Happy Spring Everyone!
If you happened to read my letter to the membership last month, you will recall that I announced a yearlong strategic planning process for the CMS Board. Throughout this year, we will explore every aspect of The College Music Society, from our mission and values to our operational structures and the various modalities that we use to serve the larger academy of music in higher education.
From my letter in March:
We have many members in CMS and while we all have our own words for the value CMS can bring to our communities, it has become clear that we need to update and reauthor our values, mission, and vision statements. While accurate and inspirational, our mission statement is also so broad and lengthy that very few people could recite it in an elevator. We want to ensure our membership can make a unified and compelling case for why one ought to become a member of this organization as we aspire to expand our membership to the whole of music academe.
By far, the most important aspect of this year’s strategic planning process is to reevaluate and explore a new approach to our society’s words and the messages embedded in our language. As such, I have appointed a President’s Task Force comprised of carefully selected members of the organization representing key constituents of our membership to propose reauthored versions of our society’s Mission, Values, and Vision statements for consideration by the CMS Board.
This outstanding group is as follows:
Betty Anne Younker, CMS Past-President (2015-2016)
Imani Mosley, Chair, Council on Musicology (CMS National Board)
Leila Pertl, Chair, Committee for Cultural Inclusion
Alisha Nypaver, Immediate Past-President of the Northeast Chapter
Kate Hamori, Student Representative to the Board of Directors
Jennifer Snow, Partnership Organization Representative
The first task for this group is to create a 360-degree survey to collect input from our membership and all of our stakeholders. Please look for communication from CMS to participate in this important survey in the next few weeks.
This task force will work to create a compelling and concise articulation of who we are, what we stand for, and why everyone in music higher education could benefit from participating with CMS. This language will be explored and discussed amongst the CMS Board of Directors, and if all goes well, it will be announced at the National Conference in Washington, DC, in November 2024.
I am looking forward to some amazing conversations in the coming months!
BC
Brian Kai Chin
President, College Music Society