BQPA/PIONEERS

Barbershop Quartet Preservation Association

MINUTES OF GENERAL MEETING

Chicago - September 10, 2016

DRAFT

Present:

Tom Noble – President

Jack Martin – Immediate Past President

Lee Taylor – Vice President

Rex Touslee – Secretary

Jim Gallagher – Treasurer

Jim Milner – VP West & Chairman of West Festival

Gerry Carroll – VP East & Chairman of East Festival

Call to order: 10:00 am

The Old Songs was reverently sung in remembrance of departed friends and members.

Actions taken since last meeting

• New link is now on the BHS website for Jack Baird’s Old Songs archive:
• More than 900 vintage recordings of early twentieth-century quartet songs
• The Board remotely approved the change of venue for the West Festival to the Holiday Inn and Suites in Mesa, AZ
• Tom’s intended presentation to give a picture of the BQPA at the BHS International in July did not take place due to conflict in schedules.

Spring Festival – Jim Milner

• Has signed contract with Holiday Inn Suites in Mesa, AZ for April 5-8, 2017. Room rate is $89 per night and $200 per day for a large room for 3 days.
• Rooms must be reserved by March 30, 2017 and they will honor that rate 3 days before and three days after our event.
• Room rate was reduced to make allowance for no airport shuttle being offered.
• Discussion of transportation alternatives – Light rail – Super Shuttle, which can be reserved in advance.
• Hotel has complimentary breakfast and a bar.
• Many good restaurants close-by.
• The Arizona Quartet Club will again host the Wednesday night Italian dinner and draw contest at the American Italian Club.

Current Festival – Gerry Carroll

• The sound system being used this weekend is co-owned by a local chapter and member Jim Jarosz’s quartet (Jukebox) rather that the previous $400 rental system.
• Problems with hotel this weekend were noted: water and beer not replaced.
• Gerry asked that any problems be reported to him rather than to hotel staff
• Gerry urged all members to be generous in tipping for the hotel staff
• Write a letter or email of thanks and compliments to hotel following this weekend.

• In the absence of Talent Chair Raymond, Tom Noble reported that the names of the quartets slated to appear early on the Saturday evening show were not available. However, our headliners will be Easy Days quartet, from Wisconsin.

Registrar’s report – June Noble

• Friday night – 59 members present and 11 new members signed up
• 2015 there were 67 members attending.
• Recognized Jim Angel who produced pictures and write-ups for the Festival
• New pins will be ordered
• Commented that donations must continue at the increased level
• Attendees of the Saturday night show must be reminded to donate
• Reminded members that shirts and other items may be purchased on line. Link on website.

Communications – Tom Noble

• BQPA did not buy big screen advertising at BHS International 2015, and this will be reconsidered at the April, 2017 meeting.
• There have been BQPA/Pioneers ads in the past two issues of the MAD Bulletin – MidL-Antics. We have had mentions there before.
• We have also had some mention of BQPA in the BHS Live–Wire publication.
• Advised attendees that it is suggested that the use of the term “wood-shedding” be discouraged when encouraging barbershoppers to attend our gatherings
• It can be a disincentive to folks who don’t enjoy that aspect of what we do, and it gives an incomplete connotation about BQPA.

Other Topics:

• John Olson has donated 3 comedy quartet CDs, that are being raffled as a benefit for BQPA/Pioneers

• Paul Ludwig discussed the challenges of finding quartets for the Spring Saturday night show, as many of the active quartets in the AZ area are not registered with the BHS.

• Gerry Carroll noted that the Fall Festival also has difficulty finding quartets, especially SAI quartets, due to the educational event typically held on the same weekend as our gathering.

• Tom explained that Ed Simons had resigned the Secretary position, but has agreed to retain that portion of his duties that he can handle from home, which is the handling of new member applications and sending out membership pins.
• Rex Touslee has accepted the Secretary’s position for meeting attendance and minutes.

• Frank Fabian: Do we get membership applications from people who found the application form on our website? Ans: Yes, although we don’t know if they found the application directly because of the website itself, or because of social media links to our site, or because of advertising, or because they were encouraged by established members to join via the application form on our website…

• Tom outlined the Proposal the Board of Directors has considered and to which we’ve agreed, providing for limited cooperation with AHSOW in promoting each other’s activities and events.
• This grew out of discussions at the recent BHS Harmony University, amongst Raymond Schwarzkopf, Tom Noble and Lance Lubin, the President of AHSOW.
• Lance had realized, and expressed to Tom and Raymond, that AHSOW – in effect – represents a “Farm Team” for BQPA, since both have the common interest of singing in quartets, but each has distinctly different goals and objectives.
• Our cooperation is limited to jointly promoting each other’s events. There will be no other affiliation or sharing of membership lists.

• Jim Milner – Two new links are being established on our website, to YouTube presentations, representing excellent examples of the barbershop style:
• Acoustics, singing “Irish Lullabye”
• Vocal Spectrum, singing “It’s You” (from “Music Man”)

Adjournment: 11:05 am