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Welcome to list seagreensingers@lists.riseup.net
Your subscription email is 9377mike9377@gmail.com

The SeaGreen Singers website is at http://www.seagreensingers.com where you can find details of songs, gigs etc

To send messages to members of the choir use the email address

seagreensingers@lists.riseup.net The messages will be sent to all members of the choir.

We hope you enjoy singing with us and a big hello from us all.

Welcome to the Sea Green Singers.

We want you to feel at home in the group and this letter is an introduction to
how we are organised and what is expected of members and what members can
expect from belonging to the group.

Our history
The Sea Green Singers started as a singing group during a WEA course called
'Songs that changed the world', held in 2001. Members of the course wanted to
carry on singing songs about causes for change, old and new. As the WEA
branch in Oxford used to run the annual Levellers Day celebration in Burford,
the group chose to call themselves the Sea Green Singers because sea green was
the colour of the ribbons that Leveller soldiers wore in their hats, and their
women made clothes of sea green cloth. We have a strong and important
connection with Levellers Day and always perform during it, wearing our
uniform of sea green waistcoats.

Who we are
First and foremost, we are a choir that sings songs about peace, justice,
rights, and freedom and most people who join the choir are involved in other
organisations that campaign for change on many fronts. That makes us a lively
and interesting bunch! It leads to wonderful debates in the pub, after the
singing practice!

Meetings, practices and timing
We meet on Monday evenings from 7.50pm – 9.30pm, in St Columba';s Church Hall,
to learn songs that reflect a wide range of issues. We try to arrive at the
hall in good time to start warming up our bodies and voices at 7.50pm, so that
we can start singing at 8pm. Sarah is our musical director and it is
important that we are focused and disciplined during the rehearsals and achieve
as much learning and practice as possible in a relatively short time. You can
ask Sarah questions about the music, but it's best to leave other thoughts and
questions until the end of the practice.

At 9.25pm, we take a few minutes to discuss forthcoming events in which we are
involved and any other pressing issues about the organisation of the group.
It is good discipline not to talk much about these things during the singing
time but wait until the end.

Rehearsal schedule
Sarah prepares a rehearsal schedule near the start of each term which lists the
songs we are learning, the songs we are consolidating (our core repertoire)
and the events we hope to support during the term. Members sign a list to
indicate whether they are available for a particular event and only if we have
a minimum of 8 and a reasonable distribution of voices will we go ahead. We
also use 'Doodle' lists
(http://sgs.lpi.org.uk/seagreensingers/doodlelinks.htm) to gauge support for
events we are contemplating singing at. Sarah will produce a list of songs
that we are going to sing at an event at least 2 weeks before the event. Once
you are committed to an event, we have a principle that you must attend the
last 2 rehearsals before that event as we will be going through the song-list
for the event.

Repertoire and website
We recognise that it can be difficult for a new person to catch up on all the
repertoire that older members already know well. We have a website with all
the music and words and mp3 files of all the songs that we sing, so we ask you
to listen to the songs in the core repertoire that are on the rehearsal
schedule and are being consolidated that evening. We will then try to give
you sufficient support during the singing for you to be able to pick up the
music quite quickly. We have printed music for almost all our songs and Sarah
will provide this at rehearsals. If you don't read music this is not a
problem as you will learn fast by listening. We do not expect you to learn
the words of most of the songs we sing either: we cheat by using an overhead
projector to project the words onto a board in front of us at our gigs or we
have song-sheets.

Six-monthly meetings
The group meets twice a year to discuss everything about the organisation of
the group. We receive reports from the Treasurer, Musical Director and the
Secretary and we discuss past and future events and any other issues to do
with the running of the group. The summer meeting is usually held in July in
someone's house and garden. The winter meeting is held on a Monday evening in
St Columba's Church Hall.

Finances
We ask members for a subscription to cover the costs of hiring the rehearsal
space, photocopying, occasional transport to gigs and festivals, publicity,
and uniform (the sea-green waistcoats!). The amount of the subscription is
agreed at the six-monthly meetings and amended during the year at other times
on suggestion of the treasurer. We ask that you pay your money directly into
our bank account and let the treasurer – currently Mike – €“ know that you have
done so. We ask you to take personal responsibility for making this regular
payment. Please make bank transfers to our account 'Sea Green Singers',
account no. 65216460, Sort Code:08-92-99,quoting your name in the reference by
using the 'pay bills' option.

Administration
The secretary looks after all communications for the group – sendinng out emails
with information, details about gigs and arrangements for them, and useful and
interesting links to other music and musical events that might interest us.
Mike looks after the very excellent website. We communicate with each other
by email using the following list: seagreensingers@lists.riseup.net When you send an email to this address it
gets circulated to everyone in the choir. Obviously you need to give your email
address to the secretary for it to be added to the list. If you have any
questions about administration, then please ask the secretary first.

Conclusion
So, you are very welcome! If there is anything that worries you, please ask:
if it's about music, ask Sarah, if it's about money, ask the treasurer,
if it's about organisation ask the secretary. If it's about something else,
ask anyone! We hope to make you feel quickly at home in the group and also
that you stay with us. Please don't just disappear because something bothers
you – let us know and we'll address it if we can..

The Seagreen Singers are an Oxford, UK based political singing group.

The Sea Green singers meet at St.Columba's Church Hall, Alfred Street off the High Street, Oxford, on Monday at 8pm. All are welcome to join and no singing experience or ability to read nusic is required. For more information contact Mike Cox, 01865 438734

The group is named after the colour of the tunics the Levellers wore as they were murdered in cold blood by Cromwell's soldiers. The legacy of the Levellers lives on.

The group was formed after a class arranged by the Oxford Workers' Education Association (a leftist non-politically affiliated organisation that believes in empowerment through education).

We have done diverse political events and actions such as:
* singing alternative carols for the Palestine Solidarity campaign
* street singing to raise money for peace focussed campaigns and charities
* outreach at detention centres (enables us to get into places, such as Campsfield detention centre) and meet refuges
* empowering the local community

There is no audition needed to join the group; it encourages all members, and potential members, in Oxford to come along - all that is needed is the attitude of creating a better world, peace and justice and a love of singing!