Far Western District

Convention Ideas

March 21, 2003

Prepared by

Keith Eckhardt

Convene: To come together for a [common] purpose

The contestants have a clear purpose to attend. What is the purpose of a non-contestant to attend?

A major reason cited in the online Convention Survey for not attending our conventions was the person was not competing.

Declining attendance is a problem in other districts. Some districts are taking action and adding events or enhancements that are not contest related. We can too.

What if our men went home from a convention so "jazzed" that they just had to tell 20 of their closest non-barbershopper friends about the fantastic time they just had?

Other District's efforts to grow attendance

Classes Friday Afternoon	MAD is doing it(Basic Barbershop Craft, Beginning Sight Singing, and Basic Vocal Techniques)
Registration fee dismissed for first timers	MAD is doing it
Ladies brunch on Saturday	ONT is doing it
Invite out of district quartets to contests as special guest	SWD is doing it
Gospel Sing on Sunday morning	SUN and SWD are doing it
HOD on Sunday morning	SUN is doing it
Hospitality suites listed in program	SUN is doing it
Master Craft class on Saturday afternoon	SUN is doing it
Saturday Box Lunch	EVG is doing it, purchase ahead
Mass sing Sat aft. On front steps	SWD is doing it
Chorus Director's Workshop	RMD is doing it

Proposed FWD efforts to grow attendance

Tour Friday afternoon	If you aren't attending HOD. Bakersfield has some tour potential in the oil fields (from well to auto) and a living museum on California animals. I have not looked much into Reno sightseeing. Virginia City is an interesting place to see and the Bill Harrah automobile collection could be interesting.
Buffet dinner Friday 4-6:30	Place to eat AND sing. No driving required. Great for HOD attendees and for arriving members.
Help local chapter find new members	Send quartets out to sing and hand out flyers. Local chapter plans the locations and routes. Probably only an hour commitment. Could be Thursday evening, anytime Friday, and Saturday afternoon. Local chapter should have a guest night planned very soon. The Reno chapter is considering sending quartets out immediately after HFLB.
Spring: Recognize chapter BOTYs. Fall: Recognize chapter presidents	A reason for 88 men and spouses to show up. Plus, these are doers and shakers. District officer schmoozing could be vital.
HFLB	Great start, let's keep it going.
Invite the public to participate in the whole convention, or just the HS quartet contest and Show of Champions.	Show of champions open to the public for a small fee, e.g. $5 per person, or print a $10 off coupon in the newspaper. The local chapter needs to help sell the tickets. They also could give free tickets to any music educator, school principal, or school board member. Anyone currently enrolled as a student "anywhere" gets in for $1, kids under 12 free. The tickets should have space on the back for name and address and the tickets are collected. (Have pens in the lobby). The tickets then are used for a door prize drawing and the winner gets a local chapter quartet for a free singout. The addresses on the back of the tickets go to the local chapter for their show mailing list. How about a door prize for every 100 tickets sold. The local press should be given press kits that tell the story weeks ahead. Radio and TV stations invited to get in on the fun. Invite the current International Quartet Gold Medal Champs to be on the show.
Local Advertising	A week ahead of the convention put some blurbs in the local press. Send a big notice to all radio and TV stations. Use some mind twisting ideas. "You'll know we're in town. You'll hear us!" with just the SPEBSQSA initials for a couple of days. Or: "Real harmony arrives next Friday." "It only takes four." "Listen Up, Bakersfield( or Reno or Visalia or ???). You'll hear us." "Probably nothing you ever heard about Barbershop singing is true. Prove it Saturday night at 8pm."
YMIH Friday	Hire several top HS and College quartets to visit multiple high schools in the convention city to demonstrate barbershop singing. At spring convention, invite local teens to the HS Quartet Contest.
Saturday night afterglow	Many competing events to choose from: Quartet Parody Contest Gang sing tags with a top tagger Gang sing new music Divide and sing casual quartet room Sing for a "director being coached" room Wide open hospitality suites
Ladies Saturday breakfast	Ladies only, planned by our spouses. Objective is FUN!
Sell and Sing-a-thon	Rent tables very cheaply to any quartet or chorus that has music, tickets, or whatever to sell or announce. Ask the non-competing quartets to be present for impromptu singing with the members.
Sing with the Champs - impromptu	Ask the "greats" to wander the halls and invite men "on the spot" to step into their quartet or fifth-wheel. Set up a program to provide stickers that say "I sang with Quartet Name" on them for the quartet to give to each singer.
Play the IQ game	Objective is to get every man to sing in a quartet. The game is on in Reno.
Wandering Woodshedders	Form a woodshedder quartet to wander and engage men in a known song, then ask him to woodshed his part on an unknown song, with possible guidance by the man he replaces in the quartet.
Form a quartet meeting place	Set up a barber pole in the lobby of the HQ Hotel (convention center lobby also?) and tell everyone it's a place to form a quartet
Barbershop photo op	Have a real barber chair in the hotel lobby with a barbershop backdrop and props and a photographer to take pictures (for a fee).
Famous singer for the weekend	Invite a known (but not too expensive) singer to be our guest for the weekend. Ask him/her to spend some time at the barberchair for photos and to ask our members to teach him/her some tags. Make the dignitary an honorary member. Use his/her name in pre-convention publicity.
Harmony squads	Form Harmony squads that are commissioned to wander and ask men to sing. Ask them to be in the lobby of the auditorium 30 minutes before competition, during intermission, and 30 minutes afterward. Ask them to purchase and wear a "Harmony Squad" tee shirt. This is their weekend job. Let the attendees to go home saying they never sang so much before.
Gospel Barbershop sing-a-long	Not a preaching or praying time, just singing Gospel music in the barbershop style. District arrangers invited to arrange songs and teach/direct them.
Convention advertising to members	It's big splash time. How about using the "It's all Over" theme? It's all over, finished, kaput, complete. FWD Conventions aren't just contests anymore.
Revive the convention bus/train	Research a plan to get whole chapters to come by bus or train and have a transportation plan for their weekend so they don't need a car.
Make sure there is a "track" for all participants	Contestants and observers, singers, learners, women, teens, children
Day Care: Parents of young children have asked for this.	Hire a local quality day care center to take over a convention center meeting room or two on Saturday and provide real day care. Rent them a truck to move cribs and toys in and out. Perhaps the hotel would set this up.
Mother's room	The competition is video taped. Run a feed to a side room and setup a big screen TV. Rent a couple of cribs and provide sheets and blankets. Provide a changing table and large waste basket with lid. The room should be safe for nursing mothers.
Eight hour Master Classes	Thursday 1-5, Friday 8-12, for a fee Exactly half of the FWD membership is over 65. Many more are retired or self-employed and could adjust their schedules.
Low cost rooms and food	Many of our members complain they can't afford $80+ rooms. Let's find a way to radically reduce the cost (but therefore convenience) for this segment of our members. How about a nearby motel that will have 2-3 beds in one room for $60 per night. That is $20-30 per person per night. Currently the cost of one district convention is easily 3-5 times annual dues. Identify low cost cafeterias and fast food places nearby.
Warning, radical thought! Provide Master Craft classes during contest times.	Some of our members would come to attend the classes when they won't come to observe the competition. The classes would be fee based and have a minimum enrollment. Now, who would miss the contest to teach them???
Craft Classes to earn a certificate As proposed by Cliff Jacobs on the far-west listserv Once a curriculum is decided, the classes could be offered at any of our events including conventions, HCW, and COTS.	How about one or two SPECIAL SEMINARS at each event, as part of a Seminar Series; where, at the completion of the entire series, you get a Certificate or plaque attesting to that fact that you have successfully completed the entire series. Each seminar could focus on a specific topic relating to our craft; such as 1. Proper breathing and breath control 2. Vowel shapes and sounds 3. Turning Diphthongs, Triphthongs etc. 4. Tuning and Coning 5. Warm ups 6. Volume control 7. 3rds, 5th's and 7ths intervals 8. Tonics and roots 9. Unit Sound 10. Proper singing stance 11. Showmanship/ Movement/ Performance 12. Selling the song 13. Attitude/ Commanding the audience
Invite SAI and HI to our conventions	If we can define enough classes and fun non-competition events, let's formally invite the women barbershoppers to benefit from our offerings. They will add to our registration count and hotel usage.
First time FWD conventioneers get in free	Ask them to stand to be recognized at one of the contests so the rest of us can cheer them on. Give them a sticker or a ribbon to wear on their badge or a different color badge.
Mass sing on the front steps or nearby	Invite the public, no charge.
Provide free Barbershop entertainment to local businesses	Arrange with local coffee houses, bars, restaurants, malls, etc. that would welcome some entertainment and we would provide a quartet for free. Our quartets would sign up ahead of time for a specific place at a specific time and the business owner could advertise the event. The intent would be to saturate the city with the spirit and sound of Barbershop Harmony. It could be a Barbershop Blitz.
Fill the lull	Immediately after the quartet finals, there are 20 minutes of dead time. How about filling it with something? Audience singing is a lot of fun and the women get to participate. Or, have several retired judges agree to judge the performers for entertainment value and take their top five candidates and show the video tapes from the competition again during the lull.

