Cynthia Crump Taggart
In the past couple of months, CMS has been tremendously busy planning future directions and engaging in new activities for the Society. One of these activities was the inaugural CMS Summit entitled “Music Entrepreneurship Education: Catching the Second Wave.” Approximately 50 persons attended the Summit that was held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN in conjunction with the USASBE conference, including both music faculty members and some of the leading entrepreneurship educators from business schools around the country. The discussions between the members of the business and music communities were rich, engaging, and filled with ramifications for practice, both within our educational institutions and within CMS. Many congratulations to Gary Beckman, Chair of the Entrepreneurship Education Committee, and his committee members for making this inaugural venture a tremendous success. The second CMS Summit will take place in January 2011 and will focus on community engagement. Stay tuned for more information!
In January, all CMS members received a survey designed to gather information about their visions for the Society. The high return rate for the survey was clear evidence of CMS members’ desire to participate in the shaping of the Society. In fact, more members responded to the survey than typically vote in a CMS election, even though voting takes only a couple of minutes and filling out the survey required time. An engaged membership leads to a stronger organization, and the return rate, as well as the thoughtfulness of the responses, made me believe that CMS will continue to be a healthy organization and a leader in higher education for years to come. However, CMS is not perfect, and our members have many constructive and innovative ideas for how the Society can improve and should move forward. The results of the survey provided the Board with a wealth of information and ideas to consider as we embarked upon our visioning process last month. Board members took all of the information from the surveys and distilled it into five overarching goals for the Society. The next step will be to articulate strategies and then action plans for working toward each of the goals. This process will take place via e-mail and telephone over the next several months and will culminate in another Board meeting following the conference in Minneapolis.
In the spirit of listening to the membership as much as possible throughout our planning process, I am going to use the remainder of this column to share with you the goals that were articulated by the Board in hopes that you will feel compelled to share your ideas for how these goals can be achieved and implemented.
Goal 1: Promote more effectively CMS resources, professional opportunities, and high-quality programming to all members
In reading the results of the survey, it became clear to the Board that many CMS members do not know of the wealth of services and professional development opportunities that CMS provides its members. The Society is not being effective in communicating CMS resources to the membership, and this needs to change so that members can take full advantage of what CMS has to offer. As a result of the survey results, initial steps are already being taken to improve communication with membership, even though we have yet to articulate firmly comprehensive strategies and action plans to address this goal. The CMS website currently is being redesigned so that it is more transparent. In addition, we have established a CMS Facebook Group at <http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-College-Music-Society/311862087101> to (1) provide basic information to the public concerning the Society, (2) release information concerning events, services, and publications, as well as reminders of important deadlines, and (3) provide a forum for discussion and sharing among CMS members. If you are already a member of Facebook, you are welcome to become a fan and participate in this on-line community. If not, now is the time to join. We are also in the process of establishing a presence on Twitter.
Goal 2: Expand membership
Expanding membership is essential to the future health of CMS. Some of the work toward this goal will be focused specifically on engaging faculty members in the early stages of their careers and on students, as they are the future of the Society and the profession. In the past year, CMS has piloted its first student chapter at Appalachian State, and efforts like this need to continue and expand. As a part of achieving this goal, the Society needs to make sure that it is relevant to all members so that the membership grows and is energized.
Goal 3: Promote communication and collaboration that results in excellence in scholarship, creativity and pedagogy across disciplines
Many members identified the inter/trans/multidisciplinary nature of the Society as the strength at the core of the organization. CMS provides its members with opportunities to talk across silos and enrich their research and teaching by engaging with others outside of their immediate scholarly orbit. This strength needs to continue to be nurtured by the Society so that it results in rich, high quality scholarship that can be disseminated through publication and presentation to CMS members and throughout higher education. Scholarly excellence enhances the value and the prestige of the organization, making it more attractive to members and potential members.
Goal 4: Provide leadership on current issues facing music in higher education
When members were asked to prioritize how the Society should spend its resources, they resoundingly identified the need for CMS to serve as a leader and advocate for music in higher education. This is not surprising in this financial climate, when music programs and faculty members are in peril due to budget cuts. CMS can serve as a voice that articulates the role of music in higher education, both as a primary discipline and as an enrichment for the general population. Perhaps CMS can provide members with tools to advocate for the role of music on their diverse campuses. Yet, this theme in the survey responses was linked to the need for CMS to help music programs and music faculty make their curricula more educationally relevant to students and to society as a whole. Unless what we do is relevant, it is difficult to defend.
Goal 5: Strengthen and enhance operations and the use of technologies
CMS has been a healthy organization fiscally for decades, with much of its income coming from the Music Vacancy List, the sales of mailing labels, and membership dues. Yet, the economic crisis that our nation is facing is affecting the finances of the Society. With fewer positions being posted, the Music Vacancy List revenues are at lower levels than they were several years ago. Likewise, mailing label sales are down. CMS needs to identify new ways in which to expand and reinvigorate our revenue streams. Innovative uses of technology have been an essential component of the Society’s fiscal health. We need to identify and create new technology-based resources for our members and the profession that are valuable and generate income for the Society.
If you have any ideas for implementing these goals and you did not already share them in the survey, please e-mail them to me at <[email protected]>. I want this process to be as discursive as possible. First we will brainstorm as a Society. Then in September, the Board will begin the process of culling the rich and expansive list of ideas and converging on the ones that will be of the most benefit to CMS at this point in time so that we can put them into action.