Greetings!

I hope you are all enjoying the activities involved with this year’s round of regional contests and conventions! It’s great to see so many of you appearing on social media as you post fun items about your choruses and quartets, and we all really enjoy the feeling of camaraderie we experience knowing that we are all going through the same butterflies, celebrating the same experiences and sharing the joy of singing with others. 

Remember to tag BHA when you post, using @BarbershopAus or #BHA2018.

Adelaide Convention

It’s also great to see that the regional round of contests coincides with our launch of this year’s BHA Convention Website – www.barbershopconvention.com.au.

This year sees us visiting the City of Adelaide for the first time. Our contest events will be held in the beautiful Adelaide Town Hall from Wednesday 12 September 2018 to Sunday 16 September 2018. This will be followed immediately by our newly revamped Harmony Academy offer a unique opportunity to receive singing and music tuition from a faculty of outstanding Barbershop educators in a beautiful harbourside setting from Sunday 16 September 2018 to Wednesday 19 September 2018.

Renowned as the "City of Churches" for over 150 years, Adelaide is now celebrated for many other reasons, but none more so than its creative culture. Music is a core component of Adelaide's cultural identity, and I am sure the local coordination team will have some great experiences in store for all of us!

One of the experiences we are very excited about is getting the chance to hear our special guests, the Barbershop Harmony Society's International Quartet Champions, Instant Classic as our headline quartet, and as educators at the Harmony Academy that follows.

Another fantastic experience will be our Welcome Gala on Thursday evening, which will be held at the world-renowned Adelaide Oval. As one of South Australia’s most impressive venues – boasting picturesque views of the hallowed turf, the city, St Peter’s Cathedral and more – it provides a unique setting to welcome all of our delegates to Adelaide.

Early Bird registrations close on 30 June 2018, so make sure you register now to take advantage of our special discounts.

Regional News

As I mentioned in my last article, I am calling on all of you to help the BHA team maintain a fun environment for you to enjoy your singing.

One of the first things we are doing is to engage more effectively with our Regional Chairmen in each state and territory throughout Australia.

It occurs to me that for those of you who may be newer to the organisation, you might not know what a Regional Chairman is. Some others of you, even those who have been members for many years, might also be unaware of this group of people who work locally in major population centres around the country to assist the National Council with some of our local events, and to represent the membership in their location.

BHA has six geographically-based Regions:

• Western Region (Western Australia)

• Central Region (South Australia and Northern Territory)

• Sunshine Region (Queensland and parts of northern NSW)

• Eastern Region (New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory

• Victorian Region (Victoria)

• Tasmanian Region (Tasmania and Australian Antarctic Territory)

Each Region has a Regional Management Team, made of up representatives of each club or chorus in that area. These representatives nominate the Regional Chairman to help guide their region’s local activities, and act on behalf of the individual singers and clubs in their areas.

These dedicated guys take a hands-on responsibility for the regional management team and is responsible for carrying the Association’s programs and policies to the choruses and members through his ability to have localized, hands-on contact.

So, it seems a natural progression for the BHA Council to build a strong relationship with these Regional Chairman, in order that we might have a better connection with our members.

Whilst we strive to make decisions that we believe will be in the best interests of all of our members, it makes our job easier if we are able to make more fully-informed decisions that take into account local or region-specific issues and sentiments that may impact our members differently in different areas.

So, I encourage all of you to reach out to your Regional Chairman. He may learn something from you; you may learn something from him; but either way, we hope that we can learn something from all of you as we continue to guide BHA’s future direction and build the organisation into the future.

Contact your Regional Chairmen, me, or any member of Council, any time you want to give us your feedback, tell us your ideas, share your successes, make suggestions, or just have a chat!

Contact details are on our website https://www.barbershop.org.au/Contact