Valentines – Covid-19 – 2021
Although the Cape Fear Chordsmen did everything possible to find a way to deliver a Singing Valentine product that our patrons would be
2021 Installation of Elected Officers 1/26/2021
Just like most other live events during this lingering pandemic, the Cape Fear Chordsmen had to modify the usual Installation dinner with wives or significant others. We instead held our installation via a Zoom virtual Meeting. The biggest plus to having it virtual is that you can invite people from far and wide to the meeting. Our installing guest this year was none other than Marty Monson, CEO of the Barbershop Harmony Society. After being formally introduced by President, Louis Petroni, Marty offered a few minutes of encouraging comments and then called each officer to identify themselves to him by a wave at the camera. The 2021Board of Directors can be viewed here.
The second part of the evenings agenda was to name the Cape Fear Chordsmen Barbershopper of the Year. please click here to read the intro provided by 2019 BOTY for our 2020 BOTY – Ken Thomas. The picture below represents the members in attendance including Marty Monson.
Singing Valentine Program CANCELLED for 2021
After careful consideration and in-depth study of our inability to offer a digital Singing Valentine product that our patrons would be satisfied in buying, the Board of Director’s of the Cape Fear Chordsmen decided to suspend/ cancel our 2021 Singing Valentine program for February 14, 2021. Being that this is one of our major fund raising events each year and that we had to cancel our 2020 Annual Spring Concert, the Board left open the possibility of a sweethearts event later in 2021 provided we have been cleared to sing to audiences without fear of spreading the Corona virus or any other nasty virus that may be affecting our population.
Virtual Meetings Continue
The Cape Fear Chordsmen have been deeply impacted by the Covid-19 concerns throughout the world. Beginning on March 17th our Chapter has been meeting weekly through the use of a digital media program titled Zoom. Our weekly meetings have been actively attended by our supreme group of dedicated members. It is unknown when we might be able to resume live rehearsals without fear of spreading or contracting Coronavirus.
One of the weekly challenges our Program VP, Ken Thomas, has encountered is to make these virtual meetings interesting, informative, and fun without the ability to sing together as we have done for some 30+ years. To that end, Ken has invited guests to join us and share their talents or knowledge in the Barbershop craft/hobby. We’ve had a guest judge, a guest International quartet and the picture below shows 25 of the 34 members and guests at the Winston-Salem weekly meeting on October 13, 2020. Fourteen of the 34 members in attendance were Chordsmen. We were exposed to their way of conducting a virtual meeting which is similar to our meeting agenda. A fun time was had by all. Thanks to Winston-Salem for their generous invitation!
Breaking News 2/5/21
President Louis Petroni announced that the Cape Fear Chordsmen Board of Directors has agreed that as we continue to meet virtually that anyone who is interested in joining us, for about one hour any Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM beginning February 9, 2021. We are opening up our regular Zoom meetings to the public, just like they are always open when we meet in real life. If you would like to attend you will find the log-in information below or on our Facebook page: FaceBook.com/CapeFear.Chordsmen
Anyone and everyone is invited, we have some fun stuff going on each meeting, as well as standard stuff like a warm up, sometimes a sing along song, all our singing by the way is done while each participant is on “mute”, so if you’re shy about singing in front of other this is the perfect time! We also have a spot where a member submits a short video of a musical number that tickles their fancy, and we have seen some unusual ones to be sure! That and much more all packed into a fun-filled hour of mayhem.
If you’d like to drop in and visit, or if you know someone who would like to drop in please let them know we are open! We are still a men’s singing chorus, but all visitors are welcome!
Zoom Detail for Open invitation:
Join CFC Zoom Meeting any Tuesday night 7:00 PM
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81209651812? (if clicking the Join meeting above doesn’t work, copy/paste the address above to the address block of your favorite browser.) You may need to enter the ID & passcode below to enter our meeting.
Meeting ID: 812 0965 1812
Passcode: CFC
See you this Tuesday!
On April 28, 2020 at 7:00 PM, the Cape Fear Chordsmen Board of Directors conducted their first Virtual Board meeting using Zoom software.
All BOD members were invited via email with specific instructions on how to join the meeting hosted by Chapter President, Louis Petroni. Although different from a live meeting conducted around the conference room table, we were able to achieve the pre-meeting objectives in the time allotted. COVID-19 was the reason we had to meet virtually. As of today, 5/1/2020, that virus is responsible for 52,000 deaths in the U.S. We have been under a Shelter in Place order from Federal, State, and local officials since Mid March. We are still in “Shelter mode” until some Federal guidelines can be met but it does look favorable to end soon. Until then we’ll continue to Zoom our meetings like many organizations big & small.
