CHAPTER CHATS & REGION 12 NEWS!

Type of post:	News Item
Sub-type:	No sub-type
Posted By:	Petra "Piet" Chini
Status:	Current
Date Posted:	Mon, Jun 15 2020

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CHAPTER CHATS & Region 12 NEWS!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

REGION 12 NEWS!
Summer AIM

CHAPTER CHATS
Oregon Spirit
Pacific Empire
Mission Valley
Bella Acappella Harmony
San Francisco Sound Wave
Na Leo Lani
Song of Sonoma
Sacramento Valley Chorus
Bay Area Showcase
Harmony Fusion
Website Update

OTHER CONTENTS:
Chapter Happenings - Calendar
Region 12 News - continued
London Harmony Festival
Harmony College Northwest
2020-2021 RMT Contact list
Chapter Directory

Regional Newsletters:
Past Issues
Join our mailing
Website Link:
Pacific Shores Region 12
Sweet Adelines International

REGION 12 NEWS!

Hello Region 12!

As your new Education Coordinator, I wanted to share the news that unfortunately, we must cancel Summer AIM at the Village Green Resort in July. With that said, never fear- we are working on new plans for a fun, and exciting alternative Summer AIM event. Here is what you can count on:

There WILL be summer music education in Region 12
It WILL include Lea Beverley, Expression Judge
Everyone in Region 12 WILL be invited
Everyone in Region 12 WILL be able to enjoy learning from the comfort of your own home

Stay tuned for more details to come soon!

Alison Miller
Education Coordinator
Region 12

CHAPTER CHATS

OREGON SPIRIT NEWS

Here we are in our third month of sheltering, still singing and learning new skills. Like most choruses around the world, we have been blessed with having the technology to Zoom together. We keep each other close in our hearts while remaining in our homes and social distancing!
During these virtual rehearsals, we’ve not only been learning new songs and skills, but we’ve also had some wonderful guest stars this month, a privilege we would not have had if not for Zoom. We were so fortunate to have two awesome guest stars this last month.

5/19 - Paula Davis shared her wonderful guidance on how to authentically express the true meaning of the song. She took us through the multi-step process from feeling the song to conveying this to the audience. We will continue to work on these skills right now even as we are still singing from home.
5/26 - Kathleen Hansen gave us great tips on how to get the most beautiful, relaxed sound possible from our vocal instruments. This was good for all of us, and especially important for our new prospective members. We learned the mechanics of how our voice works and how to change it so that once we’re singing together again, we can ring those chords!!!

We’ve got many more awesome guest stars lined up for future rehearsals. Please feel free to join us, as these are “open” if any of you are interested. You can contact us through our Oregon Spirit Chorus Facebook page if you would like the Zoom link.

6/2 Anne Downton (Tuesday)
6/8 Elizabeth Davies (Monday)
6/17 Sandy Marron (Wednesday)
6/23 Ryan Heller (Tuesday)

We are not only adding to our knowledge during this time, but we are adding to our chorus. Our Membership/Audition Teams have been conducting virtual auditions, and we are proud to say we have five new prospective members who have been joining our Zoom meetings and break-out sectionals learning songs with us.
As you can see, June will be an extremely exciting month of new music, new skills and new members!!

It is sure great to check in with you all each month and see what is happening out there in Region 12 Chorusland. PEC recently took a chorus poll and we learned the same thing from our members, over 70% felt connecting with each other was most important to us right now. We are taking the time to learn more about each other at our Zoom rehearsals through weekly “Member Spotlight” and small chat rooms with 3 to 4 members checking in on each other.

PEC started this last month with our annual Recognition Celebration that usually happens the Wednesday night after Contest. This year’s theme was Louisville, Kentucky, or as Patty would say Lua-Vul. Patty presented an exciting virtual tour of the City that showed us it’s beauty and sights. We all wore our favorite Derby Hats and made ourselves hot browns and mint juleps, sharing recipes and thoughts of what it would have been like to travel and compete in this historic city. We also take this celebration time to recognize our past and future Team members and all of those who make things happen in our chorus life. We give Longevity Awards and we honor members like Rookie of the Year, Unsung Hero and our elected Empress of the Year for 2020 Kari Francisco. This year we created a new award in memory of longtime member, Lynn Knudsen. It’s the Mariposa Award given to the one who has blossomed into a Sweet Adeline since joining PEC, the first recipient is Lara Brown.

