The Member Who Treats Every Break Like a Networking Event
Within minutes they have crossed the room several times, spoken to members from every section and gathered enough information to produce a quarterly newsletter.
Every choir has at least one member who appears to view the rehearsal break not as an opportunity for refreshment, but as a highly efficient social engagement exercise.
The tea break begins. Most singers take a moment to sit down, pour a cup of tea, locate a biscuit and perhaps enjoy sixty seconds of relative peace before the second half of rehearsal begins.
Not this person.
Before the kettle has finished boiling, they are already in motion.
Within minutes they have crossed the room several times, spoken to members from every section and gathered enough information to produce a quarterly newsletter. They know who has recently returned from holiday, whose son has just graduated, who is changing jobs and which bass has acquired a new knee.
What makes their achievement particularly impressive is the speed at which it occurs.
The average choir break lasts somewhere between ten and fifteen minutes. During this brief window, the networking enthusiast somehow manages to hold a meaningful conversation with a substantial proportion of the membership. New members are welcomed, old members are updated and absent members are discussed. No opportunity for social engagement is wasted.
“Some singers spend the break drinking tea. Others spend it maintaining an information network of remarkable sophistication.”
There is often a misconception that these individuals are merely talkative.
This is unfair.
Talkative people speak.
Networking specialists gather intelligence.
They possess an extraordinary awareness of the social life of the choir. Long before official announcements are made, they have already become aware of forthcoming weddings, retirements, house moves, grandchildren, holidays and medical procedures. They may not always know every detail, but they invariably know enough to ask highly specific follow-up questions.
"How did your appointment go?"
"Did the kitchen finally get finished?"
"Is your daughter still thinking about moving to Cork?"
These questions often leave the recipient wondering how such information became public knowledge in the first place.
The networking member also performs an important function within the ecosystem of the choir. New singers are rarely left standing alone for long. Visitors are quickly introduced to people. News travels efficiently. Social bonds are strengthened. Choirs, after all, are communities as much as musical organisations, and communities require connection.
Of course, there are occasional side effects.
The conductor may announce that rehearsal will resume in two minutes, only to discover that half the choir remains engaged in animated discussion. A simple enquiry about somebody's weekend can unexpectedly develop into a detailed conversation involving camping, weather systems, ferry timetables and a cousin who once lived nearby.
Time behaves differently around these people.
What feels like thirty seconds is often closer to ten minutes.
Yet most choirs would be poorer without them.
While conductors may occasionally glance nervously at the clock, these members help create the friendships that keep people returning year after year. The music may be the reason people join a choir, but it is often the relationships that persuade them to stay.
Besides, if the choir ever needed to locate a missing member, organise an emergency collection, gather volunteers for an event or discover what happened at last week's committee meeting, everyone knows exactly who to ask.
The answer will almost certainly be available before the tea has finished brewing.
