August 15, 2011
WA-ACDA Treasurer’s Report for Unison, August 2011
Leora Schwitters, WA-ACDA Treasurer

The fiscal year ending June 30, 2011 shows WA-ACDA with a checking account balance of  $54,104.56 and with $575.76 in our PayPal account, for total assets of $54,680.32.  This amount reflects about ¾ of the income from registration for July’s Summer Institute, but few of its expenses.   Factoring in those considerations and combining that result with the allotment of $21 per each of our 233 Active Members  (as of April 1) from national dues results in a projected working capital for 2011-2012 of about $33,000 for the state.

WA-ACDA’s Summer Institute 2011 had 208 participants, with $32,630.00 collected in registration fees.  The final bills from JW Pepper and UPS have not come in yet, but we estimate the total SI expenses will be just about the same as its income, giving us a projected revenue neutral event again.   Congratulations to Lori Wiest, program chair, for achieving this outcome for the second year in a row.

In October, 2010, WA-ACDA combined its Bank of America savings and checking accounts and moved the money to Cascade Bank (now Opus Bank), based in Everett, WA, which has a current monthly business checking interest of .075% APY.  This gave an increase in interest payments from about $20 for 09-10, to about $160 for 10-11.
General and Administrative expenditures were down last year with the cancellation of the March board meeting and no requests for funds.  Moving the pre-registration deadline for SI to June 15 not only allowed for more accurate estimations of expenditures and for catering and saved early birds $15 each, but also contributed about $8,000 more to the fiscal year’s final balance.  These factors help explain how we came to be over $17,000 ahead of the end of the last fiscal year.
A free-for-members WA ACDA Workshop in Spokane in September and one in January for the west side of the state, a booth at the Yakima WMEA conference, and several WA ACDA grants awarded through our new funds request program are some of the ways that the board is trying to attract new members and offer benefits to our existing members in 2011-2012.  The year-end report for 2010-2011, which was submitted to the National and Division ACDA Accountants can be found here. 

January 21, 2011

On having trees fall on me, and Frances George

by Leora Schwitters, WA ACDA Treasurer

Yes, I walked away with just a bump on the head and a few scratches and aches after trees fell right on top of me during a trail run on Tiger Mountain.  My husband and I started the run during halftime of the final Seahawks game of the year.  After five minutes running up the trail in a light rain, a loud CRACK overhead struck terror in us both, and the clear thought that there was no way to know which way to go sent my husband flying down the trail and me continuing up it.  Just a few seconds later my body somehow sensed that it was the target and flattened itself as low as possible on the trail.  Three 12 to 20 inch conifers uphill and behind us had been pulled out of the wet ground and came down across the trail where I lay.  When the largest trunk just ticked my head and stopped and the other trunks landed over my legs a moment later, I found just enough space underneath the mess for me to crawl out in one piece!  It all happened so fast.  How had I known to drop just in time?  Instinct, I guess, or my guardian angel taking care of me. 

As one might expect, events like these can induce thoughts of mortality.  There are so many things I’ve yet to do, most notably to hold my new grand daughter, Lily, born recently in Wyoming.  There’s so much more I want to do, and I am so gratefully blessed to have more time.

I had spent the two days prior to the event working on an interesting project.  Joel Ulrich, WA ACDA Music & Worship R & S Chair, was contacted this fall regarding a large private choral library that needed to be removed from the house of a member of Vicky Thomas's Seattle First Baptist Church who had passed away.  His wife, Frances George, had died several years prior, and her library had been left untouched in the house.  The music is stamped with "Seattle Mastersingers," "Seattle Chorale," "Leonard Moore Chorale," and the "Jubilee Singers."

Not totally understanding the size of the collection, Joel agreed to pick it up and I agreed to store the music, thinking I'd take it into the NW ACDA booth during the MENC conference and let people peruse and take what they wished.  We ended up with 24 individual cardboard file cabinet drawers in my garage—way too much for that idea.

