slightly DULL question, sorry
I am thinking of appointing heads of sections, as our choir just gets bigger and BIGGER.
have you experience of having a section representative?
were they appointed or volunteered?
what did they do?
did it work?
any help greatly appreciated

I think it's a great idea
Have seen this work unofficially - in that the most confident singer in the four parts dec and can would make sure the others were all sure of the notes etc
Never sung in a choir where it was placed on a formal footing
If orchestras have Principal Bassoon I don't see why it won't work well in choirs.
I would see them telling you that so and so isn't here or whatever, or being the one to pipe up if their line was wobbly.

ah thanks Marina.
I also thought they could approach me/MD with any concerns; one of the issues at the moment is that the MD gets swamped with people and he can get a little overwhelmed [delicate artistic flower emoticon]

Have sung in lots of choirs and never had this, but agree it sounds like a good idea and think it would work well as long as everyone was aware of the role and responsibilities.

Our problem was more that our MD was a fabulous conductor but took no hostages, so some of us weedier sops were too scared sometimes to ask him to revisit tricky passages
Go for it harpsi
at singing in a choir where other parts don't talk/knit/giggle through rehearsals

I am between choirs (audition next week eek!!)

The one I have left had rep for each section, volunteered.

They didn't appear to do a great deal apart from pass a card round each week for whoever had had a fall (the reason I left was because I was youngest there by about 40 years!)

We have section heads. We very often spend half the practice in sections. We altos have a retired (the choir has an average age of 70ish) music teacher who leads our sectionals and a retired piano teacher as our section accompanist. We get LOADS done in sectionals. They are V V V useful. We also have a section admin person and a section yahoo group for messages. I believe (but am not sure) they were volunteers but they're also 100% obvious choices so they may just have been appointed.

Yes, it can work very well! Useful for the conductor to have someone to liase with, also the librarian etc! And if you have an issue with a soprano who just can't reach the notes anymore, a rep can talk to them more easily to persuade them down to alto!

We have always had section reps in the big choirs I've been in (both local choirs and major symphony choruses). Generally there is a call for volunteers, then a vote amongst the section. What they then do depends on the way the choir is constituted.
But the idea of sopranos going down to altos ... well really ... that is a matter for the conductor on reaudition. Altos aren't superannuated sopranos!

no. Altos are women with talent who can actually sing more than just a melody

oh thanks to you all, this is all very helpful.
lol at passing round a card for someone who has had a fall sounds familiar.
actually, we are surprisingly young and fresh, relatively

we usually muster a minutes silence for a former choir member every week .

lol
I have been to a fair few funerals....

Sorry, I missed this one.

We are a chamber choir and muster about 10 per voice, so don't have sectional leaders. We do sometimes split into sectional rehearsals though, as our accompanist is also an extremely good director (in fact is DoM at v well known chapel) so we learn differently when he's in charge .

There's lots of chatter/heckling during our rehearsals. A fair bit comes from me, I have to confess:

Conductor: so that C sharp quaver in the third bar should be short and stressed.
Jura: Yeah, bit like me really...

And if he ever praises us fulsomely (v v rare) I write it down in my music. Then I can refer to it in later years.

Conductor: That was not bad
Jura: OK, but on 17th Feb 2001 at 9.17pm the altos were really excellent, apparently.

There is no knitting goes on though . And the basses are the very worst behaved, we're nothing compared with them...