Appeal to their sense of fairness to the rest of the group. It simply isn't fair that the others spend their time and effort in rehearsal and have the end result tarnished when the non-attendee decides to grace you with his/her presence. Also remind them that when they miss a rehearsal, the entire group needs to repeat everything they've learned because the absentees missed it the first time around.

Try not to make in confrontational, at least not at first. Remember that you do still (presumably) want these singers in the choir; you just want them to show up for rehearsal.

I'd make a practical rule (say, 3 out of 4 practices), announce in front of the choir so you can get the force of peer pressure. Make sure to include the logic. Then enforce, as painful as that may be.

The faithful people will really appreciate it.

We have a tiny choir--the core, that is. We've picked up a couple new members, one of which is due to have a baby next week so I don't think I can count on her. The other is not coming regularly. One of our irregular rehearsal attendees is 91 years old--I understand why he can't come.

Our tiny core consists of my family (moi + 3 teens, one of whom is the organist) and one faithful gentleman. I think we can do a good job if it's just left to us--we did tonight. This was the best practice ever and we got a lot accomplished. I'd rather the others dropped out altogether or just show up for Sunday Masses to sing hymns. I'd rather work with a few good ones than the "sometimes" others.

Just to build a bit on what jpal said:

Take the compassionate road. Even though you might know that the excuses for missing rehearsal might be BS (I know I've faced that situation), listen and understand why they were missing. Sometimes just showing that you noticed their absence and you care about their presence can fix everything.

Since we are dealing with such a small number of people, I think I can handle this on an individual basis and, as "canadash" said, invite those who can't make it to rehearsals to just sing the hymns with us at Sunday Mass. There's just one lady whom I expect may be offended, but I will trust St. Cecelia to help me with her.

What about the ones who want to cantor, complain about Latin, and go to "Father" because I hired singers for a big event, and then THEY are the ones who miss the most practice?

I think I've come up with a solution, at least until Easter, which is to have two choir practices per week--one at our regular time on Thursdays which will just be for Holy Week preparation; the other will be before the Mass we sing in on Sunday. I will invite those who with to sing with the choir during Holy Week to come on Thursdays, stipulating that it's an all-or-nothing deal (all practices or sit out Holy Week); those who wish to sing with the choir on the remaining Sundays of Lent need just come one hour before Mass to rehearse. Then after Easter, I think we'll eliminate Thursday practice altogether since we have nothing else special to prepare.

Melo: Yes, but Kathy indicated that those who did not show up for rehearsals caused the music to be "shameful and embarrassing." The no-showers are not adding beauty to the choir. That being said, if someone is of benefit, he can be invited to sing with it, at the director's discretion. Those who don't attend won't know the difference.

Again, I am dealing with a very small group and I believe I have come up with a way to let all sing at Mass should they wish to, while letting those who are willing and able to come to Thursday practice sing during Holy Week. My problem area is with Christmas and Holy Week where we have extra music outside of the hymns and Ordinary. We had a 30-minute program before the Christmas Eve Mass that was . . . well, someday I may laugh about it, not yet though. Maybe the parade of altar servers carrying chairs into the sanctuary past the choir to the point that I had to back up (while trying to direct the choir) lest I be smacked with a chair was a good distraction from the dreadful performance of the choir. The problem Christmas Eve was I had two choir members who had not shown up for rehearsals but did show up to sing and one actually said to me beforehand, "I didn't miss anything at practice, did I?" The other said the same by her actions.

I don't think the parable of the latecomers applies here. Maybe the parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:1-14) is more fitting.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Maybe the "wedding clothes" we need to bring to Mass are the BEST we can offer our Lord. An ill-prepared choir is an insult and I would liken it to the offering of Cain who did not offer God his best. The size of the offering does not matter, but the quality does. I will cut our music down to what we can do well and if that is one piece, that's all we'll do.

Also, the parable of the Great Banquet (Luke 14:15-24) may apply here where the invited guests had all sort of excuses why they could not come. I don't think it's right to make excuses for not preparing our offering of music well, and expect God to be happy we at least showed up to make the offering. First fruits or leftovers? What will please our Lord?

Kathy

That being said, if someone is of benefit, he can be invited to sing with it, at the director's discretion. Those who don't attend won't know the difference.

