Present:
Tom Noble – President
Jack Martin – Immed. Past Pres.
Lee Taylor – Vice President
Jim Gallagher – Treasurer
Rex Touslee – Acting Secretary
Carroll – Festival Chairman –
East
Jim Milner – Festival Chairman – West & Webmaster
Raymond Schwarzkopf – Asst.Festival
Chairman – East
Frank Fliszar – Membership Chairman
June Noble - Registrar
Quorum called by President- 3:05 pm
Reading of a
letter from Pat Lamphier presenting a suitable gavel for the President’s
use.
Reading of Departed Friends:
Bobbi
Bostick – Tenor of Cracker Jills; Gerry Carroll Jr.; Bob
Whitledge, Bass of Gentlemen’s Agreement;Cal RevisSang a respectful
rendition of The Old Songs.
Minutes of previous meeting offered.
All agreed to dispense with reading
same – all had received same and no additions or corrections were needed.
Treasurer’s Report – Gallagher.
All received a copy, which will
become a part of these minutes. Moved
and
seconded to receive as presented.Passed.
Actions taken since last
meeting.
Approved to
relocate the Spring, 2017 Festival to the Holiday Inn and Suites, Mesa, AZ
Continued discussion
among the Board re: retaining the article authored by Val Hicks on
website.
Pres. Tom did
not present the Harmony Univ. class at
International as intended due to overlapping of the class with contest
sessions.
Flyers have
been distributed at the BHS International and at Harmony Univ.
The annual
report of corporate officers was made by Stu Willcox
to the state of Navada.
West Festival – Jim Milner
Expense of Embassy Suites, Tempe finally became more
than the Board felt was acceptable.Negotiations
with
the Holiday Inn and Suites, Mesa
were acceptable when they offered their Grand Ballroom for $200 a day and
reduced
the room rate by $5 to $89 plus tax a night to compensate for not having
an
airport shuttle.All
other needed
amenities are available.Discussion
of
using Uber (taxi) followed.Also
–
possible discounted fares from Supershuttle with multiple riders.
Discussion of using
SuperShuttle
(about $20 per rider) and other public transportation followed.Discussion of closeby restaurants.Contract has been signed .
East Festival- Gerry
Carroll
Gerry and Raymond met with the
Manager of the Best Western – Hillside
regarding our using this facility
again – September, 2016:They
were informed that the same room rate
would apply for 2016- $69 per night and no charge of the meeting room.But beginning with this festival
they would
provide only bottled beer or sodas and that we might have to change rooms
if
the hotel was able to rent the larger room to others.Contract was signed for 2016.Negotiations for 2017 will be initiated soon
after the current gathering.
Gerry’s chapter has offered to allow
us to use their sound system (co-owned with Jim Jarosz’s quartet) for a
donation to the chapter, rather than renting equipment.We will be trying it out this event.Tom noted that the company we had been
renting a system from is requiring insurance coverage, in addition to the
rental fee..
Gerry
recognized the help he has received from Raymond Schwarzkopf and Dave
Brady (golf).
Raymond gave a report of the
quartets he has lined up for the Sat. night show.As in the past, the Sweet Adelines have an
area wide training session on the weekend of this Festival and so no SAI
quartets are available.Raymond
has been able to get commitments from
four quartets.
Webmaster’s Report – Jim
Milner
He has put Paul Olguin’s woodshedding
presentation on the website.Asked
for
permission to put two You Tube links on the website.(Approval was provided.)Tom noted that Jack Baird’s Old Song Library
has been returned to the BHS website.
Membership Report- Frank Fliszar
Now have 323 members.Lost
one: Dave Lyman, Phoenix, AZ.Last
Festival there were 8 new members
signing up.
Registration Report-June Noble
Discussed the handout used at the
Registration table.June
noted that
donations increased.Noted
that the use
of the Thermometer of Donations
seems to have led to more awareness of need and an increase of donations.All agreed to continue this.
Gerry commented that he objected to
the number of non-members who attended the Saturday night show without
donating
something.Tom
commented that the
public needs to be encouraged to attend.Raymond stated that he has sensed an increased fervor with the
Society
for quartet singing and that we should encourage the public to attend our
shows, especially local BHS members, but we need to encourage them to
donate to
the costs of presenting the Parade.
