September 2016
Treasurer’s Corner

I’m pleased to report that this summer has been good for our AGO chapter. Our income for July & August is $2,110.00. This income represents $750 of contributions to our chapter, $1,200 from dues, and $150 to the Scholarship Fund. Our minimal expenses of $472.50 was from our Member’s recital and banquet in June and quarterly web support. That leaves our checkbook with a healthy balance of $49,501.02

There are only a few members who have not yet renewed for the coming year. If you are one of those, please do so soon! And if you’re having difficulty renewing with ONCARD, please let me know, and I’ll help you with the process. (treasurer@northshoreago.org)

Enjoy the rest of the summer and make sure you mark your calendar for our first event of the coming season when we will hear Vincent DuBois from Notre Dame. That event is on Friday, October 7th at 7:30 at St. Luke’s in Evanston. I look forward to seeing you there!!

Laurie Stivers headshot

Laurie Stivers

Laurie Stivers, treasurer

Rodgers organ for sale

Bethel Lutheran Church in Palatine is selling their organ. Installed in 2005, it is a three-manual Rodgers organ with 9 ranks of pipes from Rieger-Kloss. Looking for a best offer. For further information regarding the organ, contact Steve Smith at Rodgers and Ruffatti Pipe Organs (630) 279-3535 office or (630) 606-3535 cell.

For any further questions, or a written offer, please contact Bethel Lutheran Church; 3839 West Frontage Rd., Palatine, IL 60067  – Phone:  847-397-4372 – 9 a.m. to 12 noon, Monday – Thursday.

 

July 2016Tasks for the Summer

July 2016
Tasks for the Summer

20160629_191703Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Not only travel, but hopefully a chance to practice more and plan some exciting things for this coming year at the organ!

20160629_204033 (1)

Royce Eckhardt, Andrea Handley, and Lee Nelson

We just had our final board meeting last night till fall. We had a lovely time enjoying dinner together outside at the Handley home on a beautiful evening. It was good to greet new board member Rich Leasure, and sad to say goodbye to Royce Eckhardt and Lee Nelson, who have completed their current board terms. We worked on details of our first few programs of the fall, and in particular are getting very excited about our opening program on October 7 – Vincent Dubois in recital at St. Luke’s. Please look at his bio in the ‘Upcoming NSAGO Events’ section of the newsletter, and pass the word about this fantastic opportunity.

So since most of us have a little additional time on our hands in the summer, I have a few things for you to do:

  1. If you haven’t done so already, take time to add all the events on our calendar http://northshoreago.org/events/ to your calendars – with one click! It’s going to be a great year, and we hope to see many of you at many of our events.
  2. Take a few moments to look at the chapter directory, http://northshoreago.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/NSAGO-Member-Directory-updated-October-20151.pdf. If any of your information is incorrect, or incomplete, we’d love to hear from you (dean@agonorthshore.org) so we can have an accurate directory. For many of you, we have your basic info, but would love to add your place of work info: Title, Name/Address/Phone/Email of work place.
  3. Please let me know if you would like to be added to our sub list, or taken off the sub list for any reason. I frequently hear from people who use that source, so it’s important that it’s accurate. Send any info to dean@northshoreago.org.
  4. For most of us, this is also the time to renew our AGO membership. You should have received a reminder from national about that by now, especially if your membership renews at the traditional date of July 1 each year, which is the case for most of us. If not, you can visit https://www.agohq.org/oncard-login/, and renew online in a matter of minutes. Your username should be your first initial and last name, and your password is your membership number, which you can find on the address label on your last TAO magazine.
  5. PICTURES!!!  OK, this qualifies as nagging since this is about the 85th time I’ve asked, but I’d really like to see more churches represented on the homepage meta-slider.  We have tons of great churches on the north shore, and only a few are on our banner.  Please send me 3 pictures of your church: the outside, the sanctuary or pipework, and the console (send to dean@northshoreago.org) .  How long can it take to grab your phone and take 3 little pictures?

I think that’s it – hopefully you’ll still have time to enjoy the rest of the summer after completing these tasks….:-)   See you in the fall!

Andrea Handley, Dean

July 2016Computers, Organs and Chicago

July 2016
Computers, Organs and Chicago

Rich Leasure

Computers, organs, and Chicago! I never expected any of it. Well, to be truthful, I guess the organ part was to be expected.

