Director College is for chorus directors, right? Wrong, it's for all chorus members! Surprise, surprise, it's not the exclusive club I'd expected. With sixty-nine delegates, not every C.D. in attendance and many on the faculty, there must be many more, like me. I've years of experience on the risers, taken the odd warm-up and even conducted small sing-outs when required. I had always said that I preferred to sing, but our chorus needs a deputy CD. - every chorus should have one - and my chorus colleagues wanted me. That was nice. It felt right to be among my fellow delegates for the welcome session.

The whole weekend was timed to the second, and ran to time! Good use was made of the main lecture theatre and its facilities. Lectures on Certification of CDs, by Neil Watkins and the 'Keynote' speech by Steve Armstrong of Toronto's 'Northern Lights' chorus, made up the first evening. Steve is one of the most successful CDs. He talked of his background, his rise to prominence and quoted from many books on self-motivation, positive thinking and man management in his attempt to inspire us. I'm afraid it didn't really work for me, although, he did confirm what I have always known, that chorus directing is not just about waving your arms around. It's not what you know that makes a great director but how you use it. It's about leadership and management, something we were to hear much more about that weekend.

Leadership and Management, what a great choice of college theme. What a great lecture we were treated to by Chris Davidson on that subject for over an hour on Saturday morning (the only thing that ran over time, but who cares?) He asked us to question our values, our communication and our demonstration skills, and whether those contributed to the good of our chorus. Of great importance was the question of chorus culture and collective vision. No point in pulling in opposite directions! We need an empathy, an understanding of each man on the risers. Chris talked an awful lot of common sense, don't ask the impossible, don't blame the man change the system, build a 'no blame' culture, find inspiration and innovation, and take your chorus with you! All this with demonstrations and examples which maintained ones attention and focused the mind, in its self a perfect demonstration of the theme. Thank you Chris.

Case studies followed led by Steve and Chris. We were grouped with others to discuss problems within clubs and to recommend solutions. I found that often the talk became too personal and specific, wasting time rather than making progress. Solutions gradually emerged however, on which we all agreed, the natural leaders among us steering finally to acceptable conclusions. Our tutors made their appearance only at the end of the session, just to confirm that there were indeed some leaders amongst us?

The welcome chance to sing came at the delegate chorus coaching session, which I thoroughly enjoyed and found useful. As a 'novice' my own Directing Technique instruction followed. A group of eighteen or so novices led by three faculty members in the patterns of conducting 2,3 and 4 beat rhythms. It worked very well. The tutors gave us a good mix of instruction and humour whilst preparing us all for the video assessment session to follow on Sunday. A little daunting for some but I feel I did pretty well.

Overall for me Directors College 2006 was very worthwhile. I thought the hotel was fine, its proximity to the school working a lot in its favour. The school its self is a great facility supplying all we need, pretty well under one roof, with good breakout rooms and just about OK food! Other sessions, 'Towards Performance' and 'Learning Methods' were useful and fitted well into the theme of Leadership and Management, which was what the college was all about.

I hope I return to my club more focused and confident and can repay their faith in my abilities with the message, 'it's not only what you do, but how and why you do it, that matters', firmly in my mind.

I thank the Harmony Foundation for the grant of the scholarship. I can assure you that it has not been wasted. I shall return.

Roger Williams