Avocational music and musicians

I heard an radio ad for the Dessoff Choirs on NPR last Friday afternoon.  The Dessoff Choir is a an avocational Choir which means volunteer group who become members by audition.  In the radio story about the concert which was held last weekend the new music director Chris Shepard  of the Dessoff Choirs was interviewed.  He commented on the fact that in the job description they said they were an avocational choir.  He was happy to learn that the group is together to sing because of their avocation which is the love of music.
This was the first time I had heard avocation used in reference to singing in a chorus and I thought about our Christ Church Choir.  For those of us who are members singing is an avocation I guess.  We strive to do the very best that we can do during the church service and our directors work very hard to see that it happens.
It was pointed out to me yesterday when I sang with the Princeton Amateur Singers.  We read through Bach's B Minor Mass which I had committed to memory early in my singing career.  I was a little disappointed because the group of women next to whom I was singing, although they knew the music what we came up with was not up to the performance level. It was only a read through and not a rehearsal so we could not go back and correct mistakes.   So although I was singing I was not a happy camper.  Our choir as far as I know reads very well even when we are exploring new music.
So I am hoping we can entice some new avocational singers to join us in the future.
Jeannette Brown