We used to always have rehearsals on Sundays just before the mass because most people refused to come out during the week. I did not agree with that since the church should be open and quiet for those who come in early to prepare for mass. When I took over as DM, I made rehearsal on Monday nights because most people agreed that was the best for them; however, I found that to be counterproductive, as most people had a tendency to "forget" the music a week in advance. We now rehearse on Thursday nights (for those who choose to show up) and it's been a little better. My other alternative, is to have a couple of major Saturday morning workshop rehearsals for major holidays. As far as getting out of the choir loft, well, of course, we all understand that.

Thursday is often the chosen day for choir rehearsals in this area. We have ours on Wednesday evenings. It has been like this prior to my arrival. We are a bedroom community and people work late; so it is a very late rehearsal. We have three Masses Sunday mornings. There would be no where to rehearse, so that would be out, and, as was mentioned, it would be difficult for choristers to remember the music!

I used to do Easter/Christmas choir practice on Sundays, but I'd schedule it for an hour after the last morning Mass, so there was never anybody else in the church. There was an afternoon Mass, but too far away for anyone to be disturbed by us. So nobody heard Easter hymns on a Sunday of Lent except the choir. I'm not particularly a fan of choir practice on a Sunday since it was already the busiest day, but sometimes you have to go with what works for everybody.

My Schola practices at church 45 minutes after Sunday Mass and at my house 1.5 hours on Thursday evenings. There are just eight of us, all men. On the Thursday evening practices, we work an hour, then break for 20 minutes or so to sip scotch (purchased with proceeds from occasional wedding gigs) and chat, then wrap up with another half hour of practice. Since everyone enjoys the fellowship—we say our Schola is really our Catholic men's group—it doesn't seem a chore to come out on weeknights.

I don't know whether this Schola/men's group model would work for larger groups or mixed choirs, but it's worth consideration.

Our church space is limited and I am finding that I may need to change the rehearsal agenda up. We have mid-week services during Advent and Lent - and we recently started Evensong services on Sundays 1 time each quarter. I split the Chancel Choir and started an advanced (intermediate at least) reader group and now my Chancel Choir had 9 and added 3 and my Kantorei had 10 and now has 12. Since I am only able to handle 20 at one time in the main area for the choir - this works well. BUT - I may end up moving my Chancel Choir to Sunday mornings before service - and limit that group to unison/2pt music and the occasional psalmody. It really will change things up quite a bit - but being in a college area - my pianist drives 1 hour 1 way to get here... so, moving it to Sunday will make things easier on him.

My choir rehearses on wednesdays from 7pm until 8:30pm and sometimes until 9pm if we are preparing lots of music say for example in the lead up to Christmas or Easter. We also have a rehearsal starting at 9:45am for the 11am sung mass.

Typically we retire to a local chinese restauraunt after wednesday night rehearsals for a supper and usually head out to lunch after Sunday mass.

We are most fortunate to have a dedicated rehearsal room as well as a dedicated storage room for our choir robes, music and an office. Mind you - this is a Cathedral Church we are talking about.

See if you can use another room for warm-ups/rehearsals. Most churches are attached to a school or have a hall with a small side room that you can use as a "choir room".

I'm on a church committee that uses Doodle to find mutually agreeable times for meetings. Works well for us...but of course everyone needs to participate for it to work. What I like is that it doesn't require showing your schedule, just indicating what times won't work at all, will work, and might work.

At least everyone seems to have a regularly scheduled time. Our choir director feels no need for that. We usually gather 45 minutes before Mass in the choir loft and begin singing prelude music 10 minutes before Mass. For a few weeks prior to Easter or Christmas we begin 1.5 hrs before Mass. That means we sing for 2.5 to 3 hours some Sundays. That is not good for anyone's voice, especially those of us who are trying to preserve aging voices. We tend to be more of a "group who gets together to sing on Sunday" than a choir. I envy those of you who have dedicated time for music!

Not sure if we'll continue this next year, but, for now, we have practice Thursday afternoon (3:30-5:00) for those singing for the Triduum. We have practice before the sung Mass on Sunday one hour before Mass begins for those who want to sing on Sunday. What I like about this is I know who will be singing at each Mass! If we do this next year, I'm thinking we'll have the seasonal practice on Thursdays two months before Christmas and two months before Easter. Otherwise, just have Sunday practice before Mass.

We just started this last week and I already had one complainer who said it "wears out his voice" to practice before Mass and then sing at Mass. You can't win in this business!

Kathy

@teachermom24, I wouldn't dismiss the guy who claims to feel vocal stress from practicing and then singing at Mass. A lot of well-meaning people have long-standing but unhealthy singing habits, and have never been taught anything different.

Gavin is correct, I think. I've been through this before: struggling with changing the choir time because there were some people who said they didn't join choir because they couldn't make rehearsals, etc. The end result was that I just dictated the time, and we didn't lose anybody, nor did we gain anybody. We tried to change a few times, but it didn't have any effect on our rehearsal attendance, nor on enrollment in the choir. Eventually, it ended up back where it started because that was easier for everyone involved.

Decide when you want to have your meeting.
Set the first provisional meeting 'to decide when we will meet' on that day.
At the provisional meeting, find out what day will suit them....
As all who can make it that day are the ones that are at the meeting, that will be easily agreed to.
problem solved.