Hello Ontario District, and happy new year!
Welcome to 2020, the beginning of a brand new decade bursting with opportunity. Already our district’s barbershop year is off to a great start. We held our newly re-branded Ontario Harmony Academy at Geneva Park the very first weekend of the new year, where barbershoppers from across the province gathered to upgrade their skills to better add to the barbershop communities they are a part of. We were also extremely well represented at the Society’s Midwinter Convention in Jacksonville by our seniors quartet reps Sync or Swim and Tall Boys, and by the outgoing International Seniors Quartet Champions DoubleDouble. Many chapters are hard at work preparing to get out in their communities next month and spread the love with Singing Valentines, and all chapters and quartets are busy getting ready for their barbershop year ahead.
It’s traditional for an incoming district president to adopt a theme for a year or for their term in office – kind of a barbershop new years resolution. In coming up with a theme for this year, I reflected on our Society theme song and one line stuck out to me. Midway through we sing “…smile the while you are singing, carry, carry your part.” The significance of those three words becomes even greater when you take it out of the context of just music and look at it through the lens of our entire barbershop community. There are so many ways to give back to the chapter, the district, and the Society.
This year, I’m challenging you to push a little more, dig a little deeper, and find one or two new ways to contribute to your barbershop world. Maybe that means helping to set up or put away the risers every rehearsal, if you’re a member who typically doesn’t. Maybe that means donating to one of our District’s official charities, if you’re a member who hasn’t before. Maybe that means seeing if your specific skill set or passion could be of use on a chapter or district committee. If you need help thinking of something you could do to take up the Carry Your Part challenge, come talk to me! I’m sure we can think of something together.
Find a new way to contribute, say you’re going to do it, and then (most importantly) do it. It’s that easy. The more we each carry our part, the lighter the load is on any one of us individually, and the farther we can go as a team to advance barbershop in Ontario, across the continent, and around the world.
Sidenote: Everything old is new again: In checking past barbershop publications for references to this year’s theme, I found that past Ontario District president Ted McAlpine also challenged readers to “carry your part” in a 1984 edition of The Trillium, as did director Jed Casey of the Fairfax Jubilaires in a 1972 issue of The Harmonizer, and I’m sure there were more that I missed.
You only have to take a look through our new district business plan to see all of the exciting things we have lined up for this year as a district. Looking ahead to 2021, the Ontario District will be celebrating our 75th anniversary. We’ve got a couple of plans and ideas up our sleeves, but I’d love to hear from YOU. How should we mark such a momentous year? Shoot me an email at president@ontariosings.com and let me know.
Hoping to see all of you in-person at conventions, educational events, chapter shows and more throughout the year. Smile while you are singing, carry your part, and keep a melody ringing in your heart all through 2020.
In harmony,
Michael Black
President – Ontario District of the Barbershop Harmony Society