Patty and Team Leader Melany had another surprise for us this year with 2 special guests who joined our Zoom celebration. Our coach “Awesome Joe” Connolly stopped in and sang Happy Birthday to our Asst. Director Leah and member Marbeth. Then our good friend and past member, Sasha signed on from Italy, having to get up before dawn to make the meeting. It felt so good to see these two special friends and celebrate together.

Pacific Empire recently auditioned and voted in our first SIP new member, Karen Maass, all over Zoom Meetings! Karen recently came back to Sweet Adeline’s after singing with Fog City Harmonia for the past few years. We are honored to have her barbershop lineage and baritone expertise join our virtual risers. Welcome Karen!

2020 is a BIG Year for many including our graduates. PEC congratulates our 8 ^th Grade graduate, Carly Pennycook and our High School graduate, Stephanie Beard, lead of RetroActive Quartet. Director Patty and Carly led a PEC Car Parade past Stephanie’s house for her graduation day. There were balloons, honking, cowbell ringing and handmade signs sequined for a Sweet Adeline. Members were able to gather in a winery parking lot nearby afterward and visit for the first time in 80 days. We sang a little with masks on, RetroActive sang for us and we got to visit with Stephanie and hear about her plans for college. It felt good to see each other even if parking spaces apart, it reaffirmed how much we hope for a future when we can sing together again.

MVC
Cruising through May

As far as fun goes, May was a really fun month for us here at Mission Valley Chorus. We wore the colors of the Mexican Flag for Cinco de Mayo, had our virtual Installation Pot Luck where we awarded the SAY award, chose our Woman of Note, had presentations from a cartoonist/author, Tori Postma and Jim Arns.

At our Installation Pot Luck, we said goodbye to three management team members, Dale Summer, Loie Varner and Renee Schlatter and replaced them with Sai Champion (Logistics), Kay Kundinger (Secretary), and Carol Gerwitz (Marketing/PR) wishing them the best of luck in their new jobs.

Our SAY Award was presented to the amazing Sally Masson. What can we say about Sally that isn’t wonderful! She coordinated volunteers from MVC and BASC (being a dual member) to work at Shoreline for the past three years and raised $69,000 for MVC alone. She is an assistant director for MVC and BASC, dances in the front row for both choruses, is a member of the MVC Music Team and directs River Lights Chorus in Modesto. She also sings tenor in With a Twist Quartet. She is always at events energetically willing to help however she can. She is way overdue to be the Sweet Adeline of the Year. Congratulations, Sally!!! Oh, I forgot to mention that Sally also received the SAY Award from BASC this month! I gather she probably is the only woman to have received two SAY Awards simultaneously from her dual choruses!! Whooohooo!!!

This month we gave our Woman of Note recognition to Randy Sahae for her effort and contributions to making the virtual regional competition happen. What an amazing thing to do! Congratulations, Randy!!

We had a presentation from Grant Snider, cartoonist and author, which was very entertaining and fun. We will be having more “Author Nights” in the future where the Zoom will be open to all. Laurie King, a very popular author from this area of California, will chat with us on June 26 at 7 pm. How fun will that be!! Thanks, Carol Gerwitz, for creating and enticing these talented writers to visit with us.

Tori Postma joined us for a virtual presentation. She is an experienced judge, always has great information to give us and is a friend of our chorus. Also, later in the month, Jim Arns joined us during our regular Tuesday night meeting time and discussed the ins and outs of choosing music for your chorus, form, chords that ring, voice leading, scoring at contest, among other tidbits. We love when Jim visits because it’s always a good time.

On a somber note, there was a virtual celebration of life for a Mission Valley member, Mary Lou Bales, on May 30^th.

Hello from Bella! We hope all is well with everyone as we adjust to the new normal of chorus life.

In May we elected a new Vision Team and held a virtual "candlelight" induction ceremony. We also voted for our Bella award winners. Rickie received the Spirit of Bella award for going above and beyond the call of duty to promote our chorus in the community. Dessa was awarded the Top Banana trophy for outstanding accomplishment in the showmanship category. Each of these women bring much to our chorus with joy and enthusiasm. We welcomed our new Sunshine Team, Cindy VL and Shan, who will help us stay cheery as we move forward.

We continue to meet via Zoom. We begin with our meditation segment led by Lani, who does a great job of getting us centered, focused and calm. We have added an education piece led by Makaela who gave a very informative lesson on the origin of Barbershop.

Finally, members voted to accept a gracious invitation from Martha Segura and Southern Oregon Sound to sing and learn together as we enjoy each other's company... date TBD. We are so looking forward to this!

