The Convention That
Almost Wasn’t Detroit 2006
By Maggie Ryan, Greater Harrisburg Chorus, Region 19
Surprises. We had a week’s worth of ‘em in Detroit.
Out in Tulsa, they’d like to cut back on surprises for a while,
thank you very much. After moving the 60th anniversary convention
from the Gulf Coast of the United States all the way up to the mitten
state, and doing it all in less than a month, what the staff at
headquarters deserved was a little peace and quiet.
Think of the logistics, and the accomplishment is staggering. Conventions
are planned years in advance. Sweet Adelines International’s
calendar already is filled through 2013. Hotels, arenas, flights,
buses, ballrooms, printers, computer companies, phone service providers,
media, florists, seamstresses, set designers, moving companies,
caterers and public services — all those folks are lined up
way down the line. Long before competitors win their slots on stage
at International, someone in Tulsa is figuring out who is going
to string the lights, unroll the red carpets and shine up the trophies.
New Orleans had been circled in red on many a calendar practically
since we last partied there in 1995. Of all convention stops over
the years, none had been more popular with contestants and convention-goers
than The Big Easy. All over the world, choruses and quartets built
jazz packages to celebrate the sound of New Orleans and the bayou.
What a celebration of music this would be, what a great, funky,
fun place to be together.
And then, Katrina.
We all watched it unfold, each of us with our vested interest in
visiting the city competing with our more compassionate reactions
to the devastation and horror.
Out at International Headquarters, the staff was on high alert.
“We were being optimistic because on that Monday the storm
had been downgraded and it looked like it might change course,”
said Kelly Kirchhoff, Director of Communications at Sweet Adelines
International. “In fact, Kathy [Hayes] and Carol [Schwartz]
were making a visit to New Orleans that week and we were proceeding
as usual.”
They were in touch with New Orleans Convention Bureau officials,
the weather service, airlines, hotels, even FEMA. It was looking
bad, then good. Then …
“And then the levees broke,” Kelly said.
How do you balance it, the brightness and light with this dark,
aching loss? How do you put your needs ahead of people whose needs
are too complex to fathom?
You don’t, really. You just decide to do the very best you
can.
Team efforts are something all Sweet Adelines understand, and here
is the lesson of Detroit, 2005. When everyone pulls together, everyone
wins.
An urgent call from the CEO of conference planning giant Conferon
went out to convention bureaus nationwide to find a site for the
Sweet Adelines. Within a week, Sweet Adelines International had
narrowed its choices to Detroit and Atlanta. Detroit offered the
better hotel packages, and the decision was made.
In Tulsa, the fun was just beginning.
“It was like being in a pressure cooker,” Kelly said.
Day and night they worked, doing their own jobs and then doing someone
else’s because she was off making the impossible possible.
Kathy Hayes bolted to Detroit to make sure the city could accommodate
the organization’s needs. Hotels? Check. Arena? Check. Buses?
Check. Airport? Check. Another country to hold the overflow?
How’s that?
The trip to Detroit was a bit of a geography reminder for more than
one Sweet Adeline. Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and its hotels are
right across the Detroit River. Once again, convention would be
truly international. For the first time, Sweet Adeline’s International
would have participants housed in two countries at once.
The staff at headquarters knew canceling the 2005 convention was
simply out of the question.
“It didn’t really cross our minds,” Kelly said.
They resolved instead to make it work.
For competitors and convention-goers, Detroit seemed like a rabbit
pulled out of a hat. Everything worked. Yes, the warm-up rooms were
tiny in Cobo Hall, but that old arena had an intimate charm that
came as a marked improvement over the vast, concrete coldness of
the Indianapolis Convention Center. The backstage pattern was tight;
the space for equipment and manpower almost nonexistent, and headquarters
communications staff spent its working week in glorified rest rooms.
But that’s the stuff the rest of us didn’t see. Somehow,
Carol Schwartz and the competition staff brought competitors on
and off stage in a smooth, even flow. Armed, as always, with her
clipboard and walkie-talkie, Carol was the duck on the pond gliding
along placidly while paddling like hell under the surface.
It all seemed so … planned.
Magic is really just a matter of distraction. From our comfy Cobo
seats we commented on the pretty new drapery onstage, distracted
by clever lighting from realizing that many familiar symbols of
Sweet Adelines International had been long shipped to New Orleans.
Risers, stage sets … gone.
For the Love of New Orleans
Sweet Adelines admire –nay, demand– forward motion.
When we sense a need, we want to fill it. Now. Sweet Adelines International
finance coordinator Donna Kerley bugged the Internal Revenue Service
until she got a waiver from the federal government to allow chapters
to raise funds legally for Katrina relief.
“The BUZZ” quartet rallied its fellow International
Quartet Champions to press 2,500 copies of an all-star CD titled
“Send Your Love,” with all the proceeds earmarked for
hurricane aid. By the second day of convention, only a handful remained
unsold. By the third day, there were none to be found. Jon Petersen
Photography, the official convention photographer, donated a portion
of sales to the American Red Cross relief fund, as did many Harmony
Bazaar exhibitors.
