Of all of the activities that took place during the launch of the BHS Strategic Vision, the one we did the most was listen! We anticipated -- and received! -- a lot of input from the barbershop community and beyond. Thank you to those that called, emailed, and spoke with our staff over the past two months. We value your input and use it to continute to plan our next steps.
Current status
Shortly after launch of the Strategic Vision in Las Vegas, we activated two implementation teams to start building out the first steps in two specific areas. One team is working on developing new options for participating and engaging with barbershop beyond the standard “membership” model, as well as new ways to build communities of singers beyond the one-size-fits-all chapter experience. The other team is considering potential new structures for the Society itself that will make it possible for us to support other barbershop organizations.
Look for further announcements regarding the work of these implementation teams early in 2018, once the annual business plan and budgeting process has been approved by the Society Board in November.
Strategic Vision video updated
First up, some necessary adjustments to the Strategic Vision video. After additional internal staff review and direct feedback from members and others about the content shared in the video, we have made some specific edits. If you haven't watched it yet, view the latest version now. If you've already seen it... watch it again!
- Most obvious and significant was a correction to our inclusion statement, which now reads, in part “We must become radically inclusive and diverse, across cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexual orientation, social, economic and generational lines. We hereby declare our commitment to this transformation.” The omission of “sexual orientation” from the previously published draft was unintentional and has been corrected in all written, digital, and now video formats.
- The second group of edits were minor changes to the voiceover and visual pairings. While both the intent and the written documents (hardcopy and online) remain unchanged, we removed a couple of sentences that didn’t have appropriate imagery and were creating moments that distracted from our message.
- Lastly, we took the opportunity to change a couple of the songs featured in the video to those that better fit our mission of #everyoneinharmony. A side benefit: Now, instead of only featuring historic recordings from a particular era, the barbershop sound moves from vintage to current and features quartets from multiple decades.
What’s next?
With the launch completed and our initial focus areas identified, the real work of realizing this vision is underway. Much of the early work for any big project takes time to form into specific and reportable steps, and we expect this process to be no different.
While we don’t have answers to every question, and won’t for some time, progress will be communicated regularly via our website, LiveWire, and other channels. You can also refer to our Strategic Vision FAQ page for updated details as they become available.
As always, questions and feedback should be directed to strategy@barbershop.org.