Mission Statement
It is the mission of the Association of District Quartet Champions of the Land O’ Lakes District of the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America d/b/a The Barbershop Harmony Society, to promote quartet singing in the Barbershop Harmony style by:
- Setting high standards of performance and conduct
- Promoting quartet participation in the contest & judging system
- Cultivating public interest in Championship quartets
- Encouraging Champion Quartet participation in District events
- Assisting the development and education of aspiring quartets
- Doing all things reasonably necessary to accomplish these goals
Association of District Champions
The Association of District Quartet Champions (ADC) is a subsidiary organization of the Land O’Lakes (LO’L) District of the Barbershop Harmony Society. The Association was established in 1988 as a standing committee of the LO’L District through the efforts of a group of individuals, all members of LO’L District championship quartets, under the leadership of Dean Haagenson. The primary motivation of this organizing group was to find ways for the top quartet singers in the District to “give something back” to barbershopping in return for the support we had received along the way. In the words of Richard Treptow in a 1991 memorandum to the LO’L District Board of Directors, “The ADC’s overall objective is to provide service, through both example and deed, to barbershop quartets, to aspiring barbershop quartet performers, to the contest and judging system, to barbershop harmony in general, and, of course, to its membership.”
To fund our instructional efforts and to help develop camaraderie among quartet members, we asked district approval for our taking over the Friday evening “pre-glow” at the Land O’ Lakes District contest held each October in the time slot immediately following the semi-final quartet competition. We promised to produce an outstanding show for which we would receive a share of the proceeds to be used in carrying out our goals. The plan included featuring all currently-active district championship quartets as well as asking no-longer-active quartets to make a cameo appearance at each five-year anniversary of their winning the gold medal. We produced our first show in Racine in 1988 following approval of the ADC organization by its membership. It was an artistic success, was well-received by the standing-room-only audience and the district administration, and has been repeated annually ever since.
A set of by-laws governing the actions of ADC was developed by Richard Treptow and approved by association members in 1991. That same year the LO’L District approved ADC as a subsidiary organization rather than as a standing committee. In the years that followed ADC took on an increasing number of responsibilities: 1) Creating and funding a scholarship program to assist in the development and education of aspiring barbershop quartet performers; 2) Designing a program by which ADC members would lend their expertise in coaching district quartets and choruses; 3) Assisting in the organization and administration of, and instruction in, various Harmony Education Programs and Quartet Schools within the district; 4) Managing, and procuring high quality coaches for, annual Top Gun Schools which enroll the top district quartets for a concentrated weekend of coaching. Certainly our leadership role within the LO’L District will continue to evolve as time goes on.
