Reorganizing the Society
Cynthia Crump Taggart
The College Music Society is a multi-faceted organization that serves the music community in higher education and beyond in a myriad of ways. In reading the membership surveys, it became clear that the CMS membership was not aware fully of the organizational structure and the scope of the Society. As a result, as part of the strategic planning process, the CMS Board has been discussing ways of making the organizational structure of CMS more transparent to the membership. To help address this, in the near future, CMS will launch a new website that will make it easier to find information and will reflect the values and activities of the organization more clearly. Also, the Board has “tweaked” the organizational structure so that it is more logical, it eliminates “mission creep” between committees, and CMS members can identify more easily the parts of the Society with which they most want to engage. Because of these changes and the need for more communication and clarity for the membership, I hope in this President’s Message to give CMS members a sense of the new organizational structure of the Society as articulated by the Board in its February meeting.
At the national level, CMS has four primary areas of activity, all of which are overseen by the Board of Directors, the primary governing body of the Society. The Board members are elected by the membership and represent the diverse scholarly interests of the members. In addition, the work of these four areas is supported by the Executive Office. Each area has a different focus and serves CMS members and the larger community in different and important ways.
Probably the area with which the membership is most familiar is Professional Activities. To quote from the CMS Handbook, “Through its professional activities, The College Music Society gathers, considers, and disseminates ideas on the philosophy and practice of music. CMS creates forums in which individuals working in the various areas of music can interact and communicate... Through its professional activities, CMS fosters the continuing education and renewal of college and university music faculty, shares the fruits of music research, develops and enhances music instruction, and celebrates the importance of teaching.” All CMS conferences, summits, workshops, institutes, and scholarly publications fall under this umbrella. As a result, the Professional Development Committee, the Program Committees for the international and national conferences, and the Publications Committee help to guide the Professional Activities area of the Society.
The second area, the Career Development Initiative, functions to help CMS members develop strategies to enable them to have successful careers. This Initiative is the area of CMS that has undergone the most extensive reorganization by the Board, and what I describe below will not be fully operational until January 1, 2011, when David Williams begins his term as CMS President. Five committees function under this umbrella. The Academic Careers Committee will focus its work on strategies for developing successful careers as a music faculty member and communicating these strategies to the membership. The Academic Leadership and Administration Committee will focus its work on developing and communicating strategies for those who wish to pursue leadership positions in higher education, including those within administration. The Academic Citizenship Committee seeks to “explore what it means for musicians to be part of the higher education community and to identify and articulate the responsibilities that academic citizenship holds” (CMS Handbook). Careers Outside the Academy Committee will focus on strategies to prepare CMS members for successful careers in music outside of higher education. This will be supported by the work of the Music Entrepreneurship Education Committee, which organized and hosted the January CMS Summit on Entrepreneurship Education. This Committee focuses on how higher education can prepare students to be more entrepreneurial by infusing entrepreneurship education within music curricula.
The third area of activity is Engagement and Outreach. The role of the Engagement and Outreach Initiative is to engage with constituencies beyond CMS. Within this initiative, the Community Engagement Committee encourages and supports CMS engagement in the communities in which our conferences are held. In addition, it encourages the engagement of CMS members with their own local communities by furthering and disseminating scholarship on community engagement. The Music Business and Industry Committee is charged with reaching out to the music business and industry communities so that, with the Society, we can identify and address our common goals. The Higher Education Committee, to quote from their mission statement, works to “(1) provide liaison between music associations with higher education associations, (2) convey the essential need for a communications plan that demonstrates the success of music programs in higher education, (3) articulate the changing roles of music units, and (4) advocate for maintaining the artistic and educational integrity of music programs.” The International Initiatives Committee is charged with developing liaison with music faculty outside of the United States and encouraging dialog and exchanges with these faculty members, partly through international conferences. In addition, the Board is exploring the formation of a new committee that would reach out to performing arts organizations outside of higher education. Finally, The CMS Fund functions partly under this umbrella through its support of projects of the Society and its members that make the accomplishments of music in higher education more visible.
The fourth and final area is Information Services. CMS makes a wealth of information available to its members, to the higher education community, and to the larger music community through maintaining databases and directories. Following are some of the databases that CMS maintains: international music organizations; events, festivals, awards, and competitions in music; members of the music business and industry communities; a music conferences calendar. The Music Vacancy List is part of this area, as is the Directory of Music Faculties in College and Universities. The Instructional Technology and Information Services Committee works to keep CMS ahead of the curve in terms of the use of technology in support of our mission. In addition, it works to keep CMS members informed of innovative teaching strategies using technology.
Finally, beginning with the new President’s term in January, two advisory councils will inform the work of CMS across all areas of activity. These are the Student Advisory Council and the Cultural Inclusion Council, both of which currently exist as committees. The Student Advisory Council will be charged with making sure that students’ perspectives permeate the work of the Society, and the Cultural Inclusion Advisory Council will be charged with promoting the inclusion of the Society’s diverse membership in all areas of its work.
In reading about the structure of CMS, I hope that one or more areas of CMS activity has resonated deeply with your interests and that, as a result, you will consider becoming involved more in the Society. CMS can benefit from your perspectives!