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
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!
For the First Time in 32 years, The Cape Fear Chordsmen President, Louis Petroni has announced we have postponed our Annual Spring
Show that was scheduled for Saturday, May 9th at Roland Grice Middle School. The major reason for our action is the threat of the
Covid – 19 virus pandemic that is sweeping across our country and the world. We’ve had to suspend our rehearsals which makes our preparation
suspect for delivering the quality performance you, our audience, have come to enjoy. Everything is up in the air right now so we have no solid
plans when we might schedule our show but probably spring of 2021.
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.