After throwing away photocopies, dittos, single copies, old catalogues and music that was too deteriorated to use again, I pared the library down to 16 drawers (= 4 cabinets) of catalogued multiple copies of some fine music, including some large works in pristine condition with 25-30 copies each.  It just seemed obscene to think that all this would have been tossed in the dumpster had Vicky not rescued it.  As I went through the drawers, I was continually struck by the meticulous care Ms. George had put into this collection.  All the 300+ folders of octavos alphabetized, the music in each folder stamped with several different stamps or typed on individually, and all in numerical order.   

Who was this woman?  A quick Google search on the choral groups stamped showed that Leonard Moore founded the Seattle Mastersingers and the Seattle Chorale which now has become the Seattle Symphony Chorus, and that the recently departed Raymond C. Jones sang in the Chorale and Mastersingers.  His obituary noted:  “He was preceded in death by his wife, Frances George Jones, a noted Northwest contralto.” (Seattle Times Oct. 31, 2010.)   That’s all I could find. 

How are these two stories related?  I think it’s simply that, had I not survived the accident, I would rest easier knowing that projects which I have invested so much of myself in over the years would not just be abandoned and forgotten in a basement or just thrown out without some effort to honor that commitment.  It is important to me, to Joel, and to Vicky that we find a good home(s) for this music so lovingly cared for by this diligent woman from the past.   I’ve asked our WA ACDA board to brainstorm ways to disperse it, perhaps using it as a fundraiser of some sort?  If you’d like to take a look at the inventory, email me and I’ll send you the spreadsheet to look over.  If you have ideas of what to do with this collection, please let me know!

Addendum:  You will be happy to know that Joseph Crnko, director of the Seattle Symphony Chorale, took possession of the library in April.  It was exactly the right place for it come to rest, as it returned full circle to its rightful owners. Thanks to those of you who contacted me with suggestions.  FYI:  "The Seattle Symphony Chorale, the official chorus of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, was founded as the Seattle Chorale in 1953 by Leonard Moore.  The Chorale began its formal affiliation with the Symphony in 1976 and now consists of approximately 120 volunteer singers chosen by audition." (from their website).

September 1, 2010

WA-ACDA Treasurer’s Report - August 15, 2010

by Leora Schwitters, Treasurer

The fiscal year ending June 30, 2010 showed WA-ACDA with a savings balance of $15,055.87 and a checking balance, including uncleared transactions, of $15,559.12. about $3,000 less than the previous year’s balance.  This is a bit misleading in that the end of the accounting period is right in the middle of still collecting registrations for Summer Institute and before most bills for SI have been paid.  The average monthly checking account amount for the rest of the year was about $7,000-$8,000.

Last year included extra expenditures for a booth at WMEA in Yakima, a free–for-members Training Choir Workshop in Tacoma in January, and sponsoring a Jazz Choir workshop in the fall.  This year’s budget will add another free-for-members Fall Workshop in Spokane.

With most of the bills received and paid for this year’s annual Summer Institute in July, it appears that the balance sheet of income and expenditures will be very close to even or just barely in the black. 

Congratulations to Lori Wiest, program chair, for careful budgeting and accounting of the almost $32,000 budget for the event.  This year’s experiment of using emailed brochures and electronic invitations instead of printing and mailing them saved about $1,400, while the attendance for the event remained about the same as in previous years.  We will recommend this approach in the future.

Our budget is set up to be revenue neutral, with an allotment from National ACDA covering our general expenditures for the year.  This allotment comes from a portion of the membership fees of our Active Members only. 

Happily, our membership numbers have increased this year.  Sue Green, Western Liaison, reported these increases at our July 24 board meeting:  from April 2009 to July 1, 2010, overall membership in WA-ACDA rose from 364 to 453, with the biggest increases in Student Membership (from 46 to 85) and in Active Membership (from 232 up to 296).  Other categories, which remained about the same, included Life Members, Paying Life, Associate, Industry, Institution, and Retired Members.

