The Secretary
by Dirk Tinbergen
PUBLISHED January 2008
Mid October:
On a "high" after the most wonderful experience in Worcester.
Start of new season. This year I’ll try really hard to keep up to date and remember what I’ve done and what is still pending. (Getting harder with age and grey hair! Must write it down!)
Enrol singers for Singing Day as applications pour in.
E-mail "Worcester Live" and confirm they’ll sell tickets for us next year. Left it very late last year and I got into trouble!
Start getting text together for the Enrolment Form. Remind Committee that we have to fix enrolment fees, buffet price, cost of scores and buses.
Early November:
Enrolment Form to designers, for printing by Christmas.
Liaise with "everything-at-his-fingertips" Michael to update M F C Society Members list on database.
Receive Newsletter masters (with "Malcolm’s Verdict") from the wonderful Sheila and have it printed.
Send out Newsletters, with more Singing Day flyers. (Hope Members will get them into local libraries!)
Go to music library to order copies for Singing Day.
Late November:
Check and recheck drafts of Enrolment Form. Thank
goodness for the amazing Nicki, the world’s best proof reader!
Check names of orchestra and soloists with Donovan, who is constantly in contact with agents. (Except that they always seem to be on holiday and unobtainable. How does this astonishing man always manage to stay so calm?)
Send Singing Day flyers to all West Midlands choir secretaries.
(Another year older and slowing down! Will brain last until October?)
Late December:
Receive next Newsletter masters. Write cover letter for Enrolment Form. Go to copyshop to have it all printed and ready to go before Xmas. Spend post Christmas lull stuffing 700 envelopes. (Thank goodness for self seal gum and non lick stamps!)
January:
Send out Enrolment Forms with cover letter and enclose the Newsletter to Members.
(Bless you, computer, for printing the address labels. Try to remember who lives with whom at the same address, but with different names - saves stamps!)
For the next two weeks, deal with deluge of enrolments for May and October. (Oh, no. Lots of people have again forgotten the S.A.E.! Could do without that!)
January - February:
Gradual increase in enrolment numbers. Have to disappoint some singers ‘cos Singing Day is full.
Liaise with Grant, our sound engineer, over Recording Day, when Malcolm and Sarah spend an intensive day locked in a recording studio.
Early April:
In preparation for AGM, receive Newsletter masters from Sheila, annual reports from Nicki, Malcolm and Michael.
Prepare AGM booklet with agenda and last year’s minutes.
Cover letter giving all Singing Day details - map on the back.
Liaise with Malcolm re Conductor’s Notes. Have everything printed in local copyshop. Stuff envelopes. Spend lots of your money on stamps!
Late April:
Collect finished CDs. (Hope there won’t be any problems this year.)
Some time in spring:
Visit Worcester with "nothing-is-too-much-trouble" Audrey and Nicki to liaise with Church, Cathedral and publicity group. Always a super day meeting lovely Worcester people who seem genuinely pleased to see us, with a Cornish Pastie by the river side for lunch.
I expect you have read enough. There’s never a dull moment in M F C!