Jim Carroll

There was never any question (certainly not as far as I'm concerned) that any singer who wished to was given one bite of the cherry; as you say, how else would we know whether they could sing or not. The argument is about whether people who wished to sing were consistently given spots before they had conquered the rudiments.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. In an early posting you say -

Is it being a Blue Meany to suggest that performers should be able to hold a tune and remember and make sense of the words BEFORE they take to the floor. (Your emphasis.)

Searching on "before they" brings up half a dozen similar examples so perhaps you will excuse my confusion.

Are you now saying just "one bite of the cherry" or would you give people more time? It only moves the question along one step. To find out if they've improved, we have to put them on again. In our experience, people do improve. Some more slowly than others but nobody carries on apparently blissfully unaware of how bad they are.

"By making our criterion the desire to sing, we are raising standards".
Not if you are consistently putting on (or urging others to put on) singers who can't master the basics you're not.

We are not "consistently putting on singers who can't master the basics". We are not "a club which persistently presents singers
who can't sing". We simply don't have the resources. We do not have an adequate supply of singers who can't sing to do so. In our experience, the vast majority of people who want to sing (or play) can.

nor do I hesitate, on the basis of what I've heard, to include your club among the better ones

Kind of you but you still seem to be blaming our policy for the poor standards you see elsewhere. Dare I suggest that, if we are among the better ones, it is precisely because of our "Yes you can" policy?

As I said before "ding-ding; I'm on the bus"

That's rather the point, Jim. On your own admission you got off the bus ten years ago but still seem to feel that you are qualified to pontificate about the current state of public transport.