The "golden screw" award

HISTORY:

This award is presented “now and again” to a chorus member who “screws up” at one of the NBC shows.  A chorus member must be nominated by somebody and stand humiliated in front of the chorus, who votes for the best “screw up” of all the nominated “screw ups” (aka a kangaroo court).  Mike Maino first started the award by giving an actual screw that came out of a chair in a banquet room to George Wright at the NED Convention in 1979.  It is unclear how much time passed between that memorable event and the actual trophy being made for the Award. 

NBC, had a very talented Barbershopper who worked for a jewelry company, in Attleboro.  His name was Bob Brennan who was commissioned by NBC to make the hardware for the trophy after the BODs decided to make the Award a permanent rotating Award due to the repetitive and seemingly consistent manner that our chorus members "screw-up".  Bob did so, but needed a symbol exemplifying the name of the trophy which could be placed prominently as a part of the trophy. Jim Kissack, who worked for the telephone company, donated a piece of hardware called a lag bolt, or giant screw, which seemed to be the perfect symbol for the trophy. Bob placed it, along with the figurines of the perfect barbershop quartet, as a part of the Trophy. If you look closely at each of the small figurines you will see that one is conspicuously different from the other three….he is missing his cane and hat!  Hence the appropriateness of the trophy for the Award. 

The name of the Award has changed over the years.  Originally, it was called “The Rotating Award for Notable Performance”, the name on the trophy.  At some point in time, probably after the trophy with the giant screw was made, the name colloquially changed to “The Golden Screw Award”.  It was temporarily re-named to “The Golden SPEW Award” for a notable chorus member, whose initials are: James “Diego” Fontaine, vomited during warm ups for the 2008 Districts competition.

Starting in 2014, the list of recipients will include the date the award was given, the number of times presented with the award and a self described reason for receiving the award.

Past recipients not currently performing/active members of NBC in 2017:

• Barfoot, Jim

• Basel, Fred

• Berger, Jim

• Dill, Brian

• Doran, Ted

• Fijak, Ted

• Kuen, Alex

• Lanza, Frank

• Potenza, Tom

• Quesnel, John

• Rodrigues, Rod

• Schaub, Noel

• Wright, George (FIRST RECIPIENT 1979)

• Zoppa, Joe

Past Recipients current members of NBC (as of December 2017):

• Stan Zimmering: (1) unknown time or screw up

• Jim Kissack: (2 or 3 times)

• Mike Maino: admitted to winning it “a couple of times”, but would not put a number on it; possibly tying or beating Jim Kissack for the most wins

• Jack Amaral: 1994, non-conforming dress, he forgot his tie!

• Bob Bernard: (2) 1995 and 2013

• Tony Benevides: (1) 2009, for not listening AND being one of the people to give clear instructions to all chorus members reminding them that there is a speed trap in a specific area on the way to a district convention. Unfortunately, Tony and a group of all of the young people in the chorus got pulled over in that speed trap and Tony's car was impounded for not having an up to date registration. Not really funny. BUT hilariously ironic

• Billy Wright: (1) no memory of when or where,

• Rick Fontaine: (1); for moving early/ incorrectly during one of NBC contest sets

• James “Diego” Fontaine: (1), Dec 2008 for vomiting during warm ups prior to Districts

• Antonio Lombardi: (1) who never openly admitted to having received the award, but won for mass printing "Sweetheard of Sigma Chi" on contest music.

• Russ Williamson: (1) summer 2014, non-conforming dress, he forgot his tie!

• David Scarchilli: (1) December 2014; June 2014 was the first time on the raisers, forgot his tux pants; fortunately for everybody including the audience, his wife brought them prior to the start of the show!

• Fred Kingsbury: (1) Completely missed a quartet introduction and entrance when rest of quartet was introduced.

• RJ Tavares: (2) Dragging and retaining a serious amount of dirt and flys on a pristine floor prior to a major chorus performance; also wearing sweatpants in a full suit an hour before a performance.

• Bob Valcourt: (1) Bob regretfully forgot his shirt for our NED District Contest Set forcing our Assistant Director to wear different clothes.

• John Woodhouse: (2) During the NED Fall District Contest, John tripped over himself whilst attempted serious choreography. Quickest turn around time in NBC History! The second time, John forgot the award that he was supposed to present!

• Norm Dupont: (2)

  • Norm this award for his antics at the NED Division Contest April 2016.  In the annals of this prestigious award, nobody has ever even been nominated as a Life Time Member.  Here is the cliff note version of his antics. 

    First off, Norm received the award for tripping on his shoes.  Now everybody in the chorus knows that these shoes are relics of the ice age.  There is a rip in the patten leather and the white stuffing was showing through the rip.  Since Norm is in the front row, there have been suttle hints for him to replace these shoes.  It became very noticeable after reviewing the video which showed him tripping upon entering the stage.  Apparently, the shoe is also missing some or part of the heal!

    Second, Norm forgot to retrieve his tux after the contest.  It was left in the changing room.  After several announcements at rehearsals and an email requesting the owner to fess up, Norm finally admitted that the Tux was his.  This was enough to award him the first ever, Golden Screw Life Time Member Award. 

    Now the clincher: at the next show in Tiverton, RI, somebody noticed that the white stuffing was not showing through...but wait.  When asked about this phenomena, Norm openly admitted that he used black shoe polish to cover the white stuffing on his shoe, i.e., it was the same old shoe!  What's next, black electricians tape?  Can't make this stuff up!

• Glenn Rosa (1)

  • len unfortunately, took the responsibility of ensuring our guest books were in order for our weekly meetings. Unfortunately, he photo copied all of our holiday music to place inside, but regrettably only copied every other page of the music needed. 

Respectfully submitted:

David Scarchilli
Tribunal Moderator