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News

- 21/01/11

Socials aren't dead

The socials are still alive and kicking (although the website does seem like a ghost town at times unless more people sign up). We've been heavily hindered during the closing months of 2010 due to concerts which the committee would like to avoid overloading people during - and due to the weather preventing things during December, however I am launching into 2011 with vigour to get things arranged for people to be able to do.

So, item number 1: the awaited choir meal. I mentioned this to the choir before Christmas as a planned Christmas meal, but again with weather and concerts this was postponed until the new year and is now top of my agenda. Specific ideas, places and dates are already in the pipework and are currently under review from committee but I hope to be presenting some dates to you all at the next choir rehearsal - as well as a sign up sheet for you all to register your interest (which also allows me to reserve the correct sized table).

Straight on to item number 2: the Variety evening. This was also discussed towards the end of last year (see the below post) and this is also back on the top of my agenda for the start of the new year. I'm hoping for this to occur during March (to give us chance to have the meal first, not overly crowd peoples calendars with events, and to give everyone time to rehearse). Due to the parting of Michelle Hitchman from the choir as our long standing pianist, and to ease the arrival of our new pianist I would like to ask that all performers who are planning to sing a piece for the variety evening bring in some backing music for them to sing along to. I shall arrange for a music system to be in place for everyone to use, however I don't think we should be adding to the list of things for the new pianist to learn just at this moment in time, as they have our entire music back catalogue to be getting familiar with at the moment.

All of these items I am hoping to announce at the next choir rehearsal, and hopefully even get some sign up sheets out for immediately. I hope you all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to 2011.

If anyone would like to volunteer to assist with the socials please let me know. This would be very appreciated as with the treasury position to also handle there is quite a lot of work, which can be why some of these social events take a little longer than expected to arrange.

- Alex Smith

- 16/09/10

Variety Evening

Heck it has been a while since we last did something, and in my opinion, far too long now. As such, in the essence of speed the Pub Quiz has been sidelined for a future date and we are hosting a Variety Evening at the Polish club in our rehearsal room. This will be happening in the first few weeks of October on a Saturday. This is a chance for any of you who don't feel confident enough to do concert solos yet, or just want to do something a bit different and whacky and fun to take to the stage. If you play an instrument or just have a party trick skill to show everyone then we want to see it :-) Please sign up to do something on the evening, a sign up sheet will be out on the side reguarly during rehearsals over the next few weeks. There will also be a fish and chip supper during the evening so you don't need to eat beforehand.

Looking forward to seeing all of you there (hint hint).

- Alex Smith

- 24/05/10

Next social event in the planning stages. This time Pub Quiz

It has been a little while now since our last social event (the wine tasting) and I think we are over due for the next event. I would ideally like to start these events as monthly get-togethers, however was warming people up with one every three months (although if you feel ready for a lot more suddenly then let me know). However, I am currently looking for venues to host a Pub Quiz. My main criteria for the venue are:

• Well priced bar, easily available for us
• Privacy - somewhere away from the general pub users, so that we can have our own pub quiz without other people trying to join in and win the prizes
• Somewhere cheap / free - ideally I would like the pub quiz entry cost to be VERY low. £1 per person for instance. For which I could do with a cheap venue

Please let me know via email if you have any venue ideas, however I would be looking to book somewhere sometime soon because, as I mentioned before, I think we are overdue the next social event.

Thanks to you all and I look forward to seeing you there.

- Alex Smith

- 06/03/10

The Wine Tasting has now been finalised. Details below, however please check out the forum for further details, and sign up for the forum by going to the forum page and clicking 'login' in the top right corner of the blue forum area.

• When : 7:00pm - Saturday 20th March
• Where: Webheath Village Hall
• Cost : Ticket price of £7.50 for wine tasting, £3.00 for non-drinkers/designated drivers.
• Notes: Ticket price of the wine tasters will include 4 glasses of different wines with wine tasting notes, and a short presentation/discussion on each wine. For non-drinkers, there will be a selection of non-alcoholic drinks available. Nibbles and snacks will also be available for everyone. Also, please note, 16 - 17 year olds will be welcome to this event if a parent or guardian is able to attend with you.

- 24/02/10

Thanks to you all for your response and interest in the wine tasting evening. We have considered a number of locations and have decided to use Webheath Village Hall for the event, as we all know them quite well and they have been able to offer us a reasonable price and a few available dates. On this front I could do with knowing everyones availability for the following date:

• Sat 20th March

To provide me feedback on this matter and vote for your preferred date, please SIGN UP to the forum and cast your vote.

Thank you

- 17/02/10

Bel Canto will now have a social website to check for details and a list of all upcoming events. As well as providing a choir members section where you can see other members of the choir to associate names to faces (pictures are discretional, however if you would like your picture on the site - which would be appreciated - could you please email the picture you would like to the webmaster [please see the contact page.

The social site shall be updated reguarly with events and the forum for member discussions will always be active should you wish to comment on any recent social events or make suggestions of events you would like to see. Or just to have an online chat with other choir members.

Please note this site is not intented as the main website for the Bel Canto choir of Redditch, but is merely the social activities site for the choir members. If you wish to get in touch with the choir you should use the contacts available from the main site. Thank you.

To everyone else, Welcome to the Bel Canto Social Website. We shall continue to announce events at choir as normal (for those members who cannot check the website reguarly, or who do not currently have access to the internet), however all events announced at choir will be listed on the website with further detail and up to the moment information about the event.