Date:February 21, 2000

Mountain Division Contest Site and Timing confirmed. The Mountain Division Contest will be held on Saturday, April 8, 2000. The quartet contest will be held in the morning, starting at 11:00 am and will be followed by the chorus contest starting at about 1:15 pm. We will be singing in the second spot.

The venue is the same as last year, Schuylerville High School, Schuylerville, NY. Details on travel and hotel/motel arrangements will be revealed very soon.

Congratulations to Steve Wheaton for drawing the inequities of the original proposal to the attention of the organizers and congratulations and thanks to Norm Mendenhall who worked it out.

A personal note. Mary and I want to thank the members of the chorus for their kindness and best wishes offered during my recent heart attack and the sudden passing of my Mom. The cars, calls and emails were really appreciated and I am working on replying to all of them.

I learned that music is important to me and that I am blessed with some true friends. I also learned that the survival rate for heart attack victims treated within 45 minutes of the onset of an attack is 75% better than those treated later. All I can say is that the smartest thing I have done lately is call 9-1-1. Denial is dangerous (as well as being a river in Egypt).

The program for Spring Ahead One, this Saturday the 26th, is as follows:

The rehearsal is at the Church of St. Augustine, 176 Westcliffe Avenue, Pointe-Claire. It is hoped that maps will be available for those who need them, but written instructions will definitely be available.

9:00 Warm-ups

9:30 Sectional Activities

11:30 Contest Review

12:30 LUNCH!!!! :) (bring your own)

1:15 Special Sectional Activity

1:45 Learning New Songs (Basin Street Blues, Harmony, I Only Have Eyes)

3:45 Rehearsal

5:00 Good bye

Get your tapes tonight. Thanks to Richard Frenette, we will be getting tapes for Basin Street Blues, Harmony and I Only Have Eyes for You. Don't forget to get yours and give them a good listen for Saturday's Spring Ahead.

Get your tickets and sell advertising for our Annual Show/Concert. Our show for 2000, "Beginning to See the Light," will be on Saturday, May 20 in Salle Claude Champagne at Université de Montréal and will feature PLATINUM, the 1999 Silver Medallist Quartet and the 1998 Harmony, Inc. International Champion quartet, Blue Champagne. This will be Blue Champagne's final performance.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters Bowlathon 2000 will be held on Saturday, April 15, 2000. Our Presentation Coach, Stacy Hugman-Frenette is organizing the event and would like as many teams as possible to participate. She is suggesting that we go to Le Manoir afterwards for dinner.

If you are interested and would like further details, ask Stacy when she visits us, or ask Richard who will pass along your request for information.

Reminder 1: Rob Mance is offering Music Theory Lessons. If you are interested, please let him know.

Reminder 2: Criteria for Division Contest. Over the next few weeks Rob Mance will be asking each of us, individually, to work with him for 5 to 10 minutes so that he can get an idea of how we are doing with our competition repertoire. He will then give us some suggestions on things we need to work on, and possibly set-up another time to meet with him. This should help him to see the level each of us has achieved and for us to find out what areas we need to work on in order to make the chorus as a whole progress to that next level.

A young man asked an old rich man how he made his money.

The old guy fingered his expensive wool vest and said, "Well, son, it was 1932. The depth of the Great Depression. I was down to my last nickel."

"I invested that nickel in an apple. I spent the entire day polishing the apple and, at the end of the day, I sold the apple for ten cents."

"The next morning, I invested those ten cents in two apples. I spent the entire day polishing them and sold them at 5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued this system for a month, by the end of which I'd accumulated a fortune of $9.80."

"Then my wife's father died and left us two million dollars."

An elderly fisherman wrote the following to a mail order house: "Please send me one of those gasoline engines for my boat you show on page 438, and if it's any good, I'll send you a check."

In a short time he received the following reply: "Please send your check. If it's any good, we'll send the engine."

Practice is something we do at home, every day, between rehearsals!

Rehearsal is where we reinforce what we have been practising every day!