Hope you all stay healthy, positive and harmonious!

Our much-beloved member Dr. Marcia (“Marci”) McCowin passed away last month. She will be remembered for her mischievous sense of fun, her joy of singing (Tenor) and her unflagging efforts to live a rich life, despite a serious cancer diagnosis ten years ago.

A radiologist and professor of medicine at UCSF, Marci loved being a doctor, particularly teaching young medical students. Marci’s interests included singing with the San Francisco Sound Wave Chorus (and the Trolley Girls quartet), her church, and keeping up with her family, both near and far.

Marci lived in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset in a home often opened to her loving extended family. Her home seemed to be under constant renovation, so she was often on the move to seek out sunshine–whether that meant driving across town or outside the city limits to dine with a friend. Her naturally sunny disposition brightened chorus rehearsals and the dinners she often had with friends beforehand.

Marci will be remembered as a quiet warrior with a heart of gold, and she will be sorely missed on the San Francisco Sound Wave risers. May her memory be a blessing.

Aloha from Na Leo Lani!

To paraphrase Stephen Sondheim, “Good times, and bum times, we’ve seen ‘em all, and we’re still here!” Like choruses across the globe, NLL has gone virtual. In May, we held our Installation of Officers and Virtual Luau. The magic of Zoom allowed us to include mainland guests, including Region 12 favorites, Julie Starr and Angela Suraci. It was a poignant reunion of old friends and chorus members, reminding us of the long legacy of Na Leo Lani.

At the end of February, before the shutdown, we participated in an all-day event of women’s choruses on Oahu led by UH professor, Jace Saplan (pictured with NLL director, Christine Wee.) We performed what would have been our contest package. So glad we had a chance to show it off once, anyway!

2020 marks Na Leo Lani’s 45^th year. We’re taking this downtime to collect memories and photos from members, current and past, to produce a historical print-on-demand keepsake book—Memories of Na Leo Lani.

See YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdx9feUjtzI

Na Leo Lani sends the Spirit of Aloha to all of our Region 12 sisters!

Song of Sonoma Springing into Summer
Greetings from Sonoma County! As we head into warmer weather, our chorus and director are dreaming of, and even pining for, the opportunity to sing together in person once again. While we attempt to be patient, we have been doing lots of creative virtual singing and bonding activities.
Vicki Maybury, vocal coach, judge, and director of Skyline Chorus joined us for a complimentary coaching session focused on the Expression category. By the end of the session, Vickie had us all pondering the qualities of authenticity, vulnerability, and aligning all the musical elements to connect with our audience and communicate our message. Thank you to Vickie! In addition to our Zoom rehearsals and coaching, one of our generous chorus members, Suzy Martin, who happens to be a music teacher, is teaching our members a music theory course.

We’ve celebrated birthdays, held a highly competitive scavenger hunt, and enjoyed Cinco de Mayo together. We enjoyed the many gifts of our musicians, artists, crafters, poets, comedians, and much more at our Talent Show Night. And we’ve been catching up with each other through virtual chat time. We’ve also welcomed some new members to our leadership team.

This spring, we are thrilled to honor SOS’s Sweet Adeline of the Year, Claire Urquhart. She is our assistant director, and “she has taken on the role with grace and gusto!” Claire certainly walks the talk of Song of Sonoma. A quiet leader, Claire is passionate about singing, dedicated to growth, and a responsible and supportive sister. She thoughtfully leads our warm-ups and her humor and lovely Scottish accent are especially endearing.

We are looking forward to additional coaching opportunities in the upcoming months, and we are ever hopeful that we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary together and in-person this October.

SACRAMENTO VALLEY CHORUS has kept very busy this past month in a variety of different directions. Our beloved director, Dede Nibler, has a Monday - Friday Zoom class called "Wake Up With Dede". She gives us a 30 minute morning vocal lesson along with stretching exercises. She encourages all of SVC to maintain a healthy voice during our physical break. Piet Chini and Deb Gordon have a Thursday morning coffee gathering on Zoom. They exchange recipes and keep in touch with our fellow singing sisters. Our own Loring Church started a book of the month club. Since we have had oodles of time to devour so much literature, a book club seemed to be a perfect fit. Plus we have a monthly SVC Stitchers group that shares quilting, knitting, stitching, and other creative projects. All of these Zoom groups are open to members of the region. Check our web calendar for times and days and contact information.

