From Jamboard(s) to Action: The Crafting of

By Erika Pope, Tau Beta Sigma National President

In 2010 the National Leadership Team for Tau Beta Sigma embarked on the journey of strategic planning for the next ten years of the organization and what came out of that planning was the Sorority’s first ever Vision Statement:

Tau Beta Sigma is a highly recognized and respected music organization that creates an equitable and inclusive environment for all musicians where they grow through leadership, musicianship, and service. A robust and engaged membership base provides the Sorority opportunities for musical pursuits and community involvement. Through the maintenance of our shared values, members feel empowered to continue their journey beyond their collegiate career in all areas musical, professional, and philanthropic. We are committed to fostering connections and creating a meaningful experience for our members, band directors, college campuses, and the band world.

That original statement is just four sentences, 92 words in length, and understandably ignored by the average Active Member of the Sorority when one actually thinks about what a vision statement is. According to lucidmeetings.com, “An organizational vision statement is an image of the future you want to create.

The vision is important because it:

• Communicates your big aspirations and long-term goals

• Rallies excitement

• Focuses energy

• Reinforces your brand

• Conveys the reason your organization exists

Our vision statement has helped shape the work of the organization over the past 11 years, but upon reaching the milestone of 75 years as a Sisterhood and working our way through a major global event, it was clear that the 2010 statement and strategic plan were due for major upgrades to prepare for the next phase of the Sorority.

In December 2021, as the ΤΒΣ National Leadership Team was gearing up to host our annual Winter Council Meetings in person for the first time since January 2020, we began our work by asking individual team members, steered by the leaders of each governing group (National Council, Board of Trustees, and TBSAA EC), to share their thoughts on where they would like to see the Sorority by the year 2031. As you can imagine, with so many diverse ideas being shared, the ideal situation would be to get everyone into a room at our National Headquarters Annex in Stillwater, Oklahoma during MLK Weekend 2022, have an abundance of snacks on the ready to refuel after lots of stimulating conversation, and have breakout groups of team members huddled together under large blank pieces of paper stuck to walls, ready to be filled with notes of collaboration and ideas…

Except…the Sorority, much like the rest of the world, was still working to navigate the rapid continued movement of both the original and subsequent variant of Covid-19. Our agenda was quite ambitious, however, the health and safety of our team members was at the forefront of our planning and it became evident that it would be safer to stay home and meet virtually for one more winter meeting. I share this because it could have been easy for us to throw in the towel and not engage in this work, but if we have learned nothing else from the past 3 years, it is that “pivoting” in a different direction is always an option and sometimes even necessary.

On January 15, 2022 our strategic plan pivot began, when the three groups came together over Zoom, laid out the ground rules for what we wanted to accomplish, traded out those large pieces of paper on walls, for Google Jamboards and Zoom breakout rooms and we began throwing our “spaghetti at the wall.” In our great organizational spaghetti toss, we asked each group to use the guiding phrases of:

We strive for…

We believe that…

We are committed to…

These guiding phrases helped to ensure that conversations were able to stay on track, while still giving participants the opportunity to allow their thoughts to wander in a constructive way to produce meaningful ideas that could be helpful in crafting the new Vision Statement. After lots of group brainstorming, sifting through all the many ideas for common themes, and having a great facilitator and sounding board in the person of Mr. Tim Greenwell (Past National President for Kappa Kappa Psi), just as our leadership did in 2010, we were able to cultivate and adopt a new Vision Statement during the summer of 2022:

The adoption of this new Vision Statement is just the beginning and will be the vehicle that drives us to set goals and markers for growth. Some of the goals that have already been established include creating more partnerships with other music organizations, setting intentional fundraising goals, ensuring that our DEIA efforts connect with our values, creating recognition opportunities for alumni members who are making societal impacts, and putting more emphasis on musicianship at the chapter level. While these goals are being formed by the National Leadership, it will truly be a collaborative effort across every level of the organization from Active to Life Member. I encourage each of you to take time as a chapter to review our new Vision Statement and begin to ideate how you all will be a part of helping to transform these visions into reality!