The result: $75,000 contributed by Sweet Adelines, so far. And,
as always, we’re not done yet.
Almost everyone who had planned to attend convention in New Orleans
went to Detroit instead. “We didn’t have too many cancel,”
Kelly said. “We had about 7,300 attend, and we had 8,000 originally,
so we were really happy with that.”
Another thing meant a lot to these hard-working folks: your thanks.
“It’s been so positive,” Kelly said. “Choruses
have sent handwritten letters; individual members have gone out
of their way to make sure the staff feels appreciated.”
And, of course, there was the ultimate compliment: a standing ovation.
International President Diane Huber brought the staff all onstage,
and every one of them got exactly what they deserved.
“That was wonderful,” Kelly said. “Wow. Everybody
loved it.
“I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe they stand up
here and sing in front of thousands of people.’ I was in awe.”
But stand up they did, all of Sweet Adelines International from
top to bottom and side to side. When the time comes, we’ll
stand up for New Orleans again.
“It has such a rich tradition, a rich history, we’d
love to support it,” Kelly said. “When Kathy was on
a site visit to Detroit I got a call from the man who ran the [Louisiana]
Superdome and Convention Center asking us to come back again in
the future. He lost everything. He got out with his Palm Pilot,
and here he was making calls to make sure people come back.
“We have to go back to New Orleans.”
While the headquarters staff scrambled in Tulsa, Master Director
Lori Lyford watched and wondered right along with the rest of the
world. Lori’s Scottsdale Chorus was to be a contestant in
New Orleans, one of the favorites to win it all. The members were
itching to hit that stage.
“We were all wondering what would happen,” Lori said.
Not going seemed unthinkable. And yet …
“I told them, ‘If we don’t
go, it’s a freckle compared to what is going on down there,”
she said.
Life does have a way, doesn’t it?
Detroit turned into Lori and Scottsdale’s favorite town pretty
quickly. “It actually worked out amazingly well,” she
said. “The meals were cheaper, the rooms were cheaper, there
were no hassles changing flights, and we were able to stay together
in the headquarters hotel.”
Sometimes it’s the little stuff that changes everything.
“My ladies, when they hit the soil, they’re ready to
go,” she said.
Were they ever. Scottsdale rallied from ten points down after the
first round to win the chorus championship with 2899 points. Pride
of Baltimore Chorus scored its second silver medal at 2872, and
Kansas City vaulted into third with 2720.
The Detroit win marked Scottsdale’s third championship, and
first since 1989 under the direction of the late Bev Sellers. It
became only the second chorus to win under two different directors,
and added another jewel to the oh-so shiny Region 21 championship
belt.
If there is a tougher region than #21, you’ll have a hard
time proving it. Just since 2000, Region 21 has had a hand in two
International champion quartets (Acapella Gold and Fanatix) and
cranked out three international champion choruses (San Diego, Harborlites
and Scottsdale). That excellence raises the bar with every regional
contest. It also takes a toll.
After another grueling international in 2002, Lori and Scottsdale
faced an uncertain future.
“When we came back from Nashville in third place again, I
was losing all these voices and [the chorus] was starting to look
like Swiss cheese,” Lori said. “We were tired.”
Scottsdale Chorus took off the 2003 Regional contest season, recharged
its batteries and found fresh motivation to win regional gold in
2004. That mission accomplished, the chorus set its sights on international
gold.
But first, they had to admit it.
“You’re always hesitant to say it out loud,” Lori
said. Scottsdale had been close so many times under Lori’s
leadership. “I’ve been standing on that stage for a
long time,” she said with a laugh.
“This year I just said, ‘I want you to have a gold medal.
I want a gold medal,” she said.
Maybe it’s because she’s a teacher and still gets a
thrill from opening minds. Maybe it’s a lifetime spent in
music, with all its nuances and mystery. Or perhaps it’s just
that quality shared only by champions — that light, that trust.
“I told them to risk being disappointed with your whole heart,”
Lori said. “We’ve been disappointed before. But unless
you risk being disappointed with your whole heart, you’ll
never feel joy with your whole heart.”
It was that joyful heart that swept away audiences and judges alike
in Detroit. Scottsdale eschewed a showy, Broadway-style package
in favor of five powerhouse songs it rang right through the rafters.
“We remained true to ourselves because that’s the kind
of music we like to sing,” Lori said. “We just thought,
let’s go out and sing the heck out of five songs and see what
happens.
“We didn’t have a big theme, but we were very full of
spirit and belief. We believed. We really did. We spoke it out loud
to ourselves, and we believed.”
Believing is the first step, and paradoxically, the last. Belief
replaces want and pushes aside need. Belief wipes away worry, and
cleanses doubt. In absolute belief there is nothing but trust.
If you wonder how that feels, ask those who’ve been there.
What does it take to believe that much?
Nothing much, really. Just your whole heart.