Creating beautiful phrases
by Leora Schwitters, WA-ACDA Treasurer and Past-President
April 2010

There are some really basic rules to creating a beautiful phrase.  Children as young as second grade and senior singers in your church choir, including every age/level in between, can easily grasp these concepts if you empower them to know.  Many of these are “Obvious-Man” observations, but it may be worthwhile reviewing them now that Large Group Festival adjudication season is looming.

When is it OK to take a collective breath in a phrase? 

• Never in the middle of a word, even if the word is in a different language. 
• If the text has a comma, period, or other punctuation, a breath may be in order.  Read the text as if it were a poem, and you will know exactly when a pause is appropriate. 
• If there is a rest, a breath is obviously OK.  The sound directly preceding the rest ends exactly ON the start of that rest—that would be the precise moment to place the ending consonant of the preceding phrase.

When the text demands a longer phrase that is too long for your singers to negotiate, teach them how to stagger breathe.  This is really fun for the youngest singers!  While holding a long pitch, they keep their mouth open, fade out, breathe, and merge back in, while the audience is given no clue.  Or, when singing different words,  they keep their mouth moving to the words while they sneak a breath on certain syllables.  Advanced singers can be told to simply not breathe at the same time as their neighbors; younger singers may need to be assigned a syllable to ‘fake the audience out’ on, making sure it is a different syllable for each singer within a section.

How can each phrase be shaped?
Young singers understand the term “Rainbow Phrase” very quickly, and though that shape doesn’t apply to every phrase, it certainly does to many.  This is simply starting a phrase at one dynamic and crescendoing to the peak of the phrase before decrescendoing to the end.  The director can determine which word is the ‘sweet note’ or peak of the phrase, or it can be determined collaboratively.

Shaping individual notes/words under the main umbrella of a phrase.

• Speak the word.  Which syllable is stressed?  Sing it that way, even if the melody doesn’t reflect that inflection.
• Which words are most important?  Give those a bit more stress and back off of words such as ‘and’, ‘the’, ‘a’, ‘of’ .
• Notes underneath the big umbrella of the whole phrase, especially the longer ones, can be shaped, too, so that there are smaller crescendos/decresendos going on under the big crescendo/decrescendo of the entire phrase.
• A tied note across a bar line generally indicates a crescendo.
• A dotted quarter note before an eighth note generally indicates a crescendo.

Is your conducting conducive to beautiful phrasing?
Chances are, if you are just conducting with the basic patterns we were taught in college conducting classes, it isn’t.  Don’t be confined to those patterns.  Find ways to use your arms and hands to indicate these concepts outlined above.  Sometimes just circles work wonderfully!

Once singers get comfortable with these basic concepts, they become empowered to make their own, informed decisions on producing phrases.  As they become more involved with the text, much more comprehension occurs, which leads to more emotional involvement, which leads to  REAL music making.  Don’t sell your singers short.  Everyone can learn to be an expressive singer.

February 3, 2010

More awards being considered for WA-ACDA members

by Leora Schwitters, Vice President/Treasurer

One of the last agenda items from our fall WA-ACDA board meeting was to consider offering members more award opportunities in order to recognize outstanding choral directing in our state. 

Currently, the board presents only one annual award, the prestigious Leadership and Service Award presented at the Summer Institute to an established leader in WA-ACDA and/or NW-ACDA.  This coveted award goes to a revered and often a retired director who has served on the board(s) in an outstanding manner for many years.

Howard Meharg, David Anderson and I are tasked with putting some proposals together for our next meeting on March 9.  We welcome your input on these brainstorming ideas, some of which were borrowed from other state ACDA chapters.  Please email me any thoughts and suggestions by March 1.

Possible award #1: Outstanding Young Choral Director Award  (to be nominated by a current WA-ACDA member, and selected by an appointed committee) Should a non-member or administrator be allowed to nominate?
Proposed qualifications:  10 years or fewer choral directing experience, current ACDA/WA-ACDA membership, maintains high performance and literature standards, attends ACDA/WA-ACDA activities

Possible award #2: Outstanding Choral Director Award  (to be nominated by a current WA-ACDA member, and selected by an appointed committee) Should a non-member or administrator be allowed to nominate?
Proposed qualifications:  At least 10 years or more choral directing experience, current ACDA/WA-ACDA membership, maintains high performance and literature standards, participates in ACDA/WA-ACDA activities, promotes choral music in the community

We also considered recognizing outstanding church choir directors separately, and also directors of different levels (junior high/middle school, high school, etc.) but then realized they could be in the same pool as school or community choir directors, and that if we singled out just a few specialty areas we risked offending those who were left out.

