Congratulations to all quartets who have qualified through our Regional contests for the Pan Pac Convention in Sydney in September. To those who missed out, my sincere commiserations. I’m sure our expert judging panels have given all groups plenty of “food for thought” of what things to work on going forward so that you can enjoy your signing even more.

It was a busy time for your scribe, being involved in three quartets and one chorus. I know there are other members who possibly sing in more groups, and I know how exhausting it can be sometimes – but it’s all great fun right?

I am honoured to have been asked to sing as a guest with our champion chorus, Sound Connection, in next month’s International contest in Las Vegas. They have picked some challenging, but wonderful songs, and I’m sure they’ll do extremely well (despite my singing). I also extend every member’s best wishes to our two competing quartets, Blindside (competing in Youth and Open) and Lockout (competing in Open). We know you will do well, and come back full of new ideas and information to share.

And then it won’t be long to our Pan Pac Convention in Sydney in September. Our delegate numbers are strong, and we thank you all for supporting the Convention, which can be a nervous time for your National Council hoping that the member numbers stack up and we don’t lose money. The Convention business these days is big bucks. You’ll be interested to know that we expect turn-over of around $300,000.

Don’t forget to sign up for Harmony University straight after the Convention. The teaching faculty, including the members of Crossroads, are amongst the world’s finest. You will learn so much and have such a good time. How can you even consider missing it?

Elsewhere in this newsletter there is a report on the feedback we received regarding the chorus category contests (currently done by size). There was quite a divergence of responses, so the Council will keep thinking about this issue before any action is taken.

Your Secretary and I have been working on re-casting our Constitution to meet the requirements of the new Act. Soon we’ll have a draft out for members to review and eventually vote on.
 

Keep Australia (and the whole world) singing!

Ian Mulholland

BHA President