I believe advertising the Society itself would be rather important. Its the best way to get the name out there. Advertisement campaigns could be organized and could be made to specifically appeal to certain audiences.

The first step to a healthier BHS is more members, and young members.

Then after advertising, some money could be divided up to each District accordingly. So, the Districts in need of more money would receive more, and the more successful Districts less.

Conventions could be re-vamped to serve better to larger amounts of attendees and possibly generate enough interest and money for cheaper webcasts, meaning even more viewers.

If this works, it probably wouldn’t result in a TV spot on PBS right away, but live streaming through YouTube could result (something that would generate MANY viewers). The Society then would be able to place more videos on YouTube to get the name and product out more being able to more easily pay for rights to the music.

Thats just the beginning to a long line of good things that could happen with $1Million.

I agree with Connor. The #1 priority MUST be advertising!!!

I love advertising as much as the next guy, but before we spend a dime on advertising anything, we need to get “our collective houses in order” and work on the QUALITY of the barbershop PRODUCT presented to communities across North America.

My initial attention would have little to do with singing, but would be focused on changing/tweaking the current culture and improving how our chapters are governed and managed.

Membership growth is NOT a goal but the byproduct of success in all aspects of chapter operations.

Much of the data shown below was posted by me on a previous BarbershopHQ blog thread, but it definitely bears repeating.

Before the Society found itself in some poor financial shape, and many of us saw our jobs/departments eliminated, in my last few months of working for the Society, I made a 2700 mile multiphase road trip to spend 90-120 minutes with just over 100 leaders of 20 chapters in five states. The purpose was two-fold:

1) to conduct a SWOT analysis of these chapters by asking anywhere from 80-100 questions of these leaders about every aspect of their chapter. Based on the responses or challenges encountered, creative solutions were identified and discussed.
2) to remind them about resources available or connect them with Society (or other) resources that could help address some of the situations we encountered together.

This analysis identified the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats available/facing these chapters. Before the road trip I spent about 30-45 minutes researching each chapter using data from the Aptify member database and scouring every page of their chapter website, if they had one.

I will admit that many chapters had their fair share of strengths. However, many of the weaknesses encountered were significant.

Here is a summary of the
WEAKNESSES IDENTIFIED:

Planning
• Very few chapters had a mission statement. Only one chapter in 20 could tell me their mission.
• No chapters had crafted a vision statement. If you don’t have a dream, it’s not likely to come true.
• Only 10% of chapters interviewed had a chapter business plan put to paper. One of those that did have a plan, indicated they lack the leadership necessary to implement the plan.
• Very few chapters had a marketing plan put to paper.

Membership
• Leaders seemed convinced that most members did NOT know what it costs to join their chapter.
• There was very little promotion at the chapter level for the Society’s Easy Dues program.
• Most chapters admitted to surprising their new members about many of the non-dues related expense attributed to being active in the chapter.
• One of the most common complaints heard from chapters has to do with dwindling membership, yet very few chapters budget any resources to membership development.
• Almost no “expectations” were communicated to new members, yet because there are no expectations communicated, very few people take on responsibility for running the chapter, leading to burnout of many chapter leaders.
• There was very little, if any attention given to membership orientation.
• There was almost no use of guest surveys.
• Many chapters were unintentionally creating ill-will between inactive members and Society HQ staff because of the delays they create in getting renewing membership cards to inactive members. No clear process seemed to be defined at the chapter level.

Leadership Development
• 86% of chapters had no “ongoing” training for chapter leaders, and only 25% of chapter leaders attended Leadership Academy.
• A vast majority of chapters had no budget to train members of their music team.
• A vast majority of chapters indicated they had a hard time finding people to take on leadership positions.
• A majority of leaders that were serving chapters had not seen a job description for their position.
• Only 29% of leaders rated their administrative leaders as being very capable.
• Almost 30% of chapters had no budget for leadership development.

Succession Planning
• Most chapters admitted that if they lost their director or president it would have a very negative impact on their chapter, yet 86% have no leadership succession plan. The few succession plans identified were for the chapter president position only.

Music
• A large percentage of chapters had no musical standards and had been known to accept non-singers as members of their chorus.