We look forward to input from our members.

June 30, 2009

Leora Schwitters turns over reins of WA ACDA to Marc Hafso; commends board for "passion and commitment"

It has truly been an honor to have served as the Washington State ACDA President for the last two years, and it is with great anticipation that I turn the reins over to Marc Hafso.  I have come to know Marc as a real visionary and creative soul who leaves no stone unturned in his methodical and persistent pursuit of excellence in everything he does, and he is able to nurture those around him in the process.

This will be a welcome change after my own bull-in-the-china-shop approach, I'm sure!  I do tend to be a bit of a Type A personality at times, but can report that we have continued to shore up the more mundane details of successfully running an organization such as ours. 

Many thanks to Linda Hamilton and Leslie Guelker-Cone who mentored me along the way and were always ready to step in when help was needed. 

It was pure pleasure to work with our wonderful WA-ACDA board members.  I always came away from those meetings 'jazzed' about ACDA and the passion and commitment reflected in each and every one there. 

Are we not lucky to be in this profession which is filled with caring, intelligent, talented and fun colleagues?!  Blessings to you all as you re-energize over the summer! 

See you in Tacoma,
Leora

National ACDA Convention—see you there!
March 4-7, 2009

Leora Schwitters, President, WA-ACDA

The American Choral Directors Association, now with more than 20,000 members, was established in 1959. It is fitting we celebrate its 50th year in ACDA’s hometown of Oklahoma City. 

The convention features twenty-seven auditioned choirs, four international choirs, four national honor choirs, thirty-six interest sessions, thirteen reading sessions and the two convention tracks are identical.  Everyone has the opportunity to see and hear everything. 

I don’t remember my reasons for choosing the Scarlet Track Schedule, but I’m hoping to see many Washington friends and colleagues in that mix.

Congratulations and good luck to Rebecca Rottsolk’s and Beth Ann Bonnecroy’s Mirinesse Women’s Choir of Seattle, which is the only choir from Washington State to be selected to perform.  This wonderfully expressive group will make us proud! 

Marc Hafso’s Whitworth choir was invited to sing the Raymond Brock Commission, but had to decline the honor.  They are to be commended for the recognition.

“There is no experience in the world like attending a choral concert with 4,000 of your colleagues, shaking hands with world renowned conductors on the exhibit hall floor, or returning home with new inspiration and challenging ideas to present to your own choir.”      Tim Sharp, National ACDA Executive Director

I can’t wait!
Online registration

No better time to join ACDA; tell you colleagues about it!
by Leora Schwitters, President, WA ACDA

ACDA is for choral directors of every level and genre who care about continuing their own professional growth and pursuing excellence.   Who do you know that you could invite?  There are hundreds of church choir directors, some of whom became directors by default—we have resources to help them. 

There are hundreds of instrumental directors who also teach choirs who don’t have quite the right skill set for it, but don’t know what’s missing.  There are those who think their level of mediocrity is good enough because they don’t know differently.  What can you do to help them grow?  At the very least, invite them to join ACDA.  (Any day now, you can do that online national site, www.acda.org)!

The national website is undergoing some seriously exciting and massive changes, including members’ only benefits, like downloading mp3’s from convention recordings, complete online Choral Journals from the last 50 years with search capabilities.  (Members will have free downloads of articles; non-members will pay a fee.)  What an exciting time to be involved in ACDA!

I can tell you when I went from having a slightly above average choir program to having one that actually performed at a NW ACDA convention.  It was after I went to an ACDA convention and heard the most amazing middle school choir performing wonderful music at an incredibly high level of artistry.  When I discovered it was a non-auditioned, you-all-come choir, the scales fell off my eyes.  I knew I could do the same thing, and was determined to find the resources and develop the skills it required.  ACDA helped supply the resources, and I supplied the hours and sweat.

