In This Issue

• Classes at Bakersfield - March 14
• High School Quartet Contest - March 15
• Spring Prelims And SoCal West Convention March 13-16
• Division Conventions - March thru May
• Harmony College West - July 18-20
• Attention Chapter Secretaries
• Calendar and Links

Classes at Bakersfield - March 14

At each Spring and Fall District Convention we hold classes on Friday afternoon for the folks arriving early. It all starts off with a Harmony For Lunch Bunch and at Bakersfield we have a Pizza restaurant with a large hall that fits well over 100 people. It's a great way to get warmed up and reconnected with friends from all over.

Time	Class	Room
11am-1pm	Harmony For Lunch Bunch - Fun time of singing, meeting old friends, and eating. Check out the map. Take the California Ave. exit off of Hwy 99, go East one block to Oak St., turn right. It's down about four blocks on the left.	Pizzaville, 700 Oak St., Bakersfield
1pm-2pm	Ear Singing - Come learn how the original barbershoppers created their harmony by inventing it on the spot. You can too. Led by our district Ancient Harmonious Society Of Woodshedders.	Holiday Inn - Bellridge Room - next to the restaurant
1pm-4pm	Membership Workshop - This is the class we were unable to include at COTS this year. Everyone is welcome. You don't have to be a chapter officer. Come learn how to create and maintain a successful chapter membership program. It is designed to be highly interactive, rather than "instructional". Discover and share with your peers what works, what doesn't work, and how to create and launch a successful plan for success. (Clark Abrahamson/Chuck Hunter)	Holiday Inn - Tehachapi Room, 2nd floor
2pm-3pm	Group Singing - Get your pipes warmed up by singing a pile of the songs we all love so well. It's just a fun time of a gang of folks singing together.	Holiday Inn - Bellridge Room - next to the restaurant
3pm-4pm	Tag Singing - More fun singing with tag meister Howard Barber.	Holiday Inn - Bellridge Room - next to the restaurant
2pm-4pm	Productive PR Workshop - Come learn how to write PR that gets published and then work as small teams to create some about this weekend's contestants. We submit your work to the appropriate newspapers. (Kevin Smith)	Holiday Inn - Oleander Room - on hallway to convention center

Plan now for a fun time of singing and learning on Friday afternoon in Bakersfield. There's no need to register. Just BE THERE!

High School Quartet Contest - March 15

Each year at the Spring Prelims convention we also have the High School Quartet Contest and what an enjoyable time it is. Surprising at times too—you just can't predict what the youth will think up.

If you have a quartet at a local high school, there is still time to tell them about this contest. There's prize money to be had and a trophy too. You will find all the details and a promotional flyer at HSQC Information.

It's not too late to register a quartet.

Spring Prelims And SoCal West Convention March 13-16

It's just a week away, but it's not too late to participate. You can register at the door and still get in on all the fun. We have ten quartets registered for the Prelims and another ten for the SCW quartet contest. Add to that the SCW chorus contest and the eight, yes eight high school quartets for their contest. Then toss in a lot of hallway singing and you'll have non-stop harmony the whole time.

So here's the Friday plan. Show up at Pizzaville at 11:30 for Harmony For Lunch Bunch, then head over to the Holiday Inn for our terrific classes, grab some dinner, and then off to Harvey Auditorium on the high school campus for the contests. The high school is just a short distance from the California Ave exit on Hwy 99 and there are lots of mid-priced restaurants near there.

Full Convention Schedule

Map to HFLB at Pizzaville

Map to Holiday Inn Select - HQ hotel and location of classes

Map to Harvey Auditorium - Contest location

Hotel locations and maps

Division Conventions - March thru May

The 2008 FWD contest cycle begins in our divisions and those contests will be held starting in March where the SoCal West division contest is being held concurrently with the International Quartet Prelims contest. The rest of the contests are in April and May. Go to the FWD Conventions webpage to find registration forms. Quartets and choruses are registered for contests by going to the original SPEBSQSA Members Only website and clicking on the CJ-20 form.

Harmony College West - July 18-20

Harmony College West 2008 will be held in Redlands mid-July this year. Once again we'll repeat the POD quartet coaching method that has received rave reviews by our quartets. Many of our coaches are gold medallists and you won't find a finer coaching staff anywhere. In order to provide this level of quality we do have to raise the fee for quartet coaching this year to $200 per member. Classes for individuals remains at $150 with lodging and $95 for commuters. Also, we have an early bird registration date of Monday, June 16. After that registrations go up $25 each and will be conditional upon class availability.

Our Saturday night show will include the 2006 Gold Medal quartet Realtime and the 2007 Silver Medal college quartet The Crush. If you can't attend HCW, but Saturday night is open, you can' buy tickets at the door to hear these terrific quartets.

We have four special Early Arrival classes. There is no registration for the early classes—just show up, get your badge, and attend the one-hour classes at 3pm and 4pm.

Time	Class Title	Class Description	Instructor
3pm	Tune It or Die	What is tuning? Why is it important? Learn more about this most important element of singing. (Open to ALL singers)	Rick Spencer
3pm	The Psychology of Competition	What kinds of things should we think about in preparation for competition? How soon should we begin to think about them? How can we best prepare the members of our quartet/chorus to be ready for contest day? The answer to these questions and more will be revealed in this class which addresses the psychology of the competition cycle. Grab your notebooks and come on down...you won't want to miss it!	Dawn Castiglione
4pm	The Ensemble Approach to Quartetting	Quartetting is more than just four guys singing their part to the same song. Learn some key approaches to quartetting that will offer you more success right from the start. (Open to ALL singers)	Rick Spencer
4pm	School House Rock	In the same way that the famous School House Rock educational jingles helped to bring an educational element to Saturday morning cartoons...this class will help bring valuable information to your quartet/chorus rehearsals that will answer your presentation category questions about how we move, how much we should move, and why we even move in the first place. Plus, this is a really fun way to piece together a visual plan without being obsessed with "choreography" but rather the true nature of the Presentation category..."Showmanship!"	Dawn Castiglione

Our line-up of regular classes is just as terrific, but you do have to register for these classes.

The details of these classes are way too extensive for this newsletter, so go to HCW 2008 Individual Classes to read the fine details. The classes we are offering this year are:

ClassTitle	Class Length	Instructor
Quartet/Chorus Spokesman	4	Tom Schleier
Contest Emcee	4	Tom Schleier
Music Team	2	Steve Shannon
Plateau A Chorus Coaching	4	Steve Shannon
Sight Reading-Beginning	4	Phil Ordaz
Sight Reading-Intermediate	4	Phil Ordaz
Outstanding In Front	8	Jim Turnmire
Barbershop Arranging 101	8	Dave Briner
Barbershop Acoustics	2	Dan McQuigg
Tag Teaching	2	Dan McQuig
Vocal Production	4	Craig Ewing
Membership Workshop	4	Clark Abrahamson
Marketing and PR Workshop	4	Clark Abrahamson
The Comedic Approach - Barbershop and Humor	4	Brian Philbin
Show Production	8	Allen Fossenkemper

Just click on HCW 2008 to read all about Harmony College West 2008, then choose a link to register.

Attention Chapter Secretaries

Members of your chapter without E-mail will not receive this information and we ask you to print this and share it with them.