1. Notes for this week

• Last Monday's Meeting :
  • It was great to see General Assembly / Oak City Sound veteran Vern Pike back on the risers!
• Guest Report:
  • Paul Blondefield was back with us for his second week. He now has access to the music. Welcome back, Paul!
  • Steve Cutlip was back for his third week ... very eager to be on the risers with us at the earliest possible moment.
  • Steve McGehee was back with us again. 
  • John Quick was unavailable, but will be back with us next week.
  • Ben Hansen is still  in Florida recovering / quarantining from COVID.
• Next rehearsal is Monday, August 8 at Searstone at 7pm. Our usual location and time.

2. Carol's Korner

• Please be sure to look at the beginning section of Bare Necessities. It works well right now with a quartet, but we will need the whole chorus prepared to sing that for October 15 District competition at Asbury Church.
  • We made great progress on the intro this past Monday. Please practice staying on top of the pitch, especially on the swipes, and keep that hopeful feeling to keep the intonation clean as we head into the body of the song.
• Monday Aug 8 plan includes the following songs
  • It's a Hanukkah Song
  • It's the Most Wonderful Time
  • Merry Christmas, Darling
  • White Christmas
  • Winter Wonderland
  • Bare Necessities (see note above!)
  • The Longest Time
  • Over the Rainbow
  • Prayer of the Children
• The following table contains the near-term targeted memorization dates for the listed songs.
  •  

    Song	Target Date
    Bare Necessities	8/15/22
    Carol of the Bells	8/22/22
    It Came Upon a Midnight Clear / Silent Night	8/22/22
    It's The Most Wonderful Time	8/22/22
    Jingle Bell Rock	8/22/22

3. Future Notes

• August 27, approx 11AM - Oak City Sound in concert at Cary's Lazy Daze town/22/22 festival. Mark it on your calendar.
• We will not meet on Monday September 5 for Labor Day.

4. Long Range

• September 10 is our first of 7 football concession sessions at Carter Finley stadium.  These are our most important fund raiser events of the year.  We need to provide 6 workers for each event.  The signup sheet is available now.
  • Remember that it does not have to be just chapter members working the concession. Family and friends can help out, too..
  • Tim will provide more details as we get close. Meanwhile, click Concession to sign up as you are able.
  • Here is the entire schedule, as far as we know right now:
    • Sep 10 - Kickoff @ 12:30pm    Report to work @ 9:30am
      • Many of the ladies will be en route to their International Contest /2/2so we will probably need to provide more than our standard 6 workers.  Right now they are hoping we can provide 9 workers for 8the first game.  We only have 2 who have committed to work so far.
      • This is the same date as NSC District's Lakeside Harmony weekend. Note that Chapter responsibilities take priority.
    • Sep 17 - Kickoff @  7:00pm    Report to work @  4:30pm
    • Sep 24 - time TBA
    • Oct  8 - time TBA
    • Oct 27 - Kickoff @  7:30pm    Report to work @  5:00pm
    • Nov  5 - time TBA
    • Nov 12 - time TBA
• September 10 is also the district’s Lakeside Harmony Camp at the Durant Nature Preserve.  It is an all day fun event of education and singing.  The chapter obligation comes first, but after filling that you should attend this event if you can.
• October 14 and 15:: NSC District will hold this Fall's Convention at Asbury UMC Church at 6612 Creedmoor Rd, in Raleigh.
  • Volunteering: HCA/HOC Choruses in Durham are the hosting chapter. with Jason Kekas as the Convention  Planner and Chairman.. Let Nic know if you are available to help as well. 
  • Particpating: We will compete at the Convention with The Bare Necessities and Over the Rainbow.. Look for future announcements about the qualifying process!
• Christmas Season:
  • Show (Potential): Dec 5 at Searstone. We are working at finalizing the date. Stay tuned.
  • Show:  On December 6, a Tuesday evening, we will put on a Christmas show at the Cary Arts Center theater.   We will need to sell tickets.  Start thinking NOW about who you might want to invite. 
  • Community Singouts: Please be on the lookout for possible other places to sing at Christmas time. If they can't come to us, we will come to them! Just to put some context about it: we had 14 singers at our singouts in North Hills Shopping Center, while at the same time we were having only 10 or 11 at practice sessions! Everyone likes singouts in the public setting. Note that we will make every effort possible to schedule these for Monday evenings. We know your time during the Holiday season is precious, so to ask for another night is difficult. We hope you can keep your Monday evenings reserved for Oak City Sound throughout that season.

5. Champagne Room

• What's this??? Yes. it's a new section in The Acorn where we toast and celebrate the musical accomplishments of our members.  It's because we're so cool that we call it the Champagne Room! 
• Please send me worthy accomplishments that I can include here.
• To launch this whole thing, let's listen to our resident concert pianist Sir Kenny Bland tickle the ivories, creating a jazzy atmosphere during last Monday's break. The clip is kinda short. Was he playing "The Wonder of You"?  https://youtu.be/gMON1pDeZIE