You need to tell your colleagues, at the very least, to attend our Summer Institute and to watch for the proposed workshops we intend to host in Fall 09 and/or January 2010, with one on the east side, one on the west and one in the middle of the state.

Next summer headlines choral icon, Charlene Archibeque, along with her colleague, Tom Carter, author of “Choral Charisma.”  (Read this book!!) He is a highly recommended clinician on creating safe and productive climates in choirs. This pair will inspire us all July 22-24 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

We now have a group on Facebook.com that will hopefully open channels of communication we haven’t had in the past.  We invite all ACDA Facebook users to join us.   Our group is Washington State ACDA.

Facebook is a great free networking tool, but I wasn’t too keen on trying it at first.  I thought it was just another My Space thing, which I am not too crazy about.  My sister finally convinced me to sign up this summer so that we could play word games with family members.  I was pleasantly surprised with how I could limit the amount of information that was shared and who gets to see it.  It was fun keeping track of my Midwestern relatives on a daily basis, since I only get to see them once or twice a year.   I discovered how easy it is to upload pictures and videos, and found some interesting groups to check out.

Several WA-ACDA college instructors mentioned how useful Facebook is in communicating with their students.  Giselle Wyers, our Student and Activities Chair, took the initiative to set up our Washington State ACDA group recently.  It will be interesting to see how it evolves.  I’d like to see some discussions and sharing of information happening there—repertoire suggestions, questions for our R & S Chairs, sharing concert opportunities—the possibilities are endless.  It may take us old-timers a bit to figure out the etiquette of a group like this (I already realized I shouldn’t recommend friends for people—that didn’t work quite the way I expected!) If nothing else, we could just all play Scrabble…….. !J

Finances up-to-date; reconciled to perfection
Great strides have been made in shoring up the operations and records of WA-ACDA this past year.  Many thanks to Treasurer Georgina Philippson and to Vice President Linda Hamilton for getting our treasurer’s records up to date and streamlined using QuickBooks and on-line banking.  Our national ACDA accountant has confirmed that we are reconciled perfectly as of 7/31/08.  This was a long, difficult and necessary task, and we are so grateful to both officers, especially for Georgina’s contributions and hours of work over the past two years.  She will be helping us transition in a new treasurer as she anticipates the arrival of her first child next month. 

Our history now online
Howard Meharg spent many hours researching, interviewing and writing up the History of WA-ACDA for our website, including a page devoted to past recipients of our Choral Leadership Award, and another page devoted to Past-Presidents.  What a wonderful legacy he has created for our state!

The chronological records of past board meeting agendas and minutes going back to the spring of 2000 were sorted and straightened up for future WA-ACDA boards’ referral.

Hafso administers great 08 SI; looks ahead to next
Marc Hafso successfully administered a wonderful Summer Institute with Timothy Seelig as headliner.  A record number of participants attended and we ended up slightly in the black. 

Next year’s confirmed headliner will be Charlene Archibeque, and we hope to also solicit her colleague, Tom Carter, as an added guest presenter.  Marc has in mind a theme of story telling that will weave an even more wonderful and meaningful workshop for us next summer.

Board sticks around following SI; saves travel expenses for separate meeting
Our first annual WA-ACDA Board planning retreat took place at the University of Puget Sound directly after our Summer Institute in July.  Four hours of reviewing SI 08 and planning SI 09 that Friday afternoon were followed by a great dinner on the waterfront in Tacoma. 

Many stayed in the dorm and enjoyed more wonderful fellowship while others commuted to the next morning’s 3.5 hour meeting.   Much brainstorming and excitement were generated as to the direction of our organization for the next year, with concrete plans of action laid out and tasks assigned to eager board members.

