[HANASHIR:8636] Re: volunteer choir

[Helen Andrea Galkowski <hgalkowski...>]

Hi all. Our volunteer choir is called Kolot.  We do all the prayers at the 
Saturday morning service, some Friday night services and special 
events.  When we first started about 6 years ago we were led my a student 
from Suny.  In more recent years our group has changed in size from 6 to 3 
and then somewhere in between depending on who is around.  Right now are 
group is growing again which is good since our main leader who teaches 
Hebrew school and is a music teacher in our regular school is leaving .  We 
have three people playing guitars right now.  We are lucky that we also 
have three male voices for the first time in a while.  This Friday night we 
are doing the music for the sisterhood Sabbath.  We have gone through the 
music at practice on Sunday morning and will meet once more before the 
actual service.

When I get the final list of songs we will be doing I will post it so you 
can get an idea of what we do.  We also do Bar/Bat Mitsvah services when 
asked.  People are very wonderful. They  make donations to Kolot to thanks 
us and let us know how much they appreciate us.  We really enjoy doing the 
services as it lights a spark within us , and makes services so very 
special.  Any donation we get we use to buy sheet music, cd's  and other 
things so we can keep growing and changing.

There is even talk recently of people wanting us to tape a service and make 
it available to everyone so they can learn the different tunes and prayers 
that we do.

We also are very lucky that we have a special Chankah Museum.  Each year 
for about a month we turn the Mansion that is our religious school into a 
special Chankah museum. There is a different Theme each year.  Kolot sings 
at the opening of the Museum with the Hebrew school classes there to join us.

The family service is especially fun as Liz teaches the kids songs and then 
picks one from what she taught that day and it is our closing song. We 
invite all the kids up on the bima to lead the song with us.  It's lots of 
fun and a great way for them to learn and appreciate.

Sorry  I got so long winded.  I just find that having the opportunity to be 
part of a group like this has make services and prayers come alive in a way 
they did not touch me before.

We will miss Liz when she goes but we will continue because it's an 
important contribution to our community and allows us to keep that spark 
alive.

I want to thank everyone on this list for there wonderful ideas, songs and 
topics that have added so much to our lives.

In April we will be having our first home concert.  Jody Kessler will be 
playing.  We are really looking forward to it.

Thanks again for everything
Helen



At 05:37 PM Sunday 03/25/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>This request for feedback is specifically directed to those who are 
>involved with or have been involved with volunteer choirs.
>
>The volunteer choir I have been directing for the past year and a half is 
>becoming more and more popular at services.  I am delighted that our rabbi 
>is requesting more frequent participation.  (Presently we do 9 or10 
>services and rehearse 3 or 4 evenings per month between August and June.)
>
>I would like to move carefully on this so as not overstress my wonderful 
>volunteers.  I have thought of building in some perks like hiring a choir 
>clinician for a couple of sessions and also asking the temple to host an 
>annual appreciation dinner for the choir.
>
>Any thoughts on this?  How much is too much? What makes choir members feel 
>appreciated, or overworked, or taken for granted?
>
>Thanks,
>Rachelle Shubert
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>Rachelle Shubert
>Lay Cantor Rishon
>Temple Israel, Ottawa, Ontario
>
>Choir Director
>Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, Montreal, Quebec
>
>Music Educator
>Hebrew Foundation School, Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>


   Helen Galkowski,

     hgalkowski (at) stny(dot)rr(dot)com
     http://algebraist.com/jmusic.htm,
     FAX 630-214-8625