Sweet Adelines International 75th Jubilee Commemorative Album

DEDICATION

“Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes…” The number of minutes in one year. It’s easy to calculate the minutes, weeks, months, and years of our Sweet Adelines International journey. Counting, measuring, collecting data, analyzing data, sharing data, making decisions based on data — these are ways, really good ways, in which we figure out where we’ve been, where we are, and how to get to the next place in our organization’s journey of singing barbershop music together. The more information we gather, the more we can make informed decisions with predictable outcomes. But what happens to an organization, a SINGING organization, when a worldwide pandemic occurs and the measuring, counting, data, and data analysis change almost every 24 hours? When events and rehearsals and performances and celebrations are impacted in every single region in Sweet Adelines? We know what

As with all journeys, there have been set-backs, turns and detours in our quest for improving our organization, but we strive to learn from our mistakes and find our way back to the heart of our vision: that we inspire and empower voices to joyfully harmonize the world. With resiliency, purpose, openness and joyful voices, our journey continues. It is to strong members of Sweet Adelines International that this book is lovingly dedicated.

happens. We’ve lived it. To say our journey on the road took a U-turn in 2020 is putting it mildly. Yet we can say that we collectively rose to the challenge of finding amazingly innovative ways of communicating, connecting, learning, caring and, yes, singing. Some things in our Sweet Adelines world were not measurable before 2020 and will never be measurable. These are the smiles and tears we’ve brought to audiences, the support we offer one another in times of need, the educational moments we’ve shared with each other, the meaningful moments we’ve taken to get to know each other. My wish is that these will always be too abundant to count. And, of course, the singing. We’ve rung millions of chords and moved audiences with our voices. Through our songs, we’ve shared our hearts, our stories, our journeys, our vulnerabilities, our emotions. We’ve shed sequins and tears and joy for 75 years as we’ve made our way from rehearsal to stage.

Joan Boutilier International President

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