this topic. You bring up some great points regarding the excellent education provided at Directors College and the fact that we are not able to reach all barbershoppers to receive that education is something we look to correct. There is no doubt money plays a role, but I agree with Allan that it is probably time that is more of a deal breaker for most of our barbershoppers.

As most of us are well aware, we do have scholarships available for DC attendees. Also, as you probably know by now, that process has been recently revamped to try and get many new folks to DC…it has worked. We have seen a spike in attendance of new attendees due to the fact we are opening the doors a little wider to allow for not only front line directors, but also assistant directors and aspiring directors, and as a nice side effect, a spike in those enrolled in our recently revamped Director Certification program.

Although not a DVD or video of footage of DC, we do have several resources already available through the Harmony Marketplace regarding director education. One that comes to mind is a great directing techniques video that features Dr. Greg Lyne and Dr. Don Campbell (Stock #004029). There are several other great resources on the Harmony Marketplace site…I encourage everyone to look into those.

Additionally, many resources exist online that have been produced by non barbershop entities. Videos on leadership, directing, motivation, etc. can all be very valuable resources to those wanting to learn how to be a more dynamic leader. Just Google it! Rest assured, however…the Education Department is looking to produce more training videos and interactive educational resources. In today’s world, it would be an oversight if we didn’t do something like that.

Currently we have several programs in place that serve the needs of many different levels of directors, during weekend training sessions. We have the Outstanding in Front program, the CDWI program, the Next Level program, and HEP schools often have some sort of director training available as well. Feel free to browse the Director Education portion of the BHS website (www.barbershop.org/education/director-education.html) to learn a lot more about each opportunity offered. As John suggests, those programs exist but are often underutilized. Any suggestions on how we can appeal to more folks?

All of that being said, there is nothing more valuable than being in a class, with instant feedback and interaction. So to that I say to everyone, do all you can to clear your schedules to come to Directors College!

Thanks for your care and passion for our hobby. You guys are great assets to have for our organization.

Please allow me to get out of the box and jump into the think tank with all the others who may respond to this article. I am a thirty-six year member and have attended many of these events.

Our Society is blessed with top-notch people who are capable of educating us effectively in just about any subject related to our hobby. We hold conventions, leadership forums, schools, etc. both at the Society and District levels and invite everyone to come and be better educated and to become better singers. BUT, a major segment of our Society membership never attends these events for a variety of reasons.

Today, holding these events, hiring venues, flying staff in, providing lodging and meals and all the other costs, not to mention the cost to individual members to get to these events is taking a toll on attendance.

Here is how we may be able to take one thing — musical technique or craft– and bring it right into every chapter meeting room and available to EVERY member of our Society. Develop a series of CDs or even better DVDs which would contain fifteen minute segments of craft sessions (or any other subject for that matter) prepared at the Society level by our very best and talented musicians and experts and carefully formatted and presented so that everyone can learn how to sing better. All the chapter would need is a projector and screen. No expensive auditoriums, hotels, airfare and the rest. Might even be able to borrow the projection equipment. And if someone didn’t quite understand it the first time, play it again, and again.

Our top talented people are constantly involved in coaching situations and could be digitally recorded in an actual coaching session on location. Our Society leaders and staff members could be digitally recorded right there in Nashville in our own facilities. Then take these sessions and create an audio/video DVD crammed full of craft sessions. Imaging having the best of the best right there in our chapter meeting whenever we needed help solving any problem. The only cost, that of developing the media and making it available. With today’s technology, it is much less expensive than it once was, and the media can be marketed through Harmony Marketplace.

Apply the same thinking to all forms of barbershop education. Bring it into the 21st Century. I can just see it now, an orientation DVD with our Society President or Exec explaining how our Society is structured, explaining our code of ethics and dozens of other valuable bits of information. Chorus Director tips built right into a craft session. Apply it to Harmony Foundation information as well.

The key is “fifteen minute segments”. Most barbershoppers want to sing at their meetings with a minimum time spent on business, sectional rehearsals and craft sessions.

I am afraid that if we bring all of this under the umbrella of HU, we would continue to be reaching the small percentage of core, die hard members and leaving the majority of our membership out of the loop.

