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Choral Guild Meeting Summary
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
LHS Music Practice Room
Meeting began at 7:00 PM
In attendance: Cathy Rosenquist, Cyndi Gray, Kim Bailey, Stacy Fischer,Susan Bumsted, Kim Young, Josh Young, Janet Wright-Simpson, Cindy Cofer, Ronni Jolles, Betsy Hubbell, Patricia Pick, and Mac Lambert.
SPRING TRIP: All trip preparations are a green light at this point, except for finding a replacement for our benefit concert in Rome. Again, if anyone has any connections that might help us, please contact Dr. Lambert ASAP.
Cell phone service may not work in Europe. Families will have to check with their individual providers about options.
Sharon Roman is ordering green fleece jacket that students going on the trip will wear while traveling to make it easier for chaperones to spot them. The idea is to make these jackets “generic” as opposed to having any kind of reference to the spring trip so that students not participating in the trip will be able to use the jacket as well.
2007-08 YEARBOOK: For those of you who don’t know, two years ago the choral department was left out of the school yearbook, and last year, while that oversight wasn’t repeated, there were issues with what was put in. This past fall, Dr. Lambert, Cathy Rosenquist, and Cyndi Gray met with the new yearbook advisor, Kelly Mulligan, to address our concerns and to make certain the choral department was fairly and accurately represented.
Kelly has championed our cause and even attended, courtesy of Dr. Lambert, this year’s Madrigal Feaste, where she took pictures of the event. She sent a note to Dr. Lambert, which he read at the meeting, thanking him for the tickets and including a CD of the pictures she took. These will be uploaded to our Shutterfly account.
The even better news is that Kelly sought Dr. Lambert’s input and approval of the 2007-08 pages, so this year’s spread should be great!
Because Kelly has had to deal with the criticisms stemming from years in which she was not involved, the suggestion was made that, once the yearbook comes out, choral families send her emails thanking her for working with us to improve the coverage of our program. For future reference, her email address is kelly.mulligan@fcps.edu.
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Dr. Lambert reported that the Concert Choir received a $1200 donation from Cornerstone Church for its performance on January 12th. We also received a note from an 80-year-old couple who, though not members of the church, attended the concert and who were so impressed by the performance that they included a $15 donation for the choir!
Choir parent Betsy Hubbell reported that the residents of the Tysons Corner retirement facility, The Virginian, couldn’t say enough about the quality of the music the Madrigals performed on February 4th and the dedication and intellect of the students. A common refrain was that the Mads left the older generation feeling “good” about the younger generation!
WEBSITE: Stacy Fischer reported that she has received notices from our website server that our bandwidth usage is exceeding our allocated capacity, which means that the number of people visiting our site is continuing to grow (this is the second time this has occurred). Our website host is looking into the cost of increasing our capacity. Cathy Rosenquist reported that she has urged Cooper choir students and their parents to visit the site to get a better feel for what the program is all about. This could certainly account for the recent increase in traffic – but this is all great news!
SINGING VALENTINES: Dr. Lambert has already received quite a few of the pledged donations for Voicemale’s singing valentines, which were enjoyed by all the recipients. Apparently, a couple of teachers were not altogether pleased at the disruption of their classes, though Dr. Lambert had given a heads-up via email to all teachers that this was going to take place. Perhaps by 7th period, the teachers had merely reached their fill of delivered goodie bags, delivered poems (by the theatre kids), and delivered songs! In the end, all turned out fine.
DISTRICT XII CHORAL FESTIVAL:The big topic of discussion was the upcoming District Festival and our volunteer needs.
Cathy Rosenquist began by mentioning how nice it was that at the District Honors Chorus event on February 9th the Herndon HS choral boosters not only wore nametags but also red tops, which made it easy to identify those “in charge.” The suggestion that our volunteers wear the same color top was discussed and all felt green was the best choice. Also discussed was the idea that down the road perhaps we could offer “Guild” shirts of some kind for purchase by parents.
Volunteers have begun to sign up in response to the weekly email sent out on Sunday. As parents send their requests to Stacy Fischer, the list is updated on the website. Those wishing to volunteer should check the website to make certain they are using the most current list before making their choices. A link to the Festival webpage appears on the homepage.
Dr. Lambert gave Stacy a list of job descriptions that last year’s host school put together. This, along with the choir schedules, will be posted to the Festival webpage.
