Maureen Voss

About Me

I am one of God's greatest miracles. I am a spiritual being who chose to accept God's offer of becoming a human being in order to learn, through human trials and tribulations, that which I could not learn in my spiritual realm of existence. Through God's infinite energy of love, I am connected to everything in the universe. In this human existence, I am named Maureen Ann Voss. (I realize that sounds very egotistical, but I firmly believe every person is one of God's greatest miracles, and I'm a person, so logically speaking...)
I have developed a personal Vision and Philosophy, Mission, Values and Beliefs Statement.

Well, I realize that the 'stuff' above doesn't really explain what I do, only what I am, so I'll add a bit more! For my career, I'm a Chartered Accountant and Certified Management Accountant and a (recent) Project Management Professional who works in the University of Regina's Financial Services Office. Along with my awesome boss, Dale Schoffer, I look after about 23 staff in my office, and about 1000 staff University-wide. I help University folks get access to and understand what's going on in their financial accounts. I do a lot of the 'looking after' of our administrative system, including soliciting the help of computer analysts to fix problems and clean up messes. I manage the preparation and audit of the University's annual financial statements. I provide financial reporting for the Canada Revenue Agency, the Internal Revenue Service (man they're hard to deal with!), the MacLean's Magazine, the Canadian Association of University Business Officers, and our own internal Resource Planning Office. I developed, and am ultimately in charge of, our University's fixed asset system. I also oversee the staff doing the Research Accounting...and there's a lot more of that happening here the last few years. And finally, I totally appreciate all my staff who work so hard on the nitty gritty detail so I can just deal with the managing.

I work on keeping a positive attitude by reviewing positive affirmations on a regular basis.

Hobbies and Interests

I am absolutely passionate about music...real music... orchestral music, symphonic band music, marching band music...music where people can connect emotionally and feel the composers joy, confusion, anguish and love. I play flute and piccolo. I love to practice and I love to perform. I may not be symphony quality (yet), but if I practice a piece of music hard, I can usually work it up into a pretty decent state!

For the current year (2005/06), I'm playing in the University of Regina Wind Ensemble, conducted by Brent Ghiglione. I mostly play piccolo with that group. I'm also taking flute lessons from Marie-Noelle Berthelet, the Principal Flute Player of the Regina Symphony Orchestra. I'm sure I will learn a lot!

During the prior year (2004/05), I'm played piccolo and flute in a group called the Poltava Orchestra. It plays Ukranian dance music, some just for its own performance, but mostly as accompaniment to the Ukranian Poltava Dance Ensemble. So, the music is fast and furious and a whole bunch of fun! This Orchestra was composed of 3 flute/piccolo players, a couple of clarinet players, one bass clarinet, one trumpet, one double bass,and a whole bunch of mandolyn/mandola players. For concerts, a french horn player and trombone player show up (hopefully!) On April 3, 2005, I was extremely fortunate to be part of an awesome 125 piece Orchestra supporting the National Canadian Centennial Celebration 2005 , hosted here in Regina, Saskatchewan at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts. We performed 17 pieces of music for this Festival. Our regular repertoire also had quite a few pieces. I also get to use my talents on computers for this Poltava group. I completely redesigned and now maintain the Poltava web-site.

During 2002/03 and 2003/04, I was a member of the University of Regina Concert Band. The first year I played flute and the second year I played piccolo. Click here to see the University of Regina Concert Band Repertoire for 2003-04, and here to see the University of Regina Concert Band Repertoire for 2002-03.

In April, May and June of 2003, I had the honor of taking lessons from Sandra Hoffman, the principal flautist of the Regina Symphony Orchestra. I managed to have 11 lessons, and then she retired. I still thought that was pretty fantastic, since I'd never had flute lessons before in my life!!

From January 2004 to February 2005, I took flute and piccolo lessons from Tara Semple, who is now the piccolo chair for the Regina Symphony Orchestra. I was going to put on a concert last year, but had to change my mind. Any spare practice time I had went to the Poltava music.

I had also been part of the Prairie Zephyr Flute Choir organized by Tara Semple. That's where I first met and fell in love with the bass flute! Unfortunately, the flute choir hasn't been active for awhile now. I occasionally play solos in church, usually Handel. At a non-church occasion, I played the slow movements of a Handel sonata on the bass flute! I also played a solo work by Debussy called "Syrinx" on the bass flute at birthday celebration for my Dad's 70th birthday in August 2004. Darn that was fun!

In 2004,I played a piccolo solo called "Sylvia (scherzo)" at Regina's German Club during a German Choir Concert and at my Dad's birthday celebration. And, although it's not by a German composer, no-one cared! At that concert, I also accompanied my Dad, who sang (in German) The Birdcatcher's Song from Mozart's "The Magic Flute". We performed the Birdcatcher's Song in both German and English for a 3-night run of the Golden Age Variety Show held at the Shumiatcher Theatre in September 2004. I really enjoyed playing a Vivaldi Violin Concerto in a recent flute/piccolo recital, too. I had to modify some of the notes that went below middle C, but it was great fun!
In May 2005, I played the first movement of the Carl Stamitz Concerto in G during the German Choir's Spring Concert, and at a fashion show at Henry's here in Regina. I hope to perform the other movements at the German Choir's 2006 Spring Concert..

I enjoy listening to other types of music, too. My favorite country music is by Sawyer Brown, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Blue Rodeo, Alan Jackson, Kathy Mattea, Kenny Rogers, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Trisha Yearwood and Vince Gill. As far as Rock music goes, I like Styx, Air Supply, Moody Blues, Five for Fighting, Queen, Madonna and Chris de Burgh, as well as many other pieces from various artists. I like Clannad, Enya, and Simon & Garfunkel as far as Easy Listening music goes. And for 'other stuff', I like the Nylons.

