Hello Friends and Colleagues in the College Music Society,
For those of you who are paying very close attention, you might recognize this writing from my first letter to the membership as the new CMS President:
This past year, under the brilliant leadership of Mark Rabideau, Jeffrey Loeffert, and Hannah Pearson, the CMS Board hired an outside consultant to take a 360-degree view of our organization. The findings report was presented to the board at our national conference in Miami, and we have been diligently unpacking the information and inferring our process for meaningful and actionable steps forward. This year, I will present the following agenda for action amongst the board, the regional leadership, and the membership at large:
- Why be a member of the College Music Society?
We will examine and reauthor our mission, impact, and values statements. Our current Mission Statement:
The College Music Society promotes music teaching and learning, musical creativity and expression, research and dialogue, and diversity and interdisciplinary interaction. A consortium of college, conservatory, university, and independent musicians and scholars interested in all disciplines of music, the Society provides leadership and serves as an agent of change by addressing concerns facing music in higher education.
While thorough, it has become apparent from our review that we lack a clear and focused articulation of why we exist and why all of those in collegiate music will want to participate. We will seek language that is compelling and well-defined.
The first project of our planning strategy is to reauthor and examine our Mission, Vision, and Values statements fully. As such, I have created a Presidential Task Force to lead this work, survey the membership, and draft a series of possible statements to present to the board for discernment, discussion, and eventual endorsement. The task force was appointed by me and is comprised of a wide cross-section of our organization’s leadership.
Betty Anne Younker, Task Force Chair; CMS Past-President
Imani Mosley, CMS Board; Chair of the CMS Council on Musicology
Jennifer Snow, Partnership organization; (CEO and Executive Director, The Frances Clark Center) and former national conference host
Leila Pertl, CMS Committees; Chair of the CMS Committee on Cultural Inclusion
Alisha Nypaver, CMS Chapter Leadership; Immediate Past President of the Northeast Chapter
Kate Hamori, Student Representative, CMS Board
While tasked to (simply?) reauthor our Mission, Vision, and Values, in many ways, this is a complete organizational branding exercise, and this work will impact the future of CMS for years to come. Essentially, they are asked to answer the question: “Why should everyone in music higher education be a member of CMS?” I truly believe those in collegiate music will all want to be a part of this organization if they see CMS as I do; as an organization that can cut across all of our subdisciplines in music and serve as a thought leader for the future of music in academia.
Their first step will be to conduct a full survey of our membership. When the survey comes, please prioritize a reply and put a lot of thought into it. Your perspective will greatly impact the outcome.
Please help me welcome these folks to the task force and thank them for their service when you get a chance. It is an aspirational timeline, but I hope that we can announce our new words at the conference in Washington, DC, this November… as if you needed another reason to register now!
BC
Brian Kai Chin
President, College Music Society