Sweet Adelines International 75th Jubilee Commemorative Album

(excerpt from The Pitch Pipe, Summer 1965. Article by Lynn McCord) The First Twenty Years Are the Toughest… Our “family” is not unlike other families. We’re working on our first 20 years, and finding ourselves faced with the normal “crises” of any family. The family has grown rapidly, and Mom starts reminding Dad that the budget won’t stretch any farther…he’s just gotta ask Mr. Boss for a raise! For the fourth consecutive year, Sweet Adelines have more planned expenses than anticipated income from dues. Why? We’ve neglected areas of training. We’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what should be done in the way of education of our members. AND we’ve outgrown our “home.” Where does the money go?

Sales items included cigarette cases and lighters.

There are other sources of income, charter renewal fees, and quartet registration fees, convention registrations and a few donations, but these are rather like little “windfalls.” They’re not stable sources. Another important factor in our financial picture is membership growth. Our office staff has not yet reached the ideal number to handle the workload, even if we could afford more staff members. Even if we could afford it, we couldn’t hire them; our present staff members are sitting on each other’s laps now. There is one unalterable fact that emerges. Dad (in this case, Mom!) has to ask the boss for a raise, since that’s the only way we can keep this family in business. And so, the Board of Directors authorized a dues increase of $10 USD per capita.

Chapters and quartets find ways to raise additional funds too by adding their logos and names to unique merchandise .

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