Date: April 16, 2001 Second last rehearsal before contest!

Have you sold your Show tickets? John Clendinneng tells me many members haven't yet taken tickets for the show. If this includes you, how much you are prepared to pay in dues to keep singing with this great chorus. The show is our largest fundraiser, by far. We need to sell ALL of the 1000 seats. Right now, we are sitting at half the seats taken. A ticket to our show is an easy sell. We have a great chorus and two great quartets headlining the show. Ask your friends to come. They will enjoy the show.

Even if you have taken tickets, you must sell them. Please do that. We ALL need to do our part.

Music Team NEWS The show is coming together quickly. We will be celebrating our 50th year of barbershopping in Montreal and plans are underway to invite approximately 200-250 old barbershop members to our show and have them recognized as a group for their contribution to barbershop harmony. Ron Sherman has worked very hard to compile this list and deserves a big hand for the work he is doing for the 50 th anniversary.

Andy Starke and Jerry Silverberg will be working to have lots happening both at the show and throughout the year to celebrate.

We will also be inviting and honouring the Montreal Chapters founding father, Ted Hanna, who until 3 or 4 years ago sang with the Pierrefonds Chapter and moved to Markham, Ont. to retire. He still sings in two Chapters in Ontario.

We will be including a 10 - 12 page insert into our program book as a souvenir section telling the story of barbershopping in Montreal from its beginning. This will cost us an additional $500.00 - $750.00 but we would ask you all to work very hard selling advertising this year. Michael Frolick is in charge of ad sales so please help him out, as we need to cover the cost of this addition.

The show music selection has just about been finalized and we will publish the list very shortly. Quartets performing on our show this year will be Jokers Wild, After Hours, 4 Tonight Only and South Side. Bernard Dubreuil will demonstrate throat singing for the audience just prior to the show, as soon as most of the audience has been seated. It will be a great night of entertainment.

The afterglow will be at the Stanza restaurant on Côte Vertu and Pierre De Coubertin and will include a full buffet.

That's all for now folks, Alan Kenley, For the music team

CONTEST INFORMATION: Transportation to Nashua is by mini-van, or on your own. If you haven't spoken to Bert Brossoit by now, you are probably on your own.

Directions to Contest, Nashua, New Hampshire. Head toward the Vermont Border, down the Eastern Townships AutoRoute. Take I-89 and follow your nose to Nashua. (More detailed direction next week!)

H H H H H The Blue Champagne CD is now available. What a great sound these four talented ladies make. The CD makes it sound like you are right there with them. See Liz Mance and have your $20.00 ready!

Mini-Pitch Editor needed. Murray wants to give someone else a chance to edit the Mini-Pitch. He will be asking people for their recommendations. If you think you would like to try it out, let Murray know. He will help get you started.

We all know that water is important. We all probably can read this and say, "I should drink more water."

It does make singing easier and better when we are properly hydrated. The old saying, "Pee white, sing right," does have truth in fact.

75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. (This likely applies to half of the world population.)

In 37% of Americans, the thirst mechanism is so weak that it is often mistaken for hunger.

Even mild dehydration will slow down one's metabolism as much as 3%.

One glass of water shut down midnight hunger pangs for almost 100% of the dieters studied in a University of Washington study.

Lack of water, is the number one trigger of daytime fatigue.

Preliminary research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could significantly ease back and joint pain for up to 80% of sufferers.

A mere 2% drop in body water can trigger fuzzy short-term memory, trouble with basic math, and difficulty focusing on the computer screen or on a printed page.

Drinking 5 glasses of water daily decreases the risk of colon cancer by 45%, plus it can slash the risk of breast cancer by 79%, and one is 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

Are you drinking the amount of water you should every day?

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

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