Sorry to revive this thread, but I just passed another milestone with VM. This weekend was my first-ever competition with the chorus, the division-level competition in Oklahoma City, which leads to the District level (October in Little Rock) and then to the 2009 International competition -- July 2009 in Anaheim! I'm on my way, kind of!
I've blogged the full story
here, but the VM scored over 92 points out of 100 on average. The judges are fair but tough and picky, so that's an awesome score (especially when you consider that every other competing chorus scored less than 75).
If this sounds like bragging, I apologize. Given the reputation of the VM over the years, in my heart of hearts, I'm actually just expressing my deep and profound
relief that my being in the VM
doesn't make the chorus suck!! 
:)