September 7, 2009

Dear Tahoma Chapter Members,

This year is an exciting year for the Tahoma Chapter of NATS. This fall marks the 10th anniversary of the revival of the Tahoma Chapter and the 20th anniversary of the initial charter. The chapter began with a handful of charter members and struggled for years with a valiant and devoted group. I remember the first adjudications I was a part of in 2002 took less than 2 hours to hear about 20 singers. The chapter now boasts about 30 members and we have two adjudication events to accommodate nearly 200 singers now participating. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to those early faithful members for helping establish a South Sound chapter and a pattern of respect and support for all teachers of singing in this region.

In this spirit of respect and cooperation, the board would like to encourage even more collaboration and learning from each other. There are hundreds of years of experience among us and much we can all share with others. Therefore, we issue an invitation for studio collaborations as recently advocated in the Journal of Singing. The board is excited to see more of this going on and we encourage you to arrange a "studio swap" sometime this year.

This year officially begins with the Regional Conference featuring Paul Kiesgen and held in Olympia. The early registration deadline is this Thursday. We will have our fall chapter meeting during the lunch break of the Regional Conference at noon. There will be a few prizes raffled off to those attending this meeting so you won’t want to miss it (plus some pretty important business). Lunch is available to order if you so desire.

The next event on the schedule is the Fall Chapter Recital on Sunday, November 15th at Highline Community College at 3pm. These recitals are a cherished chapter tradition and I hope many of you consider having your students participate. We still need a recital chair and I ask you to please contact me if you are willing to assume this fairly easy responsibility.

Our High School Adjudications will be held January 30th and our Adult Adjudications on February 27th at Highline Community College. Troy Fisher is excited to be this year's adjudications chair with Elaine Burk as an assistant. Registration will again be available online with a streamlined application and a teacher notification for each applicant. The board also authorized a one-year trial of Paypal for payments of dues and registration fees. We will be interested in your feedback on this trial program. The National organization has issued new adjudications guidelines which necessitate some small changes to our adjudications procedures. More details will follow but the changes are relatively small with most repertoire requirements the same as last year.

The spring also will include our Scholarship Award and NATSAA. The deadline for NATSAA is November 13th with the competition on March 7th.

May 1st will conclude our year with a special 10th Anniversary Program, Chapter Meeting and Spring Fling Recital. The program is still being arranged but it will surely be an event not to be missed.

We've had one change to the board since our spring meeting. Nancy Vancil has moved to Istanbul, Turkey with her husband. We will miss her enthusiasm. Glenn Guhr has offered to complete the last year of her term and we are happy to have him on board.

I am excited about all the possibilities of this year and the opportunity to be involved with such a great group of pedagogues who do the extraordinary on a daily basis. We are truly a part of a magnificent profession!

I look forward to seeing you this year and continuing to learn from your collective wisdom.

Sincerely,

Erin Guinup

Tahoma Chapter President