Location: Lee's home.
Time: 3:00 pm.
Present: Sinfonians: Lee Stokes, host; Christopher Thaxter, organizer; Andy Wolf, Craig Slaughter, Justin Denlinger, and Zach Nichols, attendees. Guest: Kamal, Lee's friend.
Synopsis: Gracious host Lee Stokes opened his doors to the brotherhood on this Saturday afternoon for what turned out to be a very enjoyable dinner party. As the brothers and guest arrived, we chatted with one another and glanced the football game on TV not at all jealous that they were playing in a snowstorm and we were relaxing casually in the Los Angeles sunny weather. Lee talked about the documentary he's producing and now editing, Andy talked about his a cappella group and film projects, and Craig talked about his participation in the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Lee made lasagna, Christopher prepared a salad and appetizers, Zach brought wine, and Justin brought beer. At around 4:30 we had dinner, though Justin had to leave to attend another function in Orange County. Sad to see him go, we nevertheless welcomed his serendipitous replacement Kamal. Though not a Sinfonian, Kamal related his amazing story of learning to sing for the first time at age 45. A true accidental musician, he happened upon the right place at the right time more than once since then, and has turned into an international recording artist and seasoned performer.
After dinner, we sang maybe nine songs from the Sinfonian songbook. We had the old and the new version present, but we were able to make do. "Songs Are Best at Candlelight" was new to most of those present, but is such a rewarding piece. After singing a few Sinfonian songs, Kamal, having listened intently, asked why they all ended in "Sinfonia!" Amused, we related some tidbits about the name and purpose of our fraternity.
To the best of this author's recollection, we sang the following songs: Hail Sinfonia, Sinfonia Hymn, A Sinfonia Anthem, On and Ever Upward, The Red and Black, Songs Are Best at Candlelight, Brothers Sing On, Vive L'Amour, and Sinfonia Parting Song.
Kamal parted, and we held a half-planned, half-impromptu business session, the minutes of which are below. Andy gave a command performance of his hilarious-and-true "DS(Hel)L" song from his recently recorded album, accompanying himself on Lee's modern Casio keyboard.
After some nervous glances at the Los Angeles traffic on Sigalert.com (factoid: that stands for Sigmon, the inventor of the system; it's not short for signal), we said our thankyous and goodbyes and took our leave.
Business: The following items of business were addressed.
1) Membership participation.
Two aspects of membership participation have been a challenge. First, expanding the list of valid area contacts. Second, attendance at events. It was the general consensus that we work on the first aspect for now. A few measures were mentioned that we can take at this juncture.
- Get a list of the latest valid contacts from national headquarters. Christopher has already put in this request.
- Split up the list among a few of us and call brothers. This is much more effective than any other form of telecommunication.
- Try to encourage brothers to sign up to our listserv using a permanent email address. We currently have a large minority of bouncing email addresses on our listserv, mostly because people used email addresses from their ISP and evidently subsequently changed service providers, or because they used their work or college email address. If they instead used a Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail account (this author unscientifically recommends Yahoo), there should be fewer wrong email addresses in the future.
- Andy and Zach ordered the CD-ROM from Harris Connect, who recently surveyed many alumni and confirmed a lot of contact information. They will take a look at it to see how useful the CD could be.
- Get lists of male faculty at music departments at local colleges, male members of local musician's unions, and male members of other local music organizations and ask Lyrecrest to run them through their database. We will then give a call to likely matches, thereby theoretically finding lost alumni.
- Ask current members to reach out to brothers they know personally that are in the area but may not be on the listserv.
2) Elections of interim officers.
Although we are not yet an officially chartered alumni association—certain steps must be taken before that happens—it was agreed that we should elect interim officers to steer the group toward that point. Nominations were taken from the floor, seconded, and accepted, and interim officers were elected as follows by majority voice vote:
- President: Christopher Thaxter.
- Vice President: Lee Stokes.
- Secretary: Andy Wolf.
- Treasurer: Zach Nichols.
Bylaws will be discussed and adopted later. Christopher had drafted a set earlier and had distributed them via email to a small group. Christopher will distribute them via email to the interim officers and possibly to the listserv for discussion.
3) The March event.
It was suggested that the March event in Santa Monica with Dan Krueger from Lyrecrest in attendance be set for 7:30 pm rather than 7:00, to give brothers the opportunity to arrive relatively on time despite traffic. Also, a host was confirmed for Dan for the night of the 12th.
4) Ceremony for graduating brothers.
Interest was expressed in participating in the ceremony for graduating brothers at the local chapters, including possibly presenting a small gift or something of that nature. Details will be hashed out as the time approaches, but such ceremonies would be likely in May. Christopher had already reached out to the chapter presidents to discuss possible dates.
5) Scheduling an event in July.
July is a long way off, but it doesn't hurt to put an event on the calendar. July 26 was set for a barbecue picnic at the Kenneth Hahn state park.
Adjournment: Gathering ended around 7:30 pm.