from the Far Western District of the Barbershop Harmony Society. February 1, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In This Issue
Join In The Fun - Chapter ShowsA barbershop chapter near you may have a really terrific show soon. Below are the shows currently listed in the FWD calendar over the next six weeks. The complete district Calendar is at FWD Calendar. If your chapter show is listed, but without any details, go to Submit Show Details to provide the requested information.
Honor your BOTYYour chapter has probably announced the Barbershopper Of The Year for 2011. Now's the time to tell all the rest of us what a terrific man you have in your chapter.
Any chapter leader can log into the FWD Members Only
area and in the second section under Chapter and District Leaders click on Submit Chapter BOTY Information.
Singing Valentines StoriesIf you are in a Singing Valentines quartet, you are in for the best singing day of the year. Immediately after you deliver all that love, send your best stories in to the Webmaster and they'll be added to the website for all to read at Singing Valentines Stories. There are plenty of stories there from previous years that range from heart felt to outright laughter. We know you love to tell these stories, so send them in so the rest of us can enjoy them.
If you want to see how a single delivery at a school turned into five performances, a coaching session, a basketball game, and the police,
visit Valentines at Union Mine High School.
NorCal Quartet Novice - Feb 25Help Celebrate The Year Of The Quartet by registering your quartet for the NorCal Novice contest. Everything thing both quartets and audience alike need to know is on the NorCal Novice Quartet Contest website.
Spring Convention- March 8-11, 2012The Far Western District International Prelims are just about a month away. Combine the opportunity to see the best of our district quartets in top performance with the vast array of Southern California choruses aiming for the Fall District Convention and you have a convention event you don't want to miss. The quartet semifinals are on March 9, 2012, and the chorus and quartet finals on March 10, 2012. Ontario, CA is in the heart of the combined Southeast and Southwest Divisions, and the Holiday Inn Express and the Colony High School Theater are minutes from the Ontario airport. Early bird registration ends Feb 8, 2012, so go to Spring Convention Website for the latest information where you will find a mail-in convention registration form. You can do an on-line Convention Registration at Spring Online Registration. Hotel Registration is at HQ Hotel online registration. Looking forward to ringing a few, see you in SoCal.
John Jones
Will you be at the March FWD spring convention in Ontario CA?If so, you have an opportunity to see the Inaugural FWD Quartet Harmony Platoon Contest Finals and Show. It will take place on Friday afternoon, March 9, at 3:00 in the convention headquarters Holiday Inn Express in Ontario. It is open to anyone registered for the convention. You will see the top quartets from a preliminary contest held on Thursday, which pitted 15 quartets representing 32 chapters from throughout the district. The 60 men will have spent two months learning four songs from high quality learning tracks. Then they will have enjoyed the prior 24 hours of fun singing in various random combinations. Judges for the contest are drawn from the ranks of prior District quartet champs, including 139th Street, TNT, Gotcha, Hi-Fidelity, Musicians Choice, Rhythm & Rhyme, 1970 Champs- Crown City Good Time Music Co., Western Union and Revival (and that's just four guys). Additional platoons are scheduled for the Northeastern Division contest weekend in Folsom CA in May, and the fall District convention in Arizona. The NE Division Platoon is open to singers from any Division. For details contact: Don Salz, FWD Quartet Activity CommitteePlatoon is based on concepts of the popular eXtreme Quartetting Harmony Brigade. Many of you will want to sign up to attend the second annual Harmony Brigade held in FWD this August in Reno NV. This is a 3-day event, so there is more time to sing more songs and have even more fun than with Platoon. You can apply for the Brigade yourself, but better hurry. They only have room enough left on some parts for 4 or 5 more guys. Just go to the website: www.highsierrahb.org.
Putting the Q in BHS
Are you competing this Spring in Prelims or Division Contests?There are three important steps to be ready to compete: 1) Be sure your membership dues are paidEvery competitor MUST be a society member on the day of competition. Be very sure everyone is paid up.Every chorus member MUST be a paid up member of his chapter Every quartet's registration must be current. 2) Register for the conventionEvery competitor MUST be registered for the full convention, not just the single event.
3) Register for the contestEvery quartet and chorus MUST register in the CJ-20 system on ebiz four weeks before each contest. The cutoff date for the Ontario contests is February 10. Don't miss out.
Register Now for Ontario!
Visit the website at Spring Prelims/Southeast/Southwest Convention
to find all the registration options.
Classes at OntarioClassroom space is limited at Ontario, so there is only one class track this time.
Division ConventionsThe other three division conventions are shaping up and the March 1 issue of eNews will have more information. Be sure to put the dates below on your calendar.
April Festival of the BQPA in Tempe, AZThe dates of April 11-15 have been set for the Spring Festival in 2012, in Tempe, AZ. Once again, we have the Embassy Suites reserved for our event. The hotel is under new ownership but all of the previous amenities will continue with the added plus of having all suites receiving upgraded bed and bath linens and new flat screen TV's. Fortunately, the excellent staff has been retained and they are anxious to have us there again. Go to: Embassy Suites Tempe for hotel details. The room rate is $102.00 per night, which is still a bargain, considering the entire package that we receive. And, because of the numbers we bring in, the charges for meeting space and set up fees are very minimal. Our block of rooms will be held for us until March 12, 2012. After that date, the hotel is free to release the balance of our room block to others. Last year there were some very late registrants and it was not easy to get the convention room rate for them. The hotel has a very lenient cancellation policy if your plans change. This is a very popular hotel for nearby ASU and they house many of the spring sport teams and families. So, please register early and be sure you have a room. For reservations it is best to call the hotel directly and tell them you are coming for the Barbershop event. 480-797-7444. Use this number for the complementary airport shuttle as well. Golf will be available on Thursday and Friday. Call Jim Milner at 480-820-2151 (jrmilner@cox.net) to get into a foursome. Tell Jim your preferred voice part so he can make up quartet to sing on each tee box. A schedule of events will be posted as we get closer to the dates. To get a jump start on your quartet weekend, plan to arrive on Wednesday, April 11th. The Arizona Quartet Chapter will again host an evening of quartet singing at the American -Italian Club, 7509 N. 12th St., Phoenix, AZ. It all begins at 5:30 pm with the spaghetti buffet provided by the club for a mere $7.00 a plate with meatballs, salad and bread. Quartet time begins at 7:00 pm and there will be several rounds of 'draw' quartets. Transportation can be provided from the hotel. Contact me at rmtous@msn.com, but please do so early enough that I can make arrangement for the cars. See you there !!
Rex Touslee
Sign up NOW for the High Sierra Harmony BrigadeThe 2012 High Sierra Harmony Brigade registration deadline is approaching fast! Don’t miss this exciting and unique opportunity to learn eleven championship caliber songs and sing them throughout the weekend, August 24-26, 2012, in numerous combinations of quartets with barbershoppers from all over the United States. Last year’s HSHB inaugural rally included 80 men ranging in age from 20 to 70, from 19 different states, at least six District Champs from three different Districts, several men who have competed on the International stage in quartets and/or choruses, and some BHS certified judges. Talk to the men you know who have joined the BHS Brigade movement and have participated at one of the six Harmony Brigades around the country to find out what all the excitement is about. If interested in applying for consideration, please visit www.highsierrahb.org, to apply to the HSHB or visit www.harmonybrigade.org for information about all of the Brigades in BHS. If applying to the HSHB after the February 1st deadline, you may be put on a waiting list if your part is full. Music will be sent out in March 2012.
David Queen
Chapter Leader Monthly To Do
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