Precisely the point of my headscratcher, CD. I'm obtuse, so I tease things a bit. The bald truth of it is that a director should, from start to finish, envision, implement and polish every aspect of the objective performance repertoire based upon an implicit bond and trust with all stakeholders: choir/accompanists, congregation, clerical overseer, God....That means that s/he'll do everything necessary and with love to bring those less talented up to the demands of the job, those who must labor longer, at a slower pace and be monitored, taught and assessed openly and honestly. On the flipside, those dedicated and steady longtime workers of lesser skill should unflinchingly know and show a mutaul understanding that the director reserves the right to augment the talent pool at whatever chronological point of process opportunity presents itself, and that will benefit ALL. If everyone KNOWS and respects their role, then disaster upon presentation won't be a result. The scenarios presented that illustrate how laxity in this process resulted in disaster and embarrassment ultimately prove that the responsibility for such- lies at the feet of the director.
Now, let me add to the mix that just as psychologically damaging letting ill-prepared slackers ruin the end product of the process would be bringing in unknown (to the choir community of the parish) ringers near the end of the preparations because it's the only option left in a flawed, poorly managed process. Trusting such a director in either case will be breached and recovering that will be long and bumpy.
My scenario is, of course, based upon my own practices and experiences, full of more mistakes than successes. It could allow for the paid section leaders/scholars (from the other thread) if that is the wisest option before all plans are then acted upon, but I've gone over a couple of decades not using ringers or paid helpers because I made the condition of my coming into my current job of being granted the opportunity of forming an audition-based quire, new to the parish from scratch. From that vantage, I've promoted people up from the "y'all come" ensembles, gotten several of my public school kids involved which continued through college when they come back to town and even into adulthood, find talent in the parochial kids as they mature into adolescence who contribute as much as they can given the demands of the modern high school scholar, etc. If my extremely talented daughter, who is busier in her duties as a county schools theatre music director and studio teacher (with two young boys) can't plug into a cantata until a couple or less weeks before the gig, no one bats an eyelash if one rehearsal night she's there, because she has the cred of being part of the choral fabric that is ironically our extended family.
But, being the "Master" in my experience means a whole lot more than just being the one with the sheepskins and technical ability to choose music, conduct properly and count heads at rehearsals. YMMV. No offense intended towards Teachermom nor anyone else's sensibilities.

It's so difficult to try and plan good music when you don't know who is going to be there. I don't have a problem with singers not being able to sing IF they tell me with enough notice. My choir is very small (only 10 people at the most when everybody is there), and it's difficult to program good music for the major holidays. We've been working on Easter for several weeks now and the sound is wonderful. I was thrown under the bus when "all of a sudden" after several rehearsals, 3 people came to me to tell me they were going on a cruise over Easter. Surely they knew that ahead of time, but waited until I programmed the music that needed their voices. Also, a little while ago, I got a text message from my cantor for the early mass tomorrow morning, cancelling without a reason. I have two cantors, and one sang tonight, so will not be available in the morning, so, once again, it's me, myself and I at the early mass.

I totally agree that church choirs are, for the most part, composed of volunteers, but being a volunteer does not give carte blanche to do as you please. There is a responsibility towards ministry. As directors, we can emphathize with many situations and be very understanding, but, it is our job to provide music for the service of the mass and without some kind of real dedication and commitment from our singers, we cannot provide the service to which we were called.

We have three smallish adult choirs which sing weekly. Approximately once a month, they all join together to sing at one Mass, and prepare a choral piece or two for that (the individual choirs don't have the numbers/skill to prepare choral music weekly). I have some people who ONLY sing for the combined choir, and they only need to be at rehearsal for 45 minutes each week. Since the different choirs have different expectations and difficulties, it provides something for just about every level of commitment.

A detailed rehearsal order, prepared in advance and a link sent to the choir, also helps. It shows that we are expecting them at a certain time on a certain day. Here is a (redacted) example.

I also make the master choir schedule for the entire season (Sept-June) ahead of time, get everybody a hard copy, and remind people incessantly to check their schedule about upcoming things (that one was revised in December, so it doesn't have the fall). And we also tell people very often, "it's totally fine if you need to miss/be late for something; I just need to know in advance so I can work around it."

"But if we are only going to sing once a month, there's no reason to rehearse every week."

Amateur community ensembles always rehearse more frequently than they perform. I know a schola that rehearsed twice weekly for about 6-8 months between opportunities to sing at Mass. If a church choir can rehearse for 1-2 hours weekly before singing at Mass, this is ideal. Not all can rise to this ideal, due to the commitment of the members, and THAT'S OK! They can easily join in the hymn singing and responses for the weeks when they cannot perform as an ensemble.

If someone expresses such as a complaint, they are probably a childish person who is just in choir for the weekly performance high. I don't need people like that. I'll take a choir of 3 people in love with the music and eager to refine their performance over a choir of 4 people who just want to show off.

Well, I tried something new today.......out of 10 adult choir members, only 6 showed up and there were some school children in the congregation that knew all the music, so I went to them and asked them to come and sing with the adults. The adults were mortified. After mass, they told me in no uncertain terms how they felt, to which I answered "I didn't particularly want that, either, but I didn't want the music to suffer because 4 people were missing today. If it bothers you that much, then please call our dear brothers and sisters and see what kept them from mass today". Last night 2 of the 4 missing this morning were at the vigil mass. Why? I have no idea.

MT56, especially if that cantor that called out on you had no excuse and/or good reason, I would have just texted back, thank you for your services, good luck in your job search.

There is a tremendous sense of entitlement that lies at the heart of too many catholic choirs. They carry an air of superiority over the contemporary group, feel threatened that the group exists and are often controlled by cantors who just love being the center of attention. "I'm cantoring the 8 and will not be staying for the choir at 10." I think that even beats out the number of time that rock and roll guitarists say, "DO YOU WANT FRIES WITH THAT?"

And then....bringing children into the choir....a huge, huge mistake in their minds. You are making a BIG mistake, SISTER! Unless you are a Sister and then they do not know what to do because a Sister outranks a choir director.

Some churches hire cantor/organists for all the masses to avoide having to deal with the power struggle needed involved in have a cantor at each mass.

Keep the kids in, The crappy adults will leave, which is good. Behavior of the choir at rehearsals (among the adults) will drastically improve. Build the choir up until you have to split it because there is not room.

It is all about singing, not making miserable people lord it over you.

People who want to sing will show up each week and work hard. As suggested, if someone has missed two rehearsals, have them sit out the anthem.