A week ago, we had our Installation Zoom meeting with our officiator, Barbara Vander Putten. Pattie Bauer received the Sweet Adeline of the Year Award for 2019. Pattie has been a constant force for many years keeping all our monetary transactions running smoothly, as our Finance Coordinator, she is also a bass section leader.

Congratulations Pattie Bauer

We also thanked our outgoing music and management teams and welcomed our Management and Music Teams for the term 2020-2021

And while we have had almost 12 weeks of staying at home rehearsals, we welcomed our newest member, Michelle Cordova - Bass.

Being a Sweet Adeline is not only a privilege to be able to sing with a talented group of wonderful ladies, but it also helps to take care of each other both mentally and physically during this musical pause. We care about each other and make strides to keep our finger on the wellness pulse.

We look forward to being able to touch and hug our singing sisters soon. Everyone stay healthy and wear your masks while you are out and about the community.

It's amazing that another month of virtual rehearsals has gone by. Bay Area Showcase has been keeping busy at our rehearsals each week. We've had a number of guest coaches. We learned about the International Phonetic Alphabet in a three week series given by one of our former members, Daphna Rahmil. It was interesting to learn about a way to specify sounds so that the result is more consistent, no matter the primary language of the singer. We also had an enlightening class from Ryan Heller about the differences between barbershop and classical singing. As part of our homework between rehearsals, we have been studying a number of great videos from Kathleen Hansen of the San Diego chorus. Kathleen came to one of our rehearsals to work directly with us as well, so we had the opportunity to ask questions. We will continue to work with her warmup videos over the next weeks.

Our director, Julie Starr, continues to give us opportunities to improve our skills. We have weekly skill building exercises and have been working on our music, both as a whole chorus and in sections. We've even reviewed our choreo in breakout rooms! Several members are doing individual work to record refreshed versions of our learning tracks so they match changes that have been made over time. We've been learning a new tag each month as well as singing several variations of happy birthday songs.

From a non-singing perspective, we've been getting to know our members by spotlighting one each week. It's been fascinating to hear the variety of experiences and backgrounds of our sisters in song. We've set aside time each week to allow for socializing and sharing in breakout rooms. We've also taken the pulse of the attendees periodically to see how everyone is coping.

Between rehearsals, members continue to host coffee chats, tea parties, storytelling evenings, and more. On May 30th, we celebrated the birthday of long-time member Mary Lou Bales, recently deceased. Her husband and daughters provided a wonderful video and audio remembrance over Zoom. We are really trying to make good use of our time apart while understanding that virtual rehearsals may be difficult for some. We work to keep in touch with those who are missing. We all look forward to when we can be together again.

CHAPTER CHATS

Mask makers, mask makers, making much masks…
Harmony Fusion is so proud of our four merry mask makers (all Leads!), who have been busy these past couple of months while sheltering in place. As of May, they have donated over 200 masks to non-profit organizations, hospitals, and friends in need.

Garrienne sewed for the “Auntie’s Sewing Squad” out of Los Angeles, and made over 100 masks, the first shipment of which went to Florida to the Farm Worker’s Association. She is now working on another order for the Navajo nation in Sacramento. "I feel that I need to do something to help in some small way," said Garrienne.

Our newest Lead, Tracey Torola, made 35 masks for the employees at a retirement center she used to manage in Kansas, while Vera Kirichenko made 80 masks that went to the hospital where she used to work. Finally, LeeAnne Boles Sadilek made masks for the staff at the Peninsula Humane Society where she volunteers.

Meanwhile, like all other choruses, we’ve been Zooming every Monday night to keep our voices in shape, working contest songs and choreo, and learning new songs. We even had our annual installation dinner and year-end recognitions online as we donned silly hats. In the coming weeks, our creative-thinking director Barb, will begin offering music education meetings via Zoom on a separate weeknight.

This Mini Chapter Chat is an opportunity to update the regional membership on some special new things on the website.

A big thank you to Georgia Sutherland, who is the regional historian, she just finished posting all the Quartet and Chorus Competitors photos from 1990 through to 2019. Now Georgia has taken on the project of uploading the "scrapbooks" to the website. The first one is titled Lighthouse Emblem.

The photos and scrapbook links can be found under ABOUT in the content margin at the top of the website. Take a look at all the pictures - you will need to be logged in as a member to see all that is available.

Let us know if we can make it better.

