August, 2010 Volume 6, Issue 8

The Great Chapters Helping Chapters Threeforall

I Sure Wish I Had Gotten to Know You Sooner

By Bill Frazier, Membership and Chapter Support

A major Chapters Helping Chapters event happened in July in Spokane. Three chapters got together and discovered they had a lot to offer each other. The concept is called a Threeforall.

The chapters were Pullman-Moscow Palouse Harmony Chorus, Spokane Pages of Harmony, and Coeur d’ Alene Lake City Harmonizers. The District paid for the organization of the program and for the facilitator to lead the event. Leadership teams from all three chapters took a Saturday afternoon and learned some great information.

Information like, how can we make members out of guys who can’t afford membership dues. How do we make learning opportunities for our directors when we don’t have a lot of money? How do we make our resources available for swapping with other chapters? What strategies for success do the other chapters use that would benefit my chapter?

What impressed me was how all the guys who participated did understand that one of the keys to their own chapter success was to reach out to the other chapters and give so their own chapters could receive.

Well Bill, why didn’t you just print all the stuff up and send it out to them so they wouldn’t have to kill an afternoon meeting with you?

The point was members connecting with members. Learning who the players are. Knowing who you can count on from the other chapters?

It is absolute HERESY IN OUR HOBBY to have one chapter thriving by growing in numbers and treasury and letting another chapter die that’s just in the next town. Or, a chapter letting itself choke and sputter and not asking the successful chapter up the road for a little help.

And, we have this situation going on all over our District where a hugely gifted individual who lives in a town where there is a struggling chapter (and you boys know who you are) and not only do they not offer ANY support to that chapter, they get in their cars each week and drive for an hour and a half to a chorus that is considered “successful.” Now listen, there is nothing wrong with finding a chapter that you love to be in. What’s dysfunctional about this, is not offering any help to the challenged chapter in your own town.

Offer to go once a month. Or offer to teach them a song, or a tag or do a craft session. I know it is tough when you are giving 100% of your barbershop time to your chapter and your quartet, but just a little bit of encouragement now and again does wonders for the chapters who want to grow and become something new. You can help. Give a little bit of your time and talent. It will be good for you and for your brothers in harmony.

I will be calling on chapters to participate in Threeforalls, but you saw how we put the first one together and it turned out to be a great success. It’s all right for you to ask me. I will do all the preparation. You just need to step up.

Like the grandpa who was telling his little grandson what his own childhood was like: “We used to skate outside on the pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode a pony. We picked wild huckleberries in the woods.” The little boy was wide-eyed, taking this all in. At last he said, “I sure wish I’d gotten to know you sooner!”

Bill Frazier, Director

Membership and Chapter Support

Evergreen District

503-266-5020

billfrazier@canby.com