<html><body><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; color: #000000"><DIV style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px">The International Day of Peace or otherwise known as Peace Day is on September 21st and Hedi , Esther Farnsworth, and I are on a planning committee to carry out the event to honor Peace Day. The following is the truth. At this time of year planning for this event, we three truly and especially miss Catherine who put so much time, energy, and talent into these Peace Day events , especially in the last five or six years. Even if 9/21 had not been her birthday, she would have done so. Also I note that in our Choir Retreat, the idea of having smaller ensembles was broached . Our planning group's suggestion is that we create an ensemble to sing one musical piece at this year's celebration to be held early on the evening of Wednesday 9/21. (The exact time for the event has not been decided yet, but will probably start between 6 and 7 PM and last less than an hour.) We have not decided which piece to sing. At this point I sense 3 possibilities,:1) Dick is planning a relevant anthem for the Sunday beforehand and we could simply have our ensemble repeat singing that piece. 2) The song 'Imagine' our choir has done before and perhaps we could do that. 3) Others or Dick might have other ideas, perhaps a well known, but simple song most people know. For those who would like to honor and participate in the day for whatever reason, let me know your name and contact info and I will be in touch with you. Harris PS It was great to sing together with you all again last Sunday.<BR></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000; FONT-STYLE: normal"><B>From: </B>"Richard" <choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org><BR><B>To: </B>"Paula A.Gills" <paulagills@tds.net><BR><B>Cc: </B>"Choir UCM" <choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org><BR><B>Sent: </B>Monday, August 29, 2016 10:10:34 AM<BR><B>Subject: </B>Re: [Choir] UCM Choir Retreat invitation<BR>
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<DIV dir=ltr>Thanks, Paula, for your comments. It was wonderful indeed to feel the positive input from so many people. There was a great deal of thought that went into our time together yesterday and, I think, a great deal of thought that we could take away.
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<DIV>See you all one week from this Thursday, September 8, at 6:30! </DIV>
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<DIV>Dick</DIV>
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<DIV>P.S. The Music Committee will meet at 5:30.</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=gmail_quote>On Mon, Aug 29, 2016 at 8:41 AM, Paula A.Gills via Choir <SPAN dir=ltr><<A href="mailto:choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org" target=_blank>choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org</A>></SPAN> wrote:<BR>
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<DIV>Thanks to all who made this choir gathering the best we have had in my memory. It reflected great care and consideration of who we now are and where we might go and was reflective of the visioning we should be doing in the context of the overall church vision. Ted was bubbling over with enthusiasm when we came home, and that is unusual for him these days. Having the small groups with dedicated time for folks to speak made it possible for him to contribute (he did not want to come earlier on if the discussion was going to be in all one large group--too hard for him to process). I feel that we have taken a positive step to greater group participation where we all consider who we are and what our music ministry in the church can be, for that is what we do. Thanks, in advance, to the members of the Music Committee who will be continuing this important work as synthesizers and goal setters. Paula</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none; FONT-FAMILY: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; COLOR: #000; FONT-STYLE: normal"><B>From: </B>"Richard Riley via Choir" <<A href="mailto:choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org" target=_blank>choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org</A>><BR><B>To: </B>"Choir UCM" <<A href="mailto:choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org" target=_blank>choir@unitarianchurchofmontpelier.org</A>><BR><B>Sent: </B>Thursday, August 25, 2016 8:57:40 AM<BR><B>Subject: </B>[Choir] UCM Choir Retreat invitation
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<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Note from Dick: the aspirations and structure of this Sunday's retreat is the result of MaryJean and Donia's thoughtful consideration of how to respond to your responses to the questionnaire distributed last Spring. Here's their invitation to you:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px"><BR></SPAN></DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Hello wonderful singers!</SPAN>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">We are so looking forward to being together again this Sunday!</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">We understand that some people have expressed questions about how our mini-retreat will be organized, as well as some concerns that there won't be enough time to have a meaningful discussion, let alone come to anything concrete moving forward. These are certainly valid concerns! So we thought we'd send out this letter summarizing the agenda and how we see this retreat as part of an ongoing process in defining and developing our identity as a choir.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">First off, we see this retreat as an extension of the choir surveys we all completed last Spring. You all did a lot of the main work putting issues out on the table then. We went through all of the answers to try to discern and distill the central and most important threads, and have used these to hone questions which we will use for discussion and which are designed to help us move forward.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">We will be trying out a format for the discussion which we hope will generate mutual understanding and creative thinking, as well as using time effectively. In the weeks after the retreat, the music committee will meet to digest the results of our discussions and determine follow-up action plans. So even though it is a short time we will have together <SPAN><SPAN>Sunday</SPAN></SPAN>, it is one very important step in a process which WILL be ongoing, and we are confident that a lot of good ideas and solutions will be generated.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">The plan of the day is this:</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">We will begin with some brief group singing, and follow this with some brief general remarks.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">The bulk of the time will be spent in discussion. We'll be breaking into 4 separate groups, which will each address these 3 questions:</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">1. In what ways is church choir as <B style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"community" </B>important to you? In what specific ways would you like to see this manifest?</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">2. In what ways is the church choir as a <B><I>musical ensemble</I></B> important to you? In what ways would you like to see the choir encourage the craft of singing?</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">3. In what ways can we encompass and serve with integrity these differing sets of needs?</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">The facilitators for the small groups will be Dave Grundy, Gail Falk, Donia Prince, and Mary Jean McElvey.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">We will then reconvene as the entire group and the facilitators will report summaries of their group's discussion.</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">If there is still time and inclination, we will do some more singing. Then eat and just enjoy each other's company!!</DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">A reminder that there will not be facilities for heating up food, so please plan your potluck offerings accordingly.</DIV>
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