I'm a bit of a bird nut, too. For many years, I had wanted a parrot...blue and gold Macaw! I didn't think that would ever happen...but the universe provides. Saphire is now about 2 years old. She's a teenager! So, she is loud and roudy, but a lot of fun. She says "I love you", "be a good bird", "Saphire is a good bird", "Jeffrey", and "Stephanie", and she mumbles a lot of things under her breath, too!

I also used to have a smaller parrot. He's actually an Alexandrine Parakeet, but is much closer to the Parrot family then the Parakeet family. I got him on Sunday June 27th. His name was Shostakovich. He was so gentle and loved to be around (and on) people. He would let us give him kisses, and he let me rub the back of his neck and his stomach. He especially liked sitting on shoulders and chewing hair, but he kept getting tangled in my long hair and then got ornery when I try to get him off my shoulder because it's like taking away a favorite toy! Unfortunately, Shosti (as we affectionaly called him) got very sick and died. The vet was unable to help him.

For Christmas 2005, our children wanted a couple of finches...of course THEY would take care of them, feed them every day and clean their cage. Well...so mom and dad gave in, and bought a cage with 4 finches. These finches immediatly paired up and started laying eggs. We now have 12 finches and 2 cages!.

I am also passionate about human beings...how we are made and what makes us act the way we do. This passion, developed by falling flat on my face a few times and not having a clue as to why, has led me to study myself and what makes me tick. In May 2004, I took a course on Emotional Intelligence from the 6 Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network. It was very inspiring and enlightening. And I've discovered a miracle...I'm normal!!! (well, at least as normal as anybody else...or maybe I'm just no more abnormal than anybody else!!) I've also been studying such spiritual resources as "A Course in Miracles", "Conversations with God", and Al-Anon Family Groups Conference Approved Literature. I have recently (Nov/Dec 2004) been enjoying listening to audio books in my car. I especially enjoyed Melody Beattie's "Beyond Codependency", Dr. Phil's "Life Strategies", and Wayne Dyer's "Transformations". When I head over to the gym, I take my CD Player or my HP iPAQ (with books from audible.com. I listen to audio books while I excercise...Steven Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", John Gray's audio book "Mars & Venus in the Workplace ", Fred Kofman's "Conscious Business", Steven Covey's "The 8th Habit", Dr. Phil's "Getting Real", Daniel Goleman's "Primal Leadership", Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton's "Getting to Yes", and Tara Bennett-Goleman's "Emotional Alchemy". I really enjoy listening to my books and saving my eyes for my music (oh ya...and my work!) I hope to be able to use my new knowledge and empathic listening skills to help other people learn about themselves.

About My Family

I have a wonderful husband, Marv, and two children, Jeffrey and Stephanie.
Marv is a 4th Class Power Plant Engineer. I think his title is a Plumber/Pipefitter, but who knows...they keep changing that! He is a great tradesperson who can do a lot of mechanical work, a bit of carpentry, a bunch of electrical wiring stuff, a good chunk of plumbing and pipefitting, and tons of electronics. (How can you tell I work at a desk all day)? Right now, he's in the middle of completely renovating our main upstairs bathroom. He installed the jacuzzi bathtub and surround, put in the floor, is currently putting ceramic tiles on the walls, and will be putting up a ceiling with beautiful stained-glass type lights. He and his Dad built the vanity. It's gorgeous victorian cherry-wood with victorian legs and a green marble formica top. It will hold two sinks (ya, we're spoiled). This is how Marv shows his creative side (music isn't his thing...he says he can't even carry a tune in a locked suitcase!). Renovation projects like our bathroom, and like the one he is planning for the outdoors once we remove a couple of overgrown evergreens, are how my husband creates. He loves beautiful rooms and beautiful furniture, and really could have been an awesome interior designer (and a cook, for that matter...he pretty much cooks all our meals!) He's very excited about his new hobby...fish! Pretty fish in nice aquariums. We have one aquarium of freshwater fish right now...goldfish, betta fish..guppies, algea eaters, and some others that I just can't remember. He also has a tank of Discus fish...they are tropical fish. He finally carried out his dream of setting up another reef tank for some salt-water fish. He has a 'Nemo' and a 'Dori' fish, a cleaner shrimp, a brittle star, a few other fish I can't remember, and quite a few anemonies. He's also a great Dad! He helps with homework, wipes kids butts when needed, cuddles them when their scared, and takes them to the park to play. Our kids love their Daddy!
My boy, Jeffrey is 9 years old and my girl, Stephanie, is 5 years old. Jeffrey tells me he wants to play trumpet or French horn. He wants me to go buy him one right now! Well, we rented a French horn for a few months. Both kids had a great time 'playing' it and making elephant sounds. But when it came right down to it, Jeff wasn't ready for lessons. Maybe in a few years. I tried out the French horn. I was able to play a C-scale (which is actually an F-scale). But then, after practicing THAT for awile, my flute a piccolo playing suffered from 'vibrating lips syndrome'. Flutes and piccolos don't sound very good when the players lips are buzzing. I've been working for a number of years to PREVENT my lips from buzzing on the high notes. So, no more French Horn for me, either. Stephanie wants to play the drums. Oh goody! They had to pick two of the loudest instruments possible...well thank goodness for small mercies...they could have wanted to play tuba (sorry John!) However, Stephanie wants to play Twinkle, twinkle on the drums. I told her that might be tough. So she asked me to buy her a marimba! She settled instead for learning a bit about playing the piano. She's learning to play "Row, row row your boat" on the piano!