The Region 12 Chapter Leadership Directory is almost complete. This directory focuses on each chapter's leadership team and lists out contact information. This Directory can be found on the top comment box of the Membership List in the member-only section. - Region 12 -Chapter Leadership 2020-2021 Directory. So far the following chapters have submitted their leadership rosters:

Bay Area Showcase
Bella Acappella
Greater Eugene
Harmony Fusion
Oregon Spirit
Mendo Lake
Mission Valley
Na Leo Lani
River Lights
Sacramento Valley
San Francisco Soundwave
Sea Breeze Harmony
Song of Sonoma

This directory feeds directly into Committee & Teams then is broken down into positions and mailing lists, so it is very important that we have this information as soon as possible. For instructions and a look at the directory Region 12 -Chapter Leadership 2020-2021 Directory

*Please note updating your officers to Sweet Adelines International does not update our Pacific Shores Region 12 website or visa versa.

Great news all the Chapter Membership Rosters are now available in the Member Only section on the Member List webpage.

Who is your Chapter Representative? If you are a non-HarmonySite webserver user, your Chapter Representative (s) have the ability to update your membership roster and calendar events on the Region 12 website. If you have questions or need assistance contact webmaster@saireg12.org

We are working hard to make sure you have what you need on the website. Let us know if there is something you would like to see. Contact Piet, Debi or Kevran through webmaster@sairegion12.org

CHAPTER HAPPENINGS

NEW - Request

Have a special visitor coming to your ZOOM rehearsal? Are your rehearsals open to all Region 12 members? Post your event information on the Regional Calendar.

Here is the link to the Full Region 12 Calendar - CALENDAR
and the link for the Region 12 /SAI Calendar: EVENTS

EVENTS CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
PLEASE STAY SAFE AND TAKE CARE
LOOKING FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN
WE CAN MEET AND SING TOGETHER AGAIN!

REGION 12 NEWS - continued!

LONDON "SING IN HARMONY" FESTIVAL 2021 - July 17-23

Question for you: Would you like to be a part of a large, 100 voice chorus of Sweet Adeline singers from Region 12 and Region 13, that will sing in London and Oxford, England next year?

Directed by Region 12 Directors - Dede Nibler and Kathy Scheel
and featuring International Quartet Champions - Lustre

For details: https://harmony-travel.net/LondonFestival/Paris%20Tour

REGIONAL CONTACT LISTS

2020-2021 REGIONAL MANAGEMENT TEAMPiet Chini - Communications
Kathy Scheel - Directors
Alison Miller - Education
Mary Mamer - Events
Geri Miller-Reidel - Finance
Kevran Day - Marketing
Lynda Casillas - Membership
Birgit Andersen - Team Coordinator

RMT email: rmt@sairegion12.org

Pacific Shores Region 12 Chapters
Link to Region 12 Chorus Webpage
Take a look - Awesome map of our region - Links to Chapter websites

Bay Area Showcase Chorus			www.singharmony.org
Bella Acappella Harmony Chorus			www.bellaacappella.com/
California HEAT Chorus			www.californiaheatchorus.com/
Diablo Vista Chorus			www.diablovistachorus.com/
Greater Eugene Chorus			www.thegreatereugenechorus.org/
Harmony Fusion Chorus			www.isingharmony.com/
High Desert Harmony Chorus			www.highdesertharmony.net/
Mendo-Lake Chorus			www.mendolakesingers.wixsite.com/mendolake
Mission Valley Chorus			www.missionvalley.org
Na Leo Lani Chorus			www.naleolani.org/
Northern Gateway Chorus			www.northerngatewaychorus.org/
Oregon Coast Chorus
Oregon Spirit Chorus			www.oregonspirit.org/
Pacific Empire Chorus			www.pacificempire.org/
River Lights Chorus			www.riverlightschorus.com/
Sacramento Valley Chorus			www.sacramentovalleychorus.com/
San Francisco Sound Wave Chorus			www.sfsoundwave.net/
Sea Breeze Harmony Chorus			www.seabreezeharmony.wordpress.com/
Sierra Gold Chorus			www.sierragoldchorus.org/
Song of Sonoma Chorus			www.songofsonoma.org/
Sounds of the Valley Chorus			www.soundsofthevalley.org/
Southern Oregon Sound Chorus			www.southernoregonsoundchorus.com/

Submissions for the Chapter newletter CHAPTER CHATS
is due on the 1st of month, published around the 10th.
Submission for the region newsletter REGION 12 NEWS
is due on 15th, published around the 20th.

Please send your article to: reg12eblast2gmail.com
If you have questions please send them to: communications.coord@sairegion12.org

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