Sister Singers Network

Sister Singers Network
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Sister Singers 2001 Festival Planning Meeting
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Saturday April 8, 2000
Session 2

Determined we need festival dates first, then see what venues are available and work from there.
Three-day weekend is really important.
The city of GR holds a huge art/music festival the June weekend, which will crowd the downtown.
Memorial Day weekend have arrival on Thursday afternoon/Friday, the Monday holiday provides an extra travel day. Concerts on Friday night, Saturday evening +/- afternoon, Sunday afternoon, Mass chorus Sunday night.
Same thing in Cincinnati with a 3-day weekend on the July 4th. Worked with schedules to make Friday events not anything required.
Straw poll – almost unanimously (at least an overwhelming majority) voted for the Memorial Day weekend.
Suggestion to use St. Cecilia’s + Community College music building for all but mass chorus. Need to find a larger venue for mass chorus.
Logistically, motels suggest themselves for workshop venues and are financially desirable (discounts with booking of rooms)
Marriott will give us 6 meeting rooms for $1300 with booking 100 rooms
3 upright pianos delivered to Marriott $200.00 each for Memorial weekend
Marriott will be cheaper for workshops than CC music building
Revisit mass chorus at St. Cecilia’s. -- Want to believe that St. Cecilia’s meets ADA standards. Sensitive to wanting to please everyone, but wonders if it might not be as bad as some are anticipating.
The best we can do is make sure venues meet ADA standards.
Use Marriott rooms for workshops, only 4 blocks straight up Fulton to St. Cecilia’s
Like the Marriott with St. Cecilia’s close but they are one of the most expensive hotels. Est. 70/night rate if we book a large block, but no surcharge on number of women in the room.
Lots of discussion rooms/motels/one main place. Marriott is very convenient to downtown businesses.
Like one place where people stay and where workshops occur. Easier to find information, and have a festival headquarters.
Suggestions for Marriott
Reserve Hospitality tables for attendees
Reserve a couple rooms where people using community housing can drop off things for the day, maybe use showers.
GENERAL CONSENSUS OF DISCUSSION
Looks like we are looking at St. Cecilia’s for concerts and maybe mass chorus, most likely a larger venue for the night of the mass chorus.
Workshops at Marriott’s possibly utilize Community College music building, possibly some at St. Cecilia’s, though realistically the auditorium there will be used all day for sound checks and rehearsals. We discovered that sound does travel down to the auditorium from the upstairs ballroom.
Recreational activities: probably not during the weekend, not enough time. Try on Friday or Monday when some will be traveling, but those who want to make it a vacation do so then. Some women in Saugatuck want to organize some activities for the group.
MASS CHORUS/WORKSHOPS/
Cincinnati had concerts Friday, Saturday nights, Sunday afternoon and mass chorus Sunday night. 25 minute sets then 5 minutes for chorus change
Make Thursday a travel/social time only no concert
Be sure concerts are scheduled when people can come and not when activities are planned. Schedule choruses with preferences and travel distance considerations. Sunday night’s mass concert will include some individual choruses too.
Concerts open to the public? Will depend on how many women in attendance and venue
Look at Central High to again for mass concert so we don’t have standing room only. The logistics of moving everyone around at St. Cecilia's will be difficult.
EXPLORE CENTRAL HIGH.
How about workshops on only one day…then choruses all on Sunday
…a lot all at once, need to break it up.
Days needed for rehearsals/sound checks to consider. The sound checks will need to go on during workshops. Requires full time use of stage all day.
End venue discussion
Structure/committee work/workshops
Looked at the Cincinnati organizational flow chart
Chris and Barb the co-chairs started with a core group. The initial group members filled early chores then as time drew nearer to festival Cincinnati’s chorus members stepped up participation. The core group met about every two weeks and updated the chorus. The jobs that would require participants closer to and during the festival were mapped out way ahead of time.
Suggest a “chorus liaison” for each chorus (1 person for each chorus) who will let each chorus know when they rehearse, find out what special needs they have, make sure they know where to be. The liaison may accompany the chorus or at least be easily accessible.
Child care:
Cincinnati discouraged kids; made it a housing issue…Did arrange for childcare.
LIABILITY limited them. Waivers to sign? Hire outside source? Added cost you pass on to the mothers alone?
Communication to choruses:
Cincinnati: Choruses have to respond by mail by deadlines. Need formal communication on due dates. Reminders and such can be Internet and email, but snail mail/hard file important to assure fairness to all choruses and to provide hard record. Each registered chorus should provide a contact person, preferably with email access.
Public relations was to advertise to the public
Communication center = suite in hotel/info table.
Production = staging etc
Workshops
Calliope organized the workshops for Cincinnati
Two types of workshops
-- “Intensive” people hired in from outside “Headliners”/ famous people
-- Inside SSN people to share on a volunteered basis
Agreed GR/Sistrum doesn’t need to organize the workshops. Artemis nominated and accepts to organize internal SSN workshops and to assist with hiring/co-ordinating intensives if we opt for that too. There will be attendees giving workshops…do we also want to have intensive workshops?
Janice read off names of people not here who contacted her to volunteer for specific tasks—check her list for the info.
The “intensives” will need to be contacted by the “connected” – Chris Reed, Cathy Roma, etc. Dekalb expressed the interest in handling the intensives
Downsides of intensives – they are expensive, they will need time to perform. End up with HEADLINERS that may detract from the choruses. It will be hard to follow up Cincinnati’s big names.
It’s not important to have intensive. The big names are not what we really want a festival for. The reasons for the festival are the networking, the atmosphere, and the women’s choruses.
The intensives add a whole other aspect to planning. Cathy Roma already had the connections; she was responsible for it. Given a budget and she did it all.
Festival is to develop women’s talents. The internal workshops will help develop the choruses’ resources.
Sounds like the timing was right and the contacts were right for the intensives in Cincinnati
Not having the intensives will not detract from the festival experience.
Some loved the intensives, though don’t see it as “necessary”.
Maybe 1 keynote speaker?
Cathy Roma?---maybe a keynote address on history of women’s choral movement?.
Perhaps a keynote address at a luncheon/breakfast or prior to Saturday night’s concerts
ARTEMIS – WILL TAKE OVER ORGANIZATION OF WORKSHOPS
The hub of SSN has all the labels/lists of network contacts. (Naomi)
Nancy and Jan will contact Naomi to start doing the mailings
Robin will be willing to work with registration
SSN used to have a decision making process. An action proposed, all voices heard,
Before we decide not to have intensives is there any topic that all choruses have a real need to bring in?
Proposal: that we not have any outside paid intensive workshops
This is only a decision that the core group can make because of finances and it is such a responsibility. Though the Salmon Singers would then bear the responsibility if something falls through. Core group should have final decision.
A recommendation to change the wording from a proposal to an advisory
Each chorus represented here has 2 votes
Unanimous decision to accept the advisory/proposal to not host any “intensive” workshops.
END OF SATURDAY MEETINGS

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