Visiting my aunt and uncle in suburban Pittsburgh when I was growing up was always a treat. Along with helping my uncle’s woodworking shop during the summers, I would keep him company for hours at his church where he was evening custodian in his retirement years. It was there, at nine years old, where I first remember hearing the captivating sound of the pipe organ. It was so different than the Hammond organ I was used to hearing at my family’s church. I was hooked! From then through high school, I would faithfully listen to Sunday night radio broadcasts of the morning worship services from Pittsburgh’s historic Shadyside Presbyterian Church. The hymn harmonizations, anthem accompaniments, and especially the modulations from the offertories into the Doxology; they were all thrilling as well as excellent examples of service playing leadership. Incidentally, Shadyside Church is where Worldwide Communion Sunday was conceived and first celebrated. If you ever visit the Pittsburgh area, stop by the church and see the excellent chancel floor mosaic commemorating the space where Worldwide Communion originated.

Throughout junior and senior high, I took piano and organ lessons, and tried my best to make that Hammond organ sound like a pipe organ! I attended Westminster College ( Pennsylvania ) and Northwestern University where I earned my B.M. and M.M. in church music with an organ major. After graduating, I looked forward to a career in church music, but what I didn’t expect was that it would be a part-time career. I also didn’t expect to return to the Chicago area after my first and only full-time church job in Montgomery, Alabama. The career switch has proven to be a good move for a number of reasons, and after 35 years of an information technology career, and continuous part-time organist and organist/director positions, I’ve had the best of both worlds. Since completing seven years as organist at The Presbyterian Church of Barrington in 2014, I have been active as a substitute organist and choir member. I’ve also enjoyed having an occasional weekend to spend time with my daughter in Virginia and son who lives in the Chicago area.

I have been an AGO member since college, and have a dual membership in the Fox Valley and North Shore AGO chapters. With my full-time retirement in sight and having wondered what I might do to be more involved with the guild, the opportunity to serve on the North Shore board was a welcomed invitation. I’m looking forward to meeting and working with the NSAGO!

Richard Leasure, Board member

July 2016
Treasurer’s Corner

This is the time of year when it is really fun to be the Treasurer for our North Shore Chapter.  There are just a few expenses left to be paid for our programs from last year, and the renewals and contributions are coming in!   Our balance at the end of June is $47,863.52.  

In June we received the funds from 18 of you who renewed your membership for the coming year, and 5 of you made an extra contribution to our chapter.   It is much appreciated.  (There were 10 whose funds we received in May and 2 in April.)   I can also see that National will be sending us monies in July for 9 of you that have renewed and 2 of you have made an extra contribution to our chapter.  (I also know that several of you have renewed in the last few days.  I don’t have visibility to that count, but estimate it is at least another 6 people.)

We extend a “Thank You” to  Jerry Hall, Andrea Handley, Jill Hunt, Lee Nelson, Sharon Peterson, David Schrader and Adrienne Tindall for your contributions to our chapter totally $736. 

As I write this report on June 30th, I can see from the ONCARD system that there are 31 remaining members whose membership renewal fee is due July 1st (and a couple of you with a due date of August 1st).  Please feel free to contact me if you would like any help in processing your renewal.  

Here is a hot tip – If your church pays your AGO dues as a part of your compensation, you can (or I can help you if you contact me at treasurer@northshoreago.org) get a paper copy of your renewal form that you can then submit to your church who can then pay the National AGO office directly.  Let me know if I can help in any way.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.  I look forward to seeing your renewal this summer and you in the fall!

Laurie Stivers headshot

Laurie Stivers

Laurie Stivers, Treasurer

July 2016Tasks for the Summer

June 2016
Happy Summer

NSAGO Dean Andrea Handley

Andrea Handley

Here we are at the beginning of what is, for most of us, a little lighter schedule for a few months. It’s always nice to have this bit of down-time, but it’s also nice that fall is also always exciting to look forward to fall and the resuming of rehearsals, special programs, concerts, extra holiday services. Hopefully many of you are planning on attending conferences this summer, and hopefully NSAGO will have a good turnout at the National Convention in Houston in a few weeks.

We say goodbye and thanks to two board members this month: Lee Nelson and Royce Eckhardt have served well for the past three years, with much creativity and enthusiastic contributions. We will miss them both!  But we welcome two new board members, and look forward to their contributions: Rich Leasure and Barry Wenger.  And we are grateful for Philip McPeek’s continued presence on the board, beginning a new 3-year term.  The board will be meeting for a final summer meeting at the end of June, to begin planning details for the programs for the upcoming 2016-17 season.

Speaking of which, please take note of our excellent upcoming season of programs in this newsletter in the Upcoming Programs section. We have some fantastic programs planned for you, beginning with a recital by Vincent DuBois on October 7.  Please put them all on your calendars and plan on attending as many as possible.

Happy summer,
Andrea Handley, Dean