Membership Drive

ACDA membership is a must for ALL choral directors!  The organization is working furiously at all levels (state, division and national) to offer more services and benefits for our members.  The national ACDA website is under serious reconstruction to more fully use technology.  Among other things, it will allow for on-line payments starting in September for membership renewals and convention registrations, have a searchable index for the Choral Journal, full back issues of the Choral Journal in PDF format, expanded news and information sections, pedagogical material for all of our repertoire and standards categories, podcasts, music downloads and more.  WOW!

We are tasked by NW ACDA President Richard Nance to double our active membership by April 1, 2009.  All that will take is for each current member to personally invite someone new.  We can do this!
Have you ever considered ‘gifting’ an ACDA membership?  What a terrific gift for your student teacher or for a new teacher you are mentoring!

NW ACDA feels so strongly about the importance of our organization that it has instituted a policy of offering a free year’s membership to each choral instructor graduating from a NW institution and entering the choral profession for the first time.  Get the details from your college/university choral instructor.

** Did you know that Retired Memberships are not considered Active so our state organization receives no part of these fees for operating expenses?  If you can afford it, please consider Associate Membership instead.  

ACDA is about affirmation and encouragement

President's Message  March 15, 2008
Leora Schwitters, President, WA-ACDA

Welcome to the WA-ACDA web site!  As you peruse this wonderful resource Howard Meharg has assembled for us, be sure to check the Unison archives, the new 'History of WA-ACDA' and submit your events to our calendar page.  We invite you to join us if you are not already a member.  This organization has by far been the most important to me professionally of all the different groups I have been involved with over the years.  I think you will find that sentiment echoed by many, especially those of us who have become actively involved.

Get involved in ACDA!

It wasn't too many years ago that I would go to ACDA functions like Summer Institute or to regional/national conventions and look in admiration from afar at all local leaders like Twyla Brunson, Karen Fulmer, Leslie Guelker-Cone, Linda Hamilton, Judy Herrington, Howard Meharg, et. al., never imagining that I might get acquainted with any of them on a personal level.   
All these people were too important, poised, confident and professional; I was too timid, and besides, I only taught junior high in a school with a somewhat low socio-economic clientele.  Several of these leaders regularly adjudicated my groups and I held (and continue to hold!) them in great esteem.    

Twyla asked me to lead a reading session at SI several years ago, and I was honored, but terrified even as I accepted.  My group then performed in the Seattle NW ACDA Convention, and shortly after that Linda and Leslie asked me to serve as JH/MS R & S Chair.  I had no idea what that entailed, but agreed.   It has been a real eye-opener to be involved with all the planning and behind the scenes work that we often take for granted when we attend events.  It surely makes one more appreciative and less of a complainer when things don't quite go the way they were intended, that's for sure!

I have discovered that all WA-ACDA and NW-ACDA people are pretty much universally terrific people, and that these leaders especially are great to get to know.  I LOVE being around choir directors who are ACDA members!   Whatever level we teach and conduct, we are all continually trying to improve and we all have high standards. Interactions with each other come easily.  I do not have a feeling of competition or judgment coming from these people, but rather of affirmation and encouragement.  This is NOT a group of unapproachable snobs!!

Serving as Registration Chair for the last two NW ACDA conventions and for the last two Summer Institutes allowed me an enviable opportunity to meet many colleagues.  It has been incredibly rewarding to put their names, faces and stories together.  I hope we reach out even more to new members, potential members and younger colleagues, helping them to discover the connections and professional growth possible through ACDA membership. 

Join us if you haven't already.  Renew your membership regularly.  Volunteer to help with Summer Institute, host a workshop, or to write a guest article for "Unison."  Audition your groups for conventions and your students for our honor choirs.  Attend conventions and meet some great people.  Let our leadership know of your interest and say, "Yes!" when you get asked to help.  Get involved!

Leora Schwitters, President, retired after 25 years in public education in 2006, most of which was at the junior high level in Kent, WA. She holds a B.M. from the Yankton College Conservatory of Music in South Dakota and a M.A.T. from the University of Washington. She now directs Rainier Youth Choirs. Active as a clinician and adjudicator, Leora serves on the board of the Tahoma Chapter of NATS and has presided over the Green River Music Region organization.