Role of Coordinators - To make sure their volunteers are all on board with what they have to do; updating instructions sheets if experience shows a better way to do something; to send a reminder email or make a reminder phone call to each volunteer the night before his or her shift; to help fill unclaimed spots, either by recruiting someone or, as a last resort, filling the spot themselves. Cathy asked Kim Bailey if she would be the coordinator for Score Tabulation, and Kim graciously agreed. Currently, the only vacant coordinator spot is Sight-Reading.
Registration Table (Coordinator: Cathy Rosenquist) – The table will be located across from the Drama Room, to keep noise and disruption outside the auditorium doors to a minimum. The thought was to place signs outside the school to help direct traffic flow – directors to enter the auditorium lobby doors/students to enter the doors across the courtyard to the left of the auxiliary gym. Early arrival students are to be sent to the cafeteria.
At the Table, directors check-in, receive their schedules, choose their sight-reading pieces, have their questions answered, and are assigned a student guide for each of their choirs. Director’s arrivals should be staggered, as opposed to an en masse arrival, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to handle. Two parent volunteers will be assigned here, one of whom can do double duty as auditorium door monitor.
The designated Warm-Up rooms for participating choirs are the Band and Choir Rooms.
Sight Reading Monitors (Coordinator:Vacant) – Sight reading will take place in Hertzler Hall. Choirs will be escorted to the room by student guides. Monitors are responsible for handing out the director’s chosen sight-reading example to the choir members, the judge will probably read instructions to each group (if not, the monitor will do that), collect music from the students before they leave the room, and bring the judge’s score sheet to the Tabulation Room (Dr. Lambert’s office).
Score Tabulation (Coordinator: Kim Bailey) – Tabulation will take place in Dr. Lambert’s office. Numbers will need to be entered into an excel program on his computer as well as handwritten on a hard copy. Two parents will work each shift, as a double check.
Snack Table (Coordinator: Cyndi Gray) - Some items will be purchased for resale and some items will be provided by parent volunteers via an email request. Table will be located around the corner from the Registration table, on the way to Hertzler Hall. Water for our parent and student volunteers will be kept behind the table. No meals will be provided for our volunteers, so eat before you come or bring a snack. Our practice rooms (off the hallway to the Choir and Band rooms) will be used for volunteers to store personal belongings, if need be.
Hospitality Room (Coordinators: Ronni Jolles/Cristi Leslie) – The hospitality room will be in the Chili Room, across from Hertzler Hall. The basic function of hospitality volunteers is to take care of whatever needs the judges may have, making sure their lunches and dinners are there on their scheduled breaks, keeping the area stocked with the snacks/drinks put out by the coordinators. There was discussion about whether anything was needed for the directors. Dr. Lambert says he has not made use of a hospitality room as he never has had the time. It was decided that water and perhaps fresh fruit be available. Dr. Lambert requested a $500 budget for hospitality, which he will request in a cash advance. That way, Ronni and Cristi need only to supply receipts to account for their expenditures instead of going through a reimbursement process.
Miscellaneous –
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Programs: Kim Bailey is in charge of the programs for the event. All choral directors are supposed to have their information to Dr. Lambert by Friday, which he will then send on to Kim. Kim will have Office Depot do the actual printing and assembly. RonArts will be recording the event and will be responsible for their own CD order forms.
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Transportation: Kim Young has volunteered, if need be, to pick up one of the judges at Dulles Airport on Thursday afternoon and drive him to Woodbridge, where he will be staying.
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Friday Set-Up: Dr. Lambert is planning on using the choir kids to help with set-up during their scheduled class periods. The first choir is scheduled to warm-up at 2:10, so Cathy is planning to arrive about 1:00 to set-up the registration table. Ronni and Cristi can get into Herztler Hall between 1:15 and 1:30 to begin their set-up.
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Communication: For ease of communication among volunteers during the Festival, Cyndi Gray has suggested we use walkie-talkies. She will bring in the 8 she has, but since all walkie-talkies operate on the same bandwidth, whoever has any can bring in theirs as well.
CHOIR ROOM REDECORATING: Redecorating is almost complete. The last two panels of pictures/awards are now hung, along with the Italy flag. After the meeting, the last banner will be hung and the first of 3 kickplates installed (we are waiting on delivery of the last two). Mini-blinds have also been ordered for Dr. Lambert’s office, though they might not be in in time to install them before the Festival.
Meeting was adjourned about 8:40 PM.
The next meeting will be:
Tuesday, March 25th at 7 PM at the school.Location TBA.
This will be our mandatory Spring Trip Meeting, which will replace our March Guild meeting.
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