Where do I fit into my chapter?

by Tom Vizzi, Buffalo Billboard Editor, Buffalo, NY

What can we do to improve our chorus?

Am I a Competitor, Leader, Hobbyist, Affiliator or a Tag-a-long? "Where do I fit in my chapter"? Every chapter’s membership roster consists of individuals who fit into one or more of the above categories.

Improve Chapter Membership
Improve Chapter quality, attract singers, not just numbers.

This is not one of those panic, browbeating articles but it is an article of enlightenment.

Last fall at the SLD COTS school, I heard a talk on the membership structure of our Chapters. This talk brought out the fact that each Chapter has members that fall into 5 categories;

  • The Competitor- he’s the guy that wants to win! He is willing to sacrifice hard work to accomplish his goal.
  • The Leader- this guy is willing to be an officer, a committee chairman, section leader, and do anything he can to help out the Chapter. He’s not too sure where he stands when it comes to competition.
  • The Hobbyist- this guy loves to sing it’s his hobby! He’s been told that he has a nice singing voice and he probably does! He’s not interested in competition, he just wants to sing!
  • The Affiliator- this guy just wants to belong. He comes to the weekly rehearsals, sings, and has a great time. He hardly ever volunteers to help the Chapter in anyway but, just wants to belong.
  • The Tag-a-long this guy goes a long with anything the Leader says, does what ever the Hobbyist wants to do and just tags a long with the Chapter flow.

What is your Chapter attitude and where do you fit in!

Take a long look at your Chapter, see if you can recognize any of the above member types. Now ask yourself, "where do I fit in"! Is their room for improvement?

A chapter full of competitors is a chapter that wants to go to a national convention. And why not! In our lifetime, how many opportunities do we get to do something that really makes a difference. Think how exciting it would be to travel to a national convention and compete on stag with the best in the world. Wow! Win or loose, it’s the experience that counts.

The non-competitors in our Chapters need to analyze ourselves and ask the question; Why do I belong to my chorus? Our common denominators are that we all love to sing, and entertain or we would not be here in the first place. Would our audiences rather hear the blah "Blahville Harmonizers" from Blahville, USA or the exciting Vocal Majority chorus?

The Youth of the world are our future!

Our youth today, want to win! They are growing up with competition. A chorus can not attract a youthful singer if they have the "Blahville attitude". Our choruses must meet the new millenium with a year 2000 attitude.

Yes you can teach an old dog new tricks. If we want to attract youth of the 21st century, we must become a chorus, a District and a Barbershop Society of the 21st century.

Let’s all sing with excitement, enthusiasm, focus, and then we will all have more fun. I for one have changed my mind about my attitude. I have decided to move up to the competitor level.

It seems to me, that if viewing a rainbow is exciting, imagine what it must be to find the gold.

HR

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