The Sister Singers Network (SSN) Festival Planning Committee (aka “Salmon Singers”) is planning to be on the Tuesday night Women Celebrating Women Concert program at the GALA festival to announce particulars about next year’s  SSN Memorial Day festival here in Grand Rapids, MI.  We will direct the audience to the flyers we plan to distribute at the Women’s Hospitality Center during the GALA festival and will make one or two BRIEF comments as we are not the focus of this night but do want to use this opportunity to provide information to SSN members since so many of us will be there.

Kathie Michael, director of meetings and festivals for GALA, has given us great support by assisting us in getting the word out about the Michigan SSN festival.  She has suggested that before we do, we clarify our position regarding men performing on stage at the choral festival in Michigan.

The “Salmon Singers” planning committee composed of women from Sistrum of Lansing and the Grand Rapids Women’s Chorus met with other members of SSN in April to help plan this 8th SSN chorus festival.  The notes from these meetings are posted on the SSN website and the discussion of this particular issue can be accessed by clicking on the meetings section of the website under the Sunday April 9th session.

In reviewing the discussion of this highly inflammatory and sensitive topic we tried our best to come to agreement on what our policy should be but could not.

We discussed that precedent has been established both ways.  Previous SSN festivals, including Cincinnati in 1993, chose not to allow men on stage for performances, but the SSN festival that was to occur in Portland was planning to allow men to perform in 1998.

At the last SSN meeting, it was ultimately decided that the decision for this festival rests with the local planning group and that probably no matter what we decide there will continue to be strong opinions reflected among all of us about this topic.

The Salmon Singers have continued grappling with this issue. We have tossed it back and forth in our meetings and are having great difficulty coming to a consensus.  All of you reading this note understand the complexity of this issue.  Maybe even far better than we, as neither of our two choruses have ever attempted to host a festival before and the GRWC has only been a member of SSN since 1996.
We believe this complex issue will eventually come to a consensual position among all of the members of SSN given time and continued discussion.  However, knowing that this is not likely to happen before next Memorial Day we are still charged as a group to get our festival happening and make it a reality.

Issues such as this can easily derail us and distract us from the task at hand.  We cannot possibly answer this question for the network.  You do not expect us to.  What we can do is facilitate a festival, and an SSN business meeting in which we can continue to talk about what future position might be more clearly spelled out when it comes to this highly sensitive issue.

The best we can do is say that as a festival planning committee, our focus needs to be on providing space and facility to put on a good solid Sister Singers Network choral festival to highlight the many talents of choruswomen.  We are committed to doing that.  Therefore, we would like to suggest the following policy for this particular festival and encourage more discussion at future SSN meetings to decide on a more permanent position:

For the 8th International SSN Choral Festival to be held in Grand Rapids MI May 24th – 28th 2001, if a women’s chorus is registered as a member of the Sister Singers Network, that chorus can choose to participate in this festival and perform on stage with whomever is a member of their chorus.   In order to also be respectful of previous traditions of the network that honor women only space, workshops can be established as women only if the presenter chooses.  There will also be a woman only space set aside at the hotel where many participants will be staying and workshops will take place.

This is not to put the onus on whoever is in the position of member acceptance and sign up.  Rather we believe it is an issue still needing to be discussed and perhaps incorporated in the requirements for SSN membership or perhaps the mission statement.  It is clearly not an issue that can be resolved by our committee and we are uncomfortable taking on this responsibility.  Oh yes, we discussed balloting the SSN members, to be fair to all who plan to attend, or having an e-chat on the subject etc …but where would that get us in terms of moving ahead with our planning but further distracted from our task?

The Salmon Singers will continue to do their best to provide an atmosphere conducive to the growth and success of our network in designing the 8th International Festival. We hope all of you will plan to be a part of it.

If you would like to find out more about the SSN Festival, check the SSN website at : http://geocities.datacellar.net/sistersingers/ or call the planning co-chairs Janice Scalza 231-972-2301 or Sheryl Mase 616-364-7515.