Gerry stated that he felt very
strongly that the use of the term ‘woodshedding’ should be discouraged
when
inviting barbershoppers to gather with us, as it describes only one aspect
of
what we do at the BQPA.And
that term
is often intimidating to some.
Jim Milner stated that it is his opinion that the BHS trend is
now to more and more difficult arrangements that are beyond the abilities
of
the majority of its membership.He
encourages
all to view the presentation of Paul Olguin now on the website.
Lee Taylor suggested that we should
emphasize singing and not performance.’
Tom Noble:
Last item re:Registration –
we need to
order more pins.Moved
and seconded to
do so -
Jim Gallagher was asked to order
100 pins, and agreed.
Communications Report
Big screen advertisements will
again appear at Harmony Inc. International.(Tom has paid $20.00 for these.Moved and seconded that Tom be reimbursed.Passed.)Thanks to Frank Fliszar for posting to Google Group and Facebook
for
BQPA.
Jack Martin: will there be advertising.
in the IL District’s Attacks and Releases??Raymond Schwarzkopf:‘That
may happen‘.
Tom and Ray:We
should try to get something in all of the
BHS District bulletins.
Old Business
Tom said that he has not been able
to transfer the ownership of the BQPA Google Group to himself as
Moderator, but
intends to follow up on that item shortly.
New Business
It was decided to table until later
in the meeting Jack Martin’s item, in which he suggested that
BQPA/Pioneers
consider having a room at the BHS conventions.
Raymond Schwarzkopf: Please spell his name correctly, with a “kopf”
in BQPA/Pioneers documents.
Re:Proposal to
consider cooperation with
AHSOW.AHSOW can be seen as a
“farm
team” for BQPA/Pioneers, in that AHSOW teaches and initiated quartet
singers -
we should cooperate in promoting and advertising our respective
activities.There was much
discussion of
the Proposal outline as presented.It
was
emphasized that there is no intent to merge the two organizations.(The complete Proposal is incorporated into
these minutes, below.)
Jim Gallagher: Suggested
that BQPA supply AHSOW with our
pins as a promotion device for BQPA, the pins to be presented to 4-part
AHSOW
qualifiers.
Jack Martin:strongly
disagrees with that. – stating that
the pins are for members only.
Gerry Carroll:agrees
with Jack.General agreement
among others: that BQPA
pins are for members only.
Jack Martin:“We
don’t want BHS to feel that we
(BQPA/Pioneers) are “on their side.”Raymond believes that the BHS does not have BQPA/Pioneers on their
radar.This devolved into
general
discussion the about relationship between BQPA/Pioneers and BHS, not
resulting
in action.
All members were encouraged to
respond to BHS Strategic Planning survey, currently running.
Jack Martin moved that BQPA not
associate with AHSOW.No
second.
Jim Milner moved that this item be tabled.Jack Martin seconded.
Discussion: Lee Taylor: questioned
need to have a formal action to have a relationship with AHSOW.
Milner: withdraws his motion.
Lee Taylor:Tom
needs direction from Board.Moved
that this Board validate Tom’s effort
to proceed as described in the first sentence of the Proposal.Seconded by Milner.
(First sentence of the proposal:
“To cooperate with AHSOW in promoting each other’s events and activities,
for
the mutual benefit of both organizations and all of our respective
members.”
Discussion: Jack Martin expresses
concern re: Tom‘s report that BHS officials had given some endorsement of
the
joint efforts of BQPA and AHSOW.Tom
clarified:
That is overstating it.He
had
some very brief discussions only, during which Marty Monson, Donny Rose
and Don
Fuson expressed pleasure at the idea.
Vote:3 Ayes, no Nays.Jack Martin abstained.(Gerry Carroll having left the
meeting at
approximately 5:00 pm, 3 of
4 voting members voting “Aye” is taken to represent passage of the
motion.)
Splitting of Secretary’s Duties.
Tom Noble:Ed
Simons has submitted letter of
resignationTom and Rex
have discussed
a job sharing proposal that Rex will do the on-site note taking of both
meetings and Ed would continue with
the handling of the new membership applications and mailing of the pins
and
that Ed has accepted that
concept.Ed
will send checks to Jim Gallagher and send the application to Frank
Fliszar.
Jim Gallagher:moves
that Ed’s
resignation be accepted and Rex be appointed Secretary on that basis.Jack Martin seconds.Approved.
