Pitch! Frank Glas 2017 Barbershopper of the Year! Carrie s Cues. President s Pen

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1 Volume 12, Issue 8 Changing lives through song Mar. 4, 2018 Frank Glas 2017 Barbershopper of the Year! Carrie s Cues Songs for Monday: Happy Together Sing! Do You Hear the People Sing Ten Minutes Ago Once Upon A Dream Rhythm of Love President s Pen On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 28, we received an inviting us to COM- PETE at International. To say the least, Carrie, the Board, and the Music Team are enthused about West Towns returning to the International stage. We will discuss this as a chorus on Monday, March 5, so please make every attempt to come to rehearsal. The discussion and decision will have a significant impact on what we do over the next few months. The first question is "Do we want to go?" We need to have enough singers to do this right, and this offer is coming late in terms of both planning and preparation. Here is what we know now: The Chorus Contest is on Friday, July 6, 2018 Carrie would like us to be in Orlando for a rehearsal on Thursday, July 5 from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. I have attached a prelimi- nary estimate put together by Carrie outlining what it might cost each of us to go to Orlando and be there from Thursday, July 5th until Saturday July 7th.. This is only an estimate! The numbers indicate that it will cost us a minimum of $657 per person to go. We would be replacing The Alliance (JAD), performing in position 14 Chorus Contest Barbershop Harmony Society (session one). The Board and Music Team feel that we need at least 30 singers to go. To have 54 men on the risers as we did on Monday would be outstanding. Carrie would like us to sing the new songs but that is still to be decided. We all need to step up (Continued on page 2) Inside this issue: Birthdays 2 Horizon Fundraiser 2 Business Briefs 3 Seasoned Sound 4 Spring Show Prep 5 Calendar 6 Board & Music Team 6

2 Page 2 President s Pen (continued) Other issues Additional rehearsals may be necessary. The spring show will be impacted, but nothing has been decided. Ad sales and tickets sales for the spring show suddenly become very relevant for helping with costs. Monday Please come to rehearsal prepared with questions and an open mind. Nothing has been decided yet. Check your calendars and check- (Continued from page 1) books now. We need at least 30 our game if this is going to happen yes commitments to go. We need to respond with a yes or no answer this week We will have more specific information on arrangements and requirements. Please save your questions until Monday, and do not fill up Carrie's and Craig's inboxes. is a terrible way to have a discussion of this magnitude. Please share this with members who do not regularly access their . Thanks, Jim Brown, President Horizon Church Dinner & Auction Fundraiser Mar. Birthdays 10: Don Davia 18: Peter Kendall 22: Bill McKnight 30: Joe Tomecek Jim Williams Jr. HorizonChurch Invites You to Our Cinco de Mayo Dinner & Auction Fundraiser Saturday, May 5, 2018, 6-9 pm (doors open at 5:30 pm) Horizon Community Church rd Street Downers Grove, IL Tickets: $25 - to order, call (630) Or bev@horizoncc.org Ellyn and I are putting together a table of 8 - if anyone would like to join us to help Horizon, please let me or Ellyn know. That is the same day we have our coaching session right next door (at Embrace) so make a day of it and stay right in the neighborhood. Bob Nicodem

3 Page 3 Business Briefs (2/26/18) GUESTS: Josh Babista, Earl Fuhrman (former member), & Marv Boehm RENEWALS: None Don Davia: Jim Deegan is in the hospital with Pulmanary Fibrosis. Doctors are working on trying to fix this. As such, Jim will not be singing with us on the Spring show. Please wish Jim a speedy recovery. CHICAGO STEEL HOCKEY: Flyers were available Monday night outlining the ways you can buy tickets. Please be advised, everyone who sings must buy a ticket. Additional tickets for guests or friends are also available. Details on the flyer. SPRING SHOW TITLE is: Sing Out The News! ADVERTISING FOR SPRING SHOW: Ben Dirks: Flyer for the Spring Show has been created. Social Media training will occur on 3/12. David Wilner, Exec Producer of Harmony Sweepstakes has agreed to us advertising West Towns Spring show in their program for their annual Harmony Sweepstakes Festival at Wentz Hall on Saturday March 24th. For $250 we receive a 1/2 page ad in their program, our information shared in their newsletter (reaching 2,000 readers), all of their social media blasts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), their websites and to top it all off, David himself will promote the show and our chorus from the stage of Wentz Hall as he emcees. SAVE THE DATE: Saturday, July 14th we will have Paul Ellinger at the Horizon Church to have him conduct his SUPERCHARGING YOUR CHAP- TER seminar. Please note, this is NOT a singing coaching session. Paul will be helping us learn how to grow our chapter. To help offset the cost of having Paul for this session, we will be selling raffle tickets. Tickets will be $10. See Daniel Garcia for details on the prizes for these tickets. JOLIET SLAMMERS: Please respond to the Groupanizer request for the Joliet Slammers. Mark Betczynski will be directing the chorus for the National Anthem that day. Game is at 1:05PM, Sunday, June 24th. Be there at noon. KANE COUNTY COUGERS National Anthem: Save the date - Wednesday, Aug 22nd. Groupanizer event will be sent for this as well. Kane County Cougars changed their policy for singing the anthem and it appears this could prove to be more lucrative than in the past. More details to follow from Frank Glas.

