Nana came to see us! Rose Anne traveled to Saginaw to stay with the "boys" (Wes, Henry, and Tucker) while Jennifer attended a conference. Notice that Henry is sitting up proudly for his Nana. Tucker has learned quickly which toys are his! They visited Bronner's in Frankenmuth and Henry even took Nana to Mass on Sunday!

"Game Day!" This is the fourth year the Westerville Central Athletic Boosters have sponsored the "Game Day 5K" as a benefit for the Cross Country & Track Teams. Turn out was excellent again, 333 participants, on a sunny, cold (39 degree) November morning, Saturday the 19th. I ran this one without Rosie, as she was with Henry and Wes in Saginaw. Good run for me . . under a 10:00 pace, my best time the past two months. I enjoyed this run, but missed my partner! Game Day for the Buckeyes football team didn't turn out quite as successful . . . however, ND chalked up a victory over BC. Next run . . . "Flying Feather Four Miler" in Dublin, Thanksgiving morning. Jennifer is planning to join us while Wes & Henry cheer on Mommy, Nana, and Popo!

2012 BHS International Chorus Contest Invitation to Portland: Chapter members voiced their opinions; Director, Chad Wulf and the Singing Buckeyes BOD made the following announcement:

I can't thank you enough for your quick thoughts on the Portland invite. It was an honor to be asked to mic test the contest and we should be proud of that.

Your voices have been heard and the music team and board have decided to decline the invitation. We would likely only be able to travel out there with about 25-30 guys and just did not feel that a group of that size would represent our chapter in the best light in front of the international community.

This will give us the opportunity to focus our fundraising, musical program, and membership with an eye on Toronto 2013. With some hard work in all three of those areas, that should be a very real and obtainable goal.

In addition, as things have developed over the last couple of days, we will add to our long-term planning agenda some research on other opportunities outside of competition to travel together and share our music together.

Thanks again for your honest and quick response.

Chad

November 8 - Singing Buckeye Chorus invited to be Mic-testers for the 2012 BHS International Chorus competition in Portland, Oregon. Chad expressed the following: "We received a formal invite to go to Portland to sing as a mic-tester chorus. While we would not be a competitive chorus and would not show up on the scoring summary, we would perform just like all the other choruses and get 2 full songs on stage just like everyone else. We would also get to watch the entire competition unlike when you typically compete."

JAD District Chorus Contest - Lima, Ohio - October15 - Singing Buckeye Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUspUQkKO9I

Final 2012 BHS International Preliminary Chorus standings This note came from our Singing Buckeye Chorus Director, Chad Wulf, October 24

The final three districts finished up this weekend and as expected one more chorus moved in front of us for the wildcard chase.

So.....the final result is...after 17 district contests and 204 competitors....we finished 27th overall and 14th in the wildcard selection. So we will have to wait and see if there are people who pass up the invitations....but as we said last week what a great showing!

Couple other fun facts....

(1) That is our highest score since the 2007 JAD District Contest, the fall after competing in the 2007 Denver International Contest where we finished 24th.

(2) We sang with 51 men. We were tied for the 17th largest chorus with Northbrook, IL who won the international Gold in 2001 with 138 men. Our goal of 60 would have been the 10th largest.

(3) The average size of the choruses that competed was 32 men.

(4) The average size of the choruses in the Top 10 was 73 men....the next 10 choruses...44 men. Size does matter gentlemen. Listen to brother Bob.

(5) The average score for all choruses competing....67.7 (Our score....78.1) SWEET!!

(6) There are 5 districts out of the 17 that we would have won with our score.

Well....I'm not sure all that is worth much....but I love the numbers....and you should understand where our chorus "fits" in the grand scheme of things in the society. The more you look outward to other chapters across the country....the more you realize that it truly is "GREAT TO BE A BUCKEYE!"

"Family Day 5K" at UD and visit with Jack, Carolyn, and Walker!