RBCPC Chancel Choir Guidelines

ATTENDANCE A sign up sheet will be passed through each section during Thursday rehearsals. Please indicate which rehearsals and services you are able to attend by placing a Y or an N in the appropriate column and review and update these sheets on Thursdays and Sundays as your situation changes. If you must miss a Thursday or Sunday worship and have NOT signed up, please notify your Section Leader or the Logistics Coordinator. For long-term scheduled absences, please notify the Director AND the Logistics Coordinator via email or telephone. CHOIR NUMBER You will be assigned a music number and a corresponding robe number by the robarians and there is a numbered slot in the robe cupboards. All music will be placed in file folder by the librarians prior to Thursday rehearsals. During rehearsals, you are welcome to mark your music IN PENCIL with whatever markings are meaningful to you and will help you remember the director’s suggestions. CLIPBOARDS Clipboards are circulated each Thursday to indicate attendance and for social events. When a clipboard comes your way, please mark appropriately and keep it moving. Attendance clipboards are returned to the Logistics Coordinator; social events clipboards are returned to the Social Committee Chair(s). DRESS Rehearsals (even dress rehearsals) are informal. Dress so that you are comfortable and can breathe. Robes are usually worn on Sunday mornings. Please do NOT wear any fragrance (perfume, after-shave, or cologne) to choir rehearsals or performances. Concert attire will be announced well in advance of a performance. Earrings: no larger than a nickel Cough drops/breath mints: okay; chewing gum: not okay. No perfume, after shave, or cologne at any rehearsal or performance. ELECTION OF OFFICERS Election of officers will be held in September. Elected positions include President, Treasurer, Secretary, Chaplain, Section Leaders, Historian, Music Librarians, Logistics & Statistics Chair, Photographer, Property Manager, Refreshment Chair, Retreat Chair, Robarian, Social Committee Chair(s), Sound & Lights Manager, Special Needs & Sunshine, Webmaster/Handbook Editor. Election procedures call first for the appointment of a Nominating Committee of five members, one member being designated the chair by the outgoing President. The Nominating Committee nominates one candidate (in some cases two) for each office. Nominees are presented to the choir in September for acceptance. The candidate for each is elected to that office for a one-year term to begin immediately after fall retreat. E-MAIL LIST The choir has an e-mail list by which the President sends information concerning rehearsals (including a summary of announcements & prayer requests from the Thursday rehearsal), worship services and concerts, or which may be urgent in nature. In an effort to respect your time and your privacy, the President makes every effort to send only those items that are pertinent to the functioning and growth of our covenant group. Please respect others’ time and not use these e-mail addresses to forward e-mail to the whole group without clearing it with the President. You may, of course, use this list to draw from when you send e-mails to your personal friends. CHOIR HANDBOOK The choir handbook includes information used by several groups within the Choir. Please periodically review your personal information to ensure accuracy & inform the Handbook Editor (jcblank@hotmail.com) of any changes. Periodic updates will be issued. FINANCES A social fund exists for parties, gifts, and other choir expenses not in the church budget. A small donation is requested annually from each member (the amount to be determined by the board) and additional offerings will be taken as needed to support additional social functions, crises, celebrations, etc. Every effort will be made to keep these requests as infrequent as possible. REHEARSALS We rehearse on Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Rehearsals begin promptly at 7:00; please arrive a few minutes early to find your music and your seat (and to socialize). RETREAT One day retreats are held a minimum of one time a year, generally in the fall. We review or learn new music for the upcoming year or for special programs and also work on choral technique. There is also time for devotion as well as time for fellowship and recreation. ROBE MAINTENANCE Please remove your choir robe whenever eating or drinking; hang your robe in your assigned slot when you leave on Sunday mornings. Connect the hook at the neck when you hang up your robe. If you find that your robe needs repair, note it on the sheet located on the bulletin board by the choir room door and the robarians will take care of it for you. ROBES Robes will generally be worn whenever the choir sings. (See Dress.) SECURITY Purses and other valuables may be locked in the Director’s office or taken up to the choir loft and placed by or under your chair. An even safer system might be to lock your purse in the trunk of your car. SPECIAL NEEDS Please notify the Sunshine/ Special Needs Chair or a member of the choir board if you know of a choir member who is ill, will undergo surgery, has a family crisis, etc. We try to help each other whenever there is a need, most frequently in the form of providing meals, transportation, or home or hospital visits. SPECIAL SERVICES Several times throughout the year (Christmas, Easter, July 4, to name a few), the choir presents special services of music during Sunday worship or as a part of the Concert series. There will one dress rehearsal at minimum (with instruments) before concerts. Child care arrangements can be made for all rehearsals - contact the President or Director. SUMMER CHOIR Our regular rehearsals end the last Thursday in June. "Summer Choir" meets Sunday mornings for 30 minutes before each service during July to rehearse an anthem for that day. Anyone is welcome to join the summer choir without making a year-round commitment to choir membership. SUNDAY SCHEDULE On Sunday mornings, please ready to rehearse 30 minutes prior to each service. The following schedule is generally followed (there will be exceptions): Rehearsal Service 8:00 8:30 11:00 11:30