Margaret Vonk joined Singing Unlimited (SU) six months after its foundation in 2013 and shortly thereafter became the chorus secretary, a job she still fulfils with great dedication. Over the years, Margaret not only developed as a fantastic singer, reaching both the high tenor and deep bass levels, but with her ballet background she also excels with her front row performance skills.
Margaret is fundamental to the organisation that SU has become. She is sincerely concerned with all that is happening in and around the chorus and is busy with it on a daily basis – even when away on holiday, she ensures the continuous flow of emails in our inboxes. She arrives first and leaves last at rehearsals, keeps an eye on everyone and reaches out when needed. As secretary, she is our memory, archive, record-keeper, agenda-maker and the one who ticks the boxes on the many to-do lists. She takes perfect minutes of the management team meetings and keeps meticulous record of everything that has been done, everything happening right now and all that needs to be done in the future.
She is a very active SU convention team member, organising our acommodations in the UK for convention weekends, including dinners, rehearsal and party rooms! She records everything in her ‘holy binder’, which never leaves her sight, except only when on stage. The only thing we have to do ourselves is buy our airline ticket and go, but if it was in her power, she would make that happen, too!
To further make herself useful for SU and the larger organisation of Sweet Adelines International, she recently volunteered with the regional management team and is the current Dutch liaison for Region 31.
We are grateful to her in making our chorus run smoothly as it does. But above all, our Margaret is a lovely and very modest person, who acts as if the most natural and obvious way is to help others. This nomination is only a small sign of how thankful we are for her dedication and friendship, and of how much she means to us.