Discussion of Keith Eckhardt’s Proposal that BQPA/Pioneers should
consider designing a one day seminar for beginning quartetters and make it
available to all the districts.
Raymond:Not
enough info. to make a decision
Tom :Who
would take responsibility for this ?
Jim M. :Why are
the BHS quartet coaches doing this
??
Jim G. :There
would be difficulty and expense getting
a room at conventions to do this
Raymond:volunteered
to contact Keith to clarify and expand on his idea.Accepted – no action taken
Jack withdraws his motion that BQPA
get a room at BHS events--No action taken
Jim M.:Paul Ludwig has asked for help with the selection of
judges for the Friday night contests.Discussion of the scoring sheet used.General support expressed for continuing same.
Suggestions from Raymond included
asking barbershoppers who are not BQPA/Pioneers members, who would be
enthusiasts if they are exposed to us.He also suggested asking members who have NOT put their names in
the
bags for the contest.He
emphasized that
the judges MUST be consistent in judging all the quartets on the same
criteria.
Adjourned
Proposal:
To cooperate with AHSOW
in promoting each other’s events and
activities, for the mutual benefit of both organizations and all of our
respective members.
AHSOW (the Ancient Harmonious Society Of Woodshedders) is
focused on encouraging and teaching the woodshedding variety of singing
barbershop style songs.
The Barbershop Quartet Preservation Association is
differently focused.We
concentrate on
the preservation of barbershop quartets, and singing in quartets in the
varied
ways our style of music can be enjoyed.We do some woodshedding, but also – and more importantly –
encourage the
singing of established, classic arrangements as well as tags.AHSOW frowns on singing tags or existing
arrangements.
Rationale: As Lance Lubin,
President of AHSOW has suggested,
AHSOW might be seen as a “farm team” for BQPA/Pioneers.They hone the ears of barbershop singers to a
point sufficient to allow ear singing of harmonies against a known melody.If the singers’ ears are
developed to that
level, they surely are then capable of singing – with us in BQPA/Pioneers
–
established arrangements with which they’re familiar, as well as the tags
many
of us love to sing.And
they’re already
versed – at least to some extent – in the details and etiquette of quartet
singing.
Particulars: It’s proposed that the two organizations
exchange press releases announcing and providing details of our respective
activities and events, without exchanging our membership lists.In conversations among Raymond Schwarzkopf, Lance Lubin and
myself, we came to realize that
the proposed cooperation represents a “win” for both of our organizations,
and
a way to promote the expansion of barbershop quartetting beyond what’s
done in
the chapters of the BHS.
We have even had positive responses from Donnie Rose (Dean of
Harmony University), Marty
Monson (CEO of the Barbershop Harmony Society),
and Don Fuson, the President of BHS,
when the proposed cooperation was mentioned in passing conversations at
Harmony
University 2016.
Lance Lubin has received enthusiastic approval from the
AHSOW Board Of Directors for this proposed cooperation, and has forged
ahead
with efforts on AHSOW’s part.He
has
contacted Webmaster Jim Milner,
asking that the damaged link on our website to AHSOW’s be repaired, and
he’s
asked the AHSOW Webmaster to add a BQPA/Pioneers link to their website.In addition, although he cannot
attend this
festival, he has joined the BQPA/Pioneers as a new member.
I have responded by sending our current flyer and song list
to Lance, for incorporation in AHSOW’s information, and I subsequently
sent a
press release, specifically detailing our Chicago Festival.
Keith
Eckhardt’s Proposal:
BQPA/Pioneers should consider designing a one day seminar
for beginning quartetters and make it available to all the districts.
We could present it as a regional kind of class. BQPA members within
reasonable
driving distance could attend as coaches and as stand-in parts to complete
quartets. The class should put the beginners in multiple configurations of
singers.
It could also include several short general coaching sessions and some
craft
instruction.
This group (BQPA/Pioneers) certainly has the knowledge to
create a terrific agenda for such a class. I
proposed this to the FWD years ago when I
proposed the Platoons, but they never got down to the beginning level. Given the military names of the
Brigades and
Platoons, I proposed the one day beginners classes be called Quartet Boot
Camps, but that still didn't get anything going.
Such a class could get the BQPA some very positive
recognition too.
