Our Successful First Year!
 
The IVY League has had an immensely successful first year and we thought it would be helpful to give you a reminder of our success and to share our plans for the future.
 
Why a Youth Chorus?
 
The IVY League came about after Mel Lane saw the NBYC perform at BABS Harmony College in 2005. She was really moved by their performance and wanted to set something similar up in LABBS. Mel is a teacher and she believes passionately that children and young people benefit enormously from opportunities to be successful, to feel proud of their achievements and to boost their self-confidence. 
 
Mel set up The IVY (Incredible Vocal Youth) League with the following aims and these have now been agreed by our Music and Business Teams:

• To encourage young people to sing and enjoy barbershop harmony
• To be a positive ambassador for LABBS and promote barbershop singing as an enjoyable hobby for all ages
• To help young people develop their skills through quality education
• To enable and encourage young people to take an active role in all aspects of running a chorus, including directing, coaching and management.

 
Our Musical Successes
 
·        4 Feb 2007 – Taster Day – 38 girls joined us in Birmingham to find out if they wanted to sing with the LABBS Youth Chorus. Our membership has always been a mixed selection of girls who sing with a LABBS Club, girls who sing with a Sweet Adelines Club, girls who have sung barbershop but who find it difficult to commit to a weekly club and girls who have never sung barbershop before, but who have relatives or friends who do. The girls came well-prepared and we learnt and performed Locomotion with choreography on one day. Sally McLean helped us out with some coaching too.
·        13-15 April – LABBS Harmony College – 31 girls attended LABBS Harmony College thanks to a generous grant from the World Harmony Foundation and sponsorship from many clubs, quartets and individuals. We learnt Lean on Me and performed both songs to a standing ovation.
·        June Rehearsal – The girls turned up well-prepared again and we learnt Fame and started Summer Nights. EU4IA came along and helped us with their knowledge and advice.
·        BABSHarmonyCollege – several girls attended training to improve their skills, subsidised by The IVY League
·        September Rehearsal – Choreography for Fame and the finishing touches to our Convention Package again with help from the popular and successful Nicky Salt.
·        LABBS Convention – A huge success. The IVY League perform their three songs to a standing ovation from the whole auditorium. We had many positive comments about how exciting it was for everyone within LABBS to see that the future of the organisation is so strong.
·        17 November Grand Central Show – The IVY League rehearse all day with a help from Nicky and perform Fame and the very popular joint song Summer Nights.
 
Organisation and Administration
The IVY League was set up as a chorus where the members would have lots of input and control. This ensures that lots of the girls get a chance to take a leading role in decision-making, teaching and management of the chorus. We now have a Music Team and a Business Team who make decisions about when we should meet, what we should do, which songs we should sing, who should be trained and how, who should coach us and other administrative decisions. 
 
We now have the following in place:
·        CRB checks carried out for Section Leaders, Director and Alison Thompson
·        Alison is our designated Child Support Officer
·        A Child and Young Person Policy written for The IVY League in consultation with parents
·        A Code of Conduct written by our Business Team which outlines the standards and behaviour we expect from our members.
·        A Constitution written by our Business Team which outlines our aims and administration
 
The involvement of the girls in decision-making has proved to be a great success – it makes the chorus stronger, ensures that as many people as possible are involved and helps train the girls for future responsibility. The Chorus is managed overall by Mel, who implements a lot of the decisions and ensures that everything runs smoothly. Mel is supported by Alison Thompson and Sara Jackson who help in an advisory capacity and by providing practical and maternal support to the girls during rehearsals and events.
 
 


Plans for Next Year
The Business and Music Teams have decided on our priorities for next year, as follows:
·        Jan – Rehearsal with the NBYC, coaching from Royce Ferguson
·        March – Participation in Gold Rush III
·        May – Rehearsal
·        September – Retreat Weekend for The IVY League   This will be an opportunity for the girls to work intensively with experts on improving their sound. The weekend will involve a mixture of targeted classes on different aspects of vocal production and a quality barbershop performance. It will also be an excellent chance for the girls to gel socially and form friendships which will potentially last a lifetime. We plan to finish with a performance on the Sunday which will be open to anyone to come and watch.
·        October – Rehearsal
·        October/ November – LABBS Convention – Perhaps we could reprise our mic-cooling spot.
·        December (tbc) – Participation in the White Rosettes Show
 
Money
 
Income – We raised over £4,000 from sponsorship by choruses, quartets and individuals and over £400 two years-running from selling badges and T-shirts at Convention. We were also given £1309 from the World Harmony Council.
Expenditure - We spent £1,656 on subsidising attendance to LABBS Harmony Council and several hundred pounds on lots of small items, including music, teaching tracks, coaching from experts, subsidy for two girls to attend BABS HC, insurance, CRB checks, membership of Making Music, some small travel expenses and setting up our website.
 
Subscription – As a national chorus we have to bear in mind lots of factors when considering an appropriate subscription rate for members. Many of our members are unwaged students or on low-income jobs. Most of them pay their own way in the chorus and the cost of attending rehearsals and functions often amounts to several hundred pounds. However we think it is appropriate to charge a membership subscription and as from 2008 we are introducing an annual subscription of £20 to each of our members. This should net us in the region of £1,000. 
 
Financing the Chorus in the Future
 
**** We are very proud to be LABBS Youth Chorus and we are working extremely hard to ensure that we meet our aims of promoting barbershop as a hobby for all ages and that we are training up the next generation of singers, directors, section leaders and coaches.
 
**** We have raised enough money to pay for our general expenses for the year 2008. We will be investigating the possibility of getting some small grants through various organisations which we hope will provide further finance
 
**** We would like to ask LABBS if they would consider giving us an annual allowance from 2009 to ensure that we can continue to meet our running costs. BABS do this for their Youth Chorus and it is an important piece of money that they can rely on.
 
Conclusion
 
The IVY League has had a very successful first year. We have achieved so much in such a short space of time and this is largely down to the commitment and hard-work of everyone involved, including all the members of the chorus. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported us, both financially and in kind, and we are looking forward to another successful year in 2009.