President's Update 26th March

Hi all,

It was so nice to see you all last night on the WebEx link up. Thanks to Coralie for running the warmup and providing us with a list of pieces to work on and thanks to Alec for setting all of this up for both the board meeting and the catch-up last night.

The board had their monthly meeting last Monday night via WebEx, which was an experience in itself! There are a few announcements for you all regarding choir over the next few months:

Rehearsals: The board acknowledges just how dear TRS is to all of our members and staying connected is very important to us all. Therefore, we will be running basic online rehearsals which involve a group warmup and social catch ups on a weekly basis each Thursday night. This will be followed by a session of independent practice and the chance to contact Coralie with any questions that may arise regarding the music.

Last night, we had some sound difficulties which we hope to resolve over the coming weeks. We are considering trialling Zoom for next week, to see if it is more effective sound-wise. We will be in touch regarding links and sign in details over the next week.

It will be difficult to run a full rehearsal online due to different connection speeds and delays etc, so independent practice will be most important. Coralie will be sending out a list of songs to work on (as she did yesterday). This will help keep us on track with our learning and practice during this downtime.

If you do have any issues you would like to work through individually, Coralie has kindly agreed to accept Facetime calls during the normal Thursday night rehearsal period. Her number is 0434889609 if this is something you would like to utilise. Each call can be only 5-10 minutes long as we need to try and share this time between all members of the choir.

Please note: these rehearsals are optional. But we ask you to please keep on top of the songs Coralie will send out to us on a weekly basis so that when we resume physical rehearsals, we will all be roughly on the same page

Coralie: The board has resolved to continue paying Coralie at her normal rate during this time period. Coralie will be continuing to work on behalf of TRS for the same amount of time she works during a normal rehearsal period. This will be in the form of online rehearsals, Facetime questions and choir support as well as providing additional sound recordings as required by the choir to enable independent practice.

Fees: The board has agreed to halve the term fees for Term 2 to $75.00. We have considered the financials and agree we can continue to run on a very basic level for this amount. This is fully dependent on the number of members we currently have paying fees continuing to do so. If numbers in the choir drop over the term, then unfortunately, we will need to review this figure. We hope we can all stick together through this and keep the choir running well over the next few months and come out the other side as strong as ever.

Board meetings will continue to run over the recess as a way of reviewing what we are doing and how to handle the COVID-19 situation.

This is a difficult time, please all keep yourselves safe, healthy and happy. If you are struggling, need a chat or just missing everyone terribly, please reach out and send your fellow choir friends an email, give them a phone call or send a messenger chat. Please feel free to use the Facebook page as a way of sharing music, laughs or just for a chat, this page is there for all of us to use.

Take care all and thanks for your support :)

Vicki

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