Directors College 2005 Report

The fifth Directors College - DC V - was held in January 2005 at the Bablake School in Coventry. Colin Touchin this years visiting educator ( and a local Coventry Music professional) received many plaudits from both students and the Faculty. He has been invited and has accepted to become a member of the Faculty and the steering group. This latter position will be of great benefit as we progress the Certification Scheme that we have been working on over the past year.

We had 63 Delegates from BABS, LABBS, Sweet Adelines, IABS and from outside the Barbershop World.

We used two choruses and one quartet (Coventry and East Midlands and Retro) who gave their time over the weekend to act as 'cannon fodder' to the three streams of Directors.

The mix of delegates was 39 men and 24 ladies. The faculty comprised 15 men and 7 ladies. Their feedback was very positive and areas for improvement have been noted for DC VI which will take place at the same venue January 6-8 2006.

Over the weekend we made videos of all the delegates conducting the choruses and this amounted to some 50 hours of taping. We had 4 fixed digital cameras with split screen viewing and a roving camera that took in other teaching aspects. At any one time there were 6 video playback units in operation.

We also made a special recording of all the delegates being coached in performing the College song Ol' St Louie. Edited versions of this recording on DVD will be available later in 2005.

Rhiannon and her team of coaches and technical staff of 22 people showed once again what a dedicated group we have in charge of this event.

Further information on all our educational events can be found on our education website www.babs-education.info where reports on Directors College from outside educational specialists can also be found.

If you have any questions on Directors College, please contact Mike Lofthouse