On Friday night we had a shorter practice and took some time to talk. The following items were covered:
1. Christmas Music - We'll be playing Christmas music starting next week. We'll play two songs the first week, three the second, and four the third (or one, two, then three if you as Jason). Some of us from the group will also be playing on Christmas Eve - Let Rob know if you can or cannot play on Christmas Eve. So far, Rob, Emily, and we're assuming Doug (to be confirmed) are playing. The rest of us are most likely not going to be there.
2. Time off - If any of us need to take two or more Sundays off in any given month, that person will take the entire month off to allow for them to have a chunk of time to rest and for the group as a whole to learn to manage without any given one of us. Whether we're sick, tired, or dealing with other stuff, we want each person to have the space and time to be able to recover and get away, and then join back up with the group again for the next month.
3. Worship Steering Committee Meeting on January 14 (Fri) - This meeting will be a time for the WSC to meet with worship leaders and and communicate goals and direction to us. We'll also use this time to set our own personal, realistic goals for how we want to grow individually as musicians and with the group, as well.
4. Rehearsals may be moved to Thursday - If we can reschedule the small group meeting at Rob & Emily's, we are hoping to change our rehearsal day to Thursdays at some point in the future. We think this works for everyone. Let us know if it doesn't.
5. Future group retreats - Rob & Emily have a cabin in the Adirondacks that can house several people. We will be scheduling a winter weekend retreat for the group and for family members. We'll start figuring out which weekend is best for everyone soon! This is a location we're hoping to keep using, and we may even get a jacuzzi up there some day... :)
6. We're going to get organized:
-I'll be acting as our "scribe" to help make things a little more organized, and I'll also be keeping track of our new organizational goals
-A weekly email will be sent out by Tuesday confirming that we have rehearsal on Friday
-New songs will be sent out two weeks before they are rehearsed with the group so that each person can practice on their own
-We're going to start showing up to church at 9:30 am on Sundays to allow for more rehearsal time
7. Goals for rehearsals:
-Start rehearsing specific parts of songs over and over again, instead of playing through the whole song, in order to get more familiar with each part
-Emily may give a music theory class
-Start recording rehearsals so that we can listen to them before we play on Sunday
-Work on our signaling to each other
-Increase our vocabulary
