ADDITIONAL BOARD ACTIONS - Continued from page 7 Jan. 6th board meeting following regular Tuesday night meeting:

President Bob Parker called this special meeting to pass on some comments to board members. This is a summary of President Parker's comments:

· Survey forms are due from the board on 1/1 3/04.
· Valentines will be $40 this year and members are urged to sell at least 2.
· Parker believes there are opportunities to work with the Metro chapter in some fashion.
· Parker will encourage Chapter visitations both by and to our chapter.
· The Mihmbro Contest should be resurrected to encourage more quarteting.
· Guy should spend more time with the leads in section rehearsal.
· Kelly Perry has been invited to attend an occasional meeting to teach techniques.
· John Kirwan will be requested to continue or resume duties as Chapter Safety Officer.

Jan 21st board meeting:

Presidents Comments (Bob Parker) - Our current membership is 66 and a breakdown by member type is available on the Society website. Steve Wyszomierski will be our Chapter Counselor and will be helping us with SWOT. A trip to see a chorus in Alexandria, VA was suggested. Parker raised the question as to how we could work more with Trinity School, such as sing at one of their shows, usher, advertise, etc. John Powers suggested that we could sing at one of their PTG meetings. Board members were asked to share chapter goals and strategies.

VP Membership and Development (Ralph Rock) - Rich Hammer will join our chapter. 300 flyers were distributed to the Sportman's club. A news release was provided to Gateway Publications. A meeting will be held with a reporter on 1/22/04 on chapter history and the release should be in 17 newspapers.

VP Music & Performance (Joe Veltre) - Joe will listen to quartets who want to sing valentines to assure we are properly represented. Rich Stevens will talk to Vaughn Eggert about encouraging quartets to form.

Committee action - Gordon Knapp stated we will use videotape to review and self-critique our show rehearsals in April. A motion was passed to have Joe Veltre attend director training in February.

Other Business - A motion was passed to have 2000 Chapter business/promotion cards developed and printed. A committee will be formed to inventory the store rooms. A recommendation was made that interested members could "shadow" the current Show Committee members to learn their jobs and perhaps take over in the future. General discussions were held concerning a suggestion to re-institute coffee break and the planned show ticket prices.


A History Note - by Tom Koch

In doing some of my research, such as for my "A Bit Of History" on page 3 or for my review of the "Pittsburghers" in my Quartet Beat article, I noted that the terminology "Parade" was used quite often. Not being of the old school, this threw me at first. I guessed that our old time barbershoppers didn't spend their time actually parading the streets, or anything like that. I called our longest time member (by years of service; 63 years!), Bill Hamilton for a clarification. Bill explained that back in our past, all barbershop shows were referred to as "Parades." This is because they were essentially a parade of quartets. Back in the 40's and early 50's, the "Q" in SPEBSQSA, still referred to "quartet." On any given show, at least 10 or more quartets would take to the stage. Barbershop choruses did not start to come into being until the 50's. Over the years, unfortunately (in my mind anyway), the emphasis has switched over to more chorus performance and less quartet. I, for one, wish we could get back to the "Q" in SPEBSQSA." Anyone else out there feel the same?

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