"I'll follow you anywhere you're going to take us"
That's what Doug Robertson of Carstairs, Alberta, would like to tell Society CEO Marty Monson after he and other Society staff personally rolled out the red carpet way after bedtime at Harmony U. In Doug's own words: I just want to relate an experience to your readers that I had at the 2014 Harmony University in Nashville a few weeks ago. I am a long-time barbershopper in Calgary, Alberta singing with the Stampede City Chorus and now additionally with the Western Hospitality Singers (WHS) in Calgary, as well as in a quartet with my brother called Trademark. Our quartet had gone to Harmony U back in 2009 when the WHS went down to HU as a chorus, I believe the first chorus to do so. This year, the WHS again went down to HU as a chorus to Nashville, and had an amazing time and learned a lot about how to perform better. I'll do it again in a heartbeat, but that's not the only thing that made the whole experience extra special. We seem to have plane trouble when we come to HU from Calgary. The first time in 2009 it affected the whole chorus, this time it only affected 5 of us because we decided to reduce the risk of it happening again by booking numerous flights, which turned out to be a good idea. By the time the last 5 of us got to Belmont University, it was past 1:00 am very early Monday morning, and our taxi driver seemed to have no clue as to how to navigate the University, so we called out to a couple of guys walking in the dark to find out where we might go to check in or at least crash until morning. Amazingly, one of them was BHS CEO Marty Monson, who told the taxi driver where to drop us off, where we were met by HU Dean Joe Cerutti and directed to the Beaman. Marty had given me Sherry Lewis' phone number inside, and she unlocked the doors and the team there got us our keys and registration packages. Marty then led us over to our dorm through the dark and made sure our keys worked before he began looking for bedding, pillows and towels with us in tow. I'm not sure if Marty got to sleep at all Monday morning, because he was still handing out bedding for arrivals even later than us when we left him at 2:45 a.m., and he was seen at 6:30 a.m. by other people I talked to Monday afternoon. A big, big thanks to Joe Cerutti, Sherry Lewis, the rest of the night-owl check-in team at Beaman and especially Marty Monson, for making our first day of Harmony U so special despite all the airlines could throw at us. It set the tone for a successful week at HU for all of us, and I can confidently say to Marty "I'll follow you anywhere you're going to take us" after his service above and beyond in the wee hours of Monday July 28, 2014! Next time we're flying in a week early, so we can make our first Sunday Keynote Address!