Song Selection
This last weekend was song selection, which our choir does everywhere as part of the process for picking our music for the season the following year. It's a pretty awesome process because it gives the members of the choir some say in what to sing and gives the directors some ideas about what we want as well. It's a one day process but we do it over the weekend, so it's a bit of a bonding and getting to know you as well. It's weird, because that's when you start to meet some of the other choir members and find out more about them as people, and then we have 3 months off, so it's like super bond and then slightly awkward re-entry in the fall-at least sometimes.
I still felt slightly out of place this year, as I tend to every year. I can't quite figure out how I fit into the groups, and Angie is my admission ticket in a lot of ways. And not that people would push me away if I approached them, but I can't quite get comfortable inviting myself. There's some aspect of not being sure where I WANT to fit in as well.
This year was pretty different in some ways though. This year I was asked to be the facilitator for song selection, a task usually reserved for Domi. Song Selection is kind of Domi's baby, and she puts a lot of work into getting people informed, ready and excited about the process. She organizes and prepares and gives us the directions on the day. But she wasn't able to come this year, and I was asked to step into just the facilitating part. I got to go to the music committee meeting for the initial screening of the songs (to weed out anything that might not be arrangeable for our group) and kinda of see how that part of the choir works. I was blessed to have time to meet with Domi and get all of her notes and all of her ideas and all of her hard work organizing with me. And I got to facilitate.
I was nervous. I think I am shy in front of crowds, and speaking in public sorts of things. But I am very good at educating and letting people know what their options are. These people are kind of an extended family, and even if I didn't do great, they would support me for trying so I wasn't super nervous until the day of. And you know what? I did awesome. There were a few things I could have done better, and I hope that one of the directors, who had some notes for me, and I will still get together and talk about those notes (we did it very fleetingly). I dont' want to steal this part of the process from Domi, but if they asked me to do it again I would.
It was weird being the center of attention like that, but also nice. I made some rookie mistakes, but I also did some really great things. I kept us on track and even got a few laughs (sometimes the process gets a little....over-processed. It's hard to find the right amount of processing for about 45 lesbians without getting some tense moments). I had so many people come up to me and tell me what a good job I did that it was almost overwhelming. I practiced taking compliments without too many justifications or "but you saw this bad part too right?" things, though was not 100% on that either. One of the best things I did was when I got overwhelmed with people trying to correct me was appoint an 'Amber mistake watcher'. She was the one who would tell me when I got off track or was wrong in some way and I would listen to her, but wouldn't put up with 30 people trying to correct me (as it's too confusing for me and for the other people there). I actually did the 911 thing where you point at someone and say "You. You are in charge of catching my mistakes and telling me. I will listen for those corrections only from you". Luckily, she didn't mind so that was good.
I also did feedback sheets, which haven't happened at song selection for a while at least and I think there was some really good information on those as well. Lots of positive feedback and some great ideas for improving the process. I got about 38 of those forms from I think 48 people, so I felt good about that as well.
It was cool, and made me feel like I could do this. I have seen it enough times to have the flow of facilitating, and I was able to bring my own style to it. I haven't every done anything on this kind of scale before so it was rewarding to know that I could and that people appreciated what I brought to the process. Yay me!
I still felt slightly out of place this year, as I tend to every year. I can't quite figure out how I fit into the groups, and Angie is my admission ticket in a lot of ways. And not that people would push me away if I approached them, but I can't quite get comfortable inviting myself. There's some aspect of not being sure where I WANT to fit in as well.
This year was pretty different in some ways though. This year I was asked to be the facilitator for song selection, a task usually reserved for Domi. Song Selection is kind of Domi's baby, and she puts a lot of work into getting people informed, ready and excited about the process. She organizes and prepares and gives us the directions on the day. But she wasn't able to come this year, and I was asked to step into just the facilitating part. I got to go to the music committee meeting for the initial screening of the songs (to weed out anything that might not be arrangeable for our group) and kinda of see how that part of the choir works. I was blessed to have time to meet with Domi and get all of her notes and all of her ideas and all of her hard work organizing with me. And I got to facilitate.
I was nervous. I think I am shy in front of crowds, and speaking in public sorts of things. But I am very good at educating and letting people know what their options are. These people are kind of an extended family, and even if I didn't do great, they would support me for trying so I wasn't super nervous until the day of. And you know what? I did awesome. There were a few things I could have done better, and I hope that one of the directors, who had some notes for me, and I will still get together and talk about those notes (we did it very fleetingly). I dont' want to steal this part of the process from Domi, but if they asked me to do it again I would.
It was weird being the center of attention like that, but also nice. I made some rookie mistakes, but I also did some really great things. I kept us on track and even got a few laughs (sometimes the process gets a little....over-processed. It's hard to find the right amount of processing for about 45 lesbians without getting some tense moments). I had so many people come up to me and tell me what a good job I did that it was almost overwhelming. I practiced taking compliments without too many justifications or "but you saw this bad part too right?" things, though was not 100% on that either. One of the best things I did was when I got overwhelmed with people trying to correct me was appoint an 'Amber mistake watcher'. She was the one who would tell me when I got off track or was wrong in some way and I would listen to her, but wouldn't put up with 30 people trying to correct me (as it's too confusing for me and for the other people there). I actually did the 911 thing where you point at someone and say "You. You are in charge of catching my mistakes and telling me. I will listen for those corrections only from you". Luckily, she didn't mind so that was good.
I also did feedback sheets, which haven't happened at song selection for a while at least and I think there was some really good information on those as well. Lots of positive feedback and some great ideas for improving the process. I got about 38 of those forms from I think 48 people, so I felt good about that as well.
It was cool, and made me feel like I could do this. I have seen it enough times to have the flow of facilitating, and I was able to bring my own style to it. I haven't every done anything on this kind of scale before so it was rewarding to know that I could and that people appreciated what I brought to the process. Yay me!