A few months ago I made the fatal mistake of calling Anne Bureau, Director of the North Pennsmen, to tell her how much I enjoyed hearing a commercial of theirs on Philadelphia radio station KYW. Within a few weeks I found myself appointed Director of Marketing for the MidAtlantic District. The ordeal seemed rather painless, but I still don’t know what hit me. Dealing with Anne is like trying to lasso a tornado. You just can’t say no.
One positive by-product of this pandemic – and probably the only one I can think of – is that we get to begin anew. A fresh start, with a new team, new publication, and new focus: on you, the members. Past efforts at marketing the District’s efforts have been rather “top-down” – or “here is what the District wants you to know.” We want to adopt a “from you to us” focus: listening the Chapters’ needs and helping provide solutions. We will still run the contests, Harmony College East and other efforts. We realize that we have hundreds of members who do not compete or attend our educational events, but still like to get together and sing, which is sort of the point of it all anyway. We want to get back to that night in Tulsa in 1938 where the guys (and now, gals), gathered for the pure pleasure of making music together.
So this is our first effort in our restructuring. We are going to be very busy over the next few months, redesigning our website, creating blogs so you can get to us directly with your vast praise (and a few complaints, I’m sure), and oth-er hopefully useful innovations. We renamed this newsletter “Overtones” the technical name for “ringing a chord.” It’s the secret pleasure of all barbershop-pers to achieve that magical sound, but it isn’t necessary. It’s a bonus. Just en-joy singing and if you hear that “fifth note,” then enjoy. There’s no charge for the goosebumps.
Wes Osborn
Director of Marketing, M-AD
Lead: Cherry Hill Pine Barons, Palm Beach County Coastmen, Miamians
You can contact us through the Ask MAD link on the District Website: http://midatlanticdistrict.com/?Code=AskMAD. We promise to pay attention and respond.