4 Page 4 Seasoned Sound Special Valentine Seasoned Sound was planning to surprise Roland s wife at a ladies luncheon for Valentines. We did, but it turned out to be a gathering of 113 ladies! We wound up singing several numbers for the entire group. Sid Peterson PITCH Editor Bob Nicodem Illinois District BETY winner in 2008, 2009 & W109 Claremont Dr. Darien, IL RNicodem@comcast.net Work: (708) Cell: (708) The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Chicagoland West Suburban Chapter aka The West Towns Chorus

5 Page 5 Spring Show Prep from Carrie and the Music Team Here is a list of the Spring Show songs and where they can be found: Act One songs Paper copies avail Paper+Digital avail Groupanizer) Learning Tracks Learning Tracks on Groupanizer 10 Minutes Ago X X X X Once Upon a Dream X X X X (Tramack) Lion Sleeps Tonight X X X Happy Together X X X X Can t Help Falling X X X X My Girl X X X Rhythm of Love X X X X Act Two songs In My Room X X X X Let Me Sing and I m X X X X Do You Hear the People Sing X No X X I d Like to Teach the World X When I Lift Up My Head X X X Good Ole Barbershop X X X X Song Sing! X No X X Here are the dates for arriving to chorus knowing the new songs (notes and words): Monday, Feb. 12- Do You Hear the People Sing Monday, Mar. 5- Sing! Monday, Mar. 12- When I Lift Up My Head Monday, Mar. 26- Good Ole Barbershop Song Monday, April 9- I d Like To Teach the World to Sing Attendance Policy - from the Music Team Attendance policy is in effect the 8 weeks prior to any major performance. You must attend half (4) of the final 8 rehearsals, including 2 of the last 3. If you are unable to make that qualification, you have the option to perform the songs in front of your section leader, assistant director(s) or the director to prove you know the music and SP. Let Craig know if you have any questions. FREE MONEY sign in to smile.amazon.com and select West Towns Chorus as your charitable recipient.

6 Visit us on our website: Chicagoland West Suburban Chapter Barbershop Harmony Society PO Box 1005 Downers Grove, IL Changing Lives Through Song Phone: Board President Jim Brown Music VP Craig Lancaster Development & Daniel Garcia Membership VP Program VP Bill Haselberger Marketing VP Ben Dirks Treasurer Tony Tumea Secretary Bob Nicodem Member-at- Frank Glas Large Past President Ron Welch Sunshine Don Davia Care Person Librarian Bob VanderBeek Uniform Eric Roffelsen Board meetings are scheduled for the third Thursday of each month (except December) 7:30 PM at Bob Nicodem s house. The Music Team meets the second Thursday of each month at Horizon, 7:30 PM. Music Team Director: Carrie Marcotte Asst-directors: Mark Betczynski & Joe Tomecek Music VP: Craig Lancaster Section Leaders Bass: Baritone: Lead: Jim Brown & Will Gertig Mark & Joe Kevin Westburg Tenor: Trenton Ferro, Sid Peterson MusicTeam@WestTowns.org Calendar of Events March 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat April 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat May 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat March 3/5 Rehearsal 3/12 Rehearsal 3/15 Board Meeting 3/19 Rehearsal 3/25 Nat l Anthem Chgo Steel Hockey 3/26 Rehearsal Future 4/28? Sat. Brookdale? 5/5 Sat Coaching w/ Steve Tramak 9 am 3 pm 5/20 Spring Show 5/31 6/3 Speedway NHRA 6/12 Brat Bash 6/13 Oak Trace? 6 PM? 6/24 Joliet Slammers 6/28 7/1 Speedway NASCAR 7/14 Supercharging Your Chapter 8/18 & 19 Three Chorus events 8/22? Kane County Cougars? 8/27 Mon Coaching w/ Steve Tramack 9/17 Coaching session (Mon) Terry Ludwig 9/22 Christmas Blitz 10/6 Fall Contest 12/7 Tech rehearsal 12/8 & 9 Christmas Show West Towns rehearses every Monday evening, 7:00 PM at Horizon Community Church in the Meadowbrook Shopping Center, rd Street, Downers Grove, IL We invite men who like to sing to come visit us and join us in song and fellowship.