The HU discussion is a great example. We’ve recently moved back to a district governed model for chapter leadership training. Does every district possess the instructors of the same expertise and proficiency? If we assume that is not the case, are we then embracing a system that will weaken some areas because they don’t have the resources that others do?

If the Society was rebooted under the assumption that there is a strong corporate office, which we have, then that organization could be responsible for developing courses and certifying instructors. That central organization could also be responsible for offering these classes at times and locations that serve the highest amount of chapters with the lowest cost. This would likely include offering classes at International, Midwinter, and HU. The technology for online courses has been around for years now, and that should be explored as well.

If we offer these classes at our major schools and conventions, offer them online, and offer them regionally at regular intervals, wouldn’t it be fair to require participation on a regular basis to maintain a chapter’s charter? Wouldn’t we have stronger chapters if we did, and wouldn’t that make the Society stronger as a whole?

How about contests and conventions?

–Mike

The friction between musical excellence and “fun” (defined as fun activity not involving musical excellence) has been our biggest source of internal strife ever since “excellence-oriented” chapters started appearing in the 70′s (VM, Sounds of Concord to name a couple, were there chapters like this in the 60′s or earlier?). Of course musical excellence and “fun” are concurrently possible in all chapters but most usually emphasize one over the other. And that’s great!

If we started from scratch I’d love to see emphasis on having more chapters, each with narrower focus, and less worry about having chapters in neighboring towns because they might steal members from each other.

Instead of having competitive groupings based on district lines that may or may not make geographic or population sense over time, smaller district groupings could be established with clusters of chapters whose boundaries are flexible over time to give approximately equal numbers of chapters access to centralized services and events with competitions designed to perculate the best chapters and quartets up to the championship rounds. It seems to me that this type of model encourages maximum chapter participation at some level while preventing over or under representation from small or large districts in higher competitions. As boundaries shift around with chapter populations, it also seems that it discourage the calcification of districts in their ways of doing things and necessarily makes the districts more attuned to the chapters in proximity to each other.

I do like the idea of establishing an on-line Harmony University. I was able to attend DC for the first time last summer and found it exceptionally useful. For me, the $1000 spent on tuition and air-fare isn’t as much an issue as the week away from my work life, though the fellowship there was great too. While live class time is generally superior, much of the curriculum such as music theory would lend itself well to on-line instruction with a proctor to help students thru the course work. That would let students progress at their own rates as well. If there were resources available with experience with a University of Pheonix type model, the society could develop an effective profit center by putting certification programs on line. It would be wonderful if the live session topics could be offered regionally, but I imagine that the time limitations of the society’s top resources make that difficult.

Just thinking out loud here – thanks for the forum to do so.

THAT is what I would encourage as the backbone for a fledgling Society. I would create “closed/private” places where men could feel free to sing without fear of censure.
I would require a cadre of “teachers, to teach music and encourage good technique.
Find/train good organizers to orchestrate each meeting, to achieve maximum involvement and fun.
Make sure every attendee has opportunities to sing in a performance mode (not just classroom/rehearsal).
Get as many people “Up Front” as possible. Teaching, Directing, Quarteting, Telling Jokes/Stories. discussing what the Society has to offer; History, Neighboring chapter events, schools conventions etc.
Give everyone a job (dont just ask for volunteers) and praise those who are doing their jobs.
Encourage everyone to “look out for one another,” If someone seems to be overlooked, bring it to the chaptreer’s attention…and bring him into the activities or find out what he would like the chapter to do.
Make a point of announcing people who are absent. And, if no one knows why atey arent there, appoint someone dto check on them…Be your brothers kee3per.

Over the years, we have stopped catering to the singers desire to be loved and involved, in favor of selling barbershop to the genderal public and developing costly “systems” for cataloging what should be fun into clinical music, to entice new members. It has taken a lot of the Love” out of participation for me…and many of our potential members.

I have not been on an inter-chapter visit in twelve years.
I have not been invited to sing at a convention in ten years.
The only times I am invited to sing in a pick up quartet (at chapter meeting), is by “old timers.” Members with less than ten years service – think its just chorus rehearsal.
We no longer have breaks with snack…and atime to fraternize. (The music team says…”too many people leave at halftime if we have a break.”)

I MISS THE OLDE TIMES.
Larry the Legend