Proposal to increase attendance at Conventions

Currently we have two teams managing the Convention and Contest process:

1. Events Team - responsible to see that contest and hotel facilities are acquired to meet the needs of the convention and that staff are in place to run the convention and register the conventioneers.

2. C&J Team - responsible to provide judges and staff to adjudicate the contest and to register the contestants. They submit their facilities needs to the Events Team.

The above proposed additions to a convention weekend would be a major additional workload which does not appear central to the mission of either of these two teams.

Therefore I propose that a Convention Team be formed to implement appropriate additions to our conventions to promote a much greater attendance from our members. This team would submit facilities requests to the Events Team who would negotiate for facilities for the new events.

This would balance out the activities of each team and would allow each team to focus on their own mission. The team leaders could act as the high-level co-management for the whole process.

The Far Western District has been a leader many times in our society. We can do it again.

Respectfully submitted,

Keith Eckhardt

Implementation Proposal

1. The FWD BOD to select a Convention Team (CT) leader with an enthusiastic and optimistic view of this effort, with leadership experience, proven ability to complete projects, and broad contacts in the district.

2. The BOD, with the CT leader, to select four additional CT members of varying ages and barbershop experience levels, all with enthusiasm for this effort.

3. The new CT team to define a process for choosing and implementing ideas. The plan must include a Return On Investment analysis of each item proposed. Value can be measured in dollars and/or in member benefit.

4. The CT team is authorized to conduct a FWD member survey on their proposals.

5. The BOD should review the first implementation plan, thereafter perhaps only the VP's or committee chairmen affected would do so. Approval may be by email to expedite the process.

6. Approved items to be implemented ASAPractical.

7. Success of each new event to be measured and reported back to the BOD