Marketing
• Most chapters had a mailing list but admitted that their lists were not being used or maintained properly.
• Very few members carried chapter business cards.
• Most chapter websites needed a major overhaul to be appealing to outsiders.
• 50% of chapter websites had no audio or video content.
• 94% of chapters were not running any PSAs to build awareness for barbershop in their community.
• A vast majority were not yet utilizing social networking sites to build awareness for the chapter. Very few chapters were utilizing social networking to promote their chapter activities.
• 1/3 of chapters still do not accept credit cards.

Community Service
• Almost 1/3 of chapters were not involved in serving/supporting their community in any way.
• 25% had no partnerships in the community.

Other
• 93% of chapters had no active ladies auxiliary organization that could possibly help assist with tasks related to running of the chapter

Budgeting
• A few chapters were operating without a budget.
• A few assemble the chapter board for a decision anytime someone wants a check to pay for something.
• A majority of chapters lacked adequate money to fund chapter operations yet very few chapters have any fundraising targets identified.
• 83% of chapters had no advertising budget and the only chapter that had a budget had only $100 allocated for the entire year.

Shows
• More than 1/3 of chapters rely on their members to sell 100% of show tickets.
• No chapters offered higher-priced patron seating close to the stage.
• No chapters sell show program ads via the chapter website.
• 2/3 of chapters did not barter ads to reduce out of pocket show expenses.
• No chapters were utilizing the district website or newsletter to promote their chapter show.
• 43% of the chapters that did not allocate any resources to advertising their show also indicated they do no other public relations or show promotion, aside from relying on the members to sell tickets.
• 2/3 of chapters were not using ticket give-aways to media to promote their show.

SNAPSHOT PROFILE OF THESE 20 CHAPTERS:

Chapter Size
• 49 Average # of Members
• 23 Smallest # of Members
• 86 Largest # of Members

Meeting Attendance
• 55% Average % Attending Meetings
• 29% Lowest % Attending Meetings
• 85% Highest % Attending Meetings

Member Recruitment
• 47% Avg. # of members who have not recruited anyone
• 60% Highest. # of members who have not recruited anyone
• 35% Lowest. # of members who have not recruited anyone

Members with an Email Address
• 93% Average %
• 83% Lowest %
• 100% Highest %

Involved in Competition: 76% (Much larger percentage than the organizational average)

Produce Shows: 76%

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The other challenge facing the Society is there are four distinct types of chapters across North America:

1) Those that do not need help;
2) Those that need help, want the help, and are open to suggestions;
3) Those that want to be left alone. They need help but do not want anyone telling them what they should be doing.
4) Those that need help but don’t know they need help; in many cases, chapters, even those that had slipped by 20-30 members in the last decade didn’t really perceive a problem, so they are not working to implement any corrective action.

==========================

So if we had $1,000,000 to invest in our future, I would invest a bunch of it in developing leaders at ALL LEVELS. I would also focus these limited resources where they are needed and wanted, and not waste resources on those that do not need or want the help.

I would also have some basic expectations:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: As money like this is hard to come by, the first thing we do is make sure we follow best practices in project management to make sure the money is not wasted. No money would be invested anywhere until a project plan was developed showing how each dollar would be spent, and what kind of ROI was being predicted. No plan, no money. The plan would contain clearly defined and measurable objectives, strategies that would be followed, as well as the supporting tasks and activities. ACCOUNTABILITY IS A MUST: Those accountable for implementing the plan (locally/regionally/nationally) would be identified. If we do not have the right people sitting in the right seats of the bus (at all levels) to implement the plan or program, we focus the resources where we do have the right people in place, before we spend a dime. Any plan/program would have a detailed budget, including money for marketing/promoting the program to others. A great program that few know about is pointless. A timetable would be assembled and milestones would be identified where progress could be monitored.

TRANSFORM FROM BEING AN ORGANIZATION WITH NO STANDARDS TO ONE THAT HAS MINIMUM STANDARDS & EXPECTATIONS: Implement minimum musical standards when recruiting new members. Good singing attracts good singers. Bad singing scares good singers away. Raise standards and expectations of chapter leaders; Organizations with extremely high expectations of their leaders will attract highly competent leaders. Organizations with little or no expectations of their leadership will be challenged to find anyone to lead effectively.

CREATE A LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT OFFERING WHERE PEOPLE ARE BANGING DOWN THE DOORS TO ATTEND: Get away from limiting ourselves to using just the best available barbershopper (BAB) for instructors, but instead, consider bringing in pros that develop leaders in non-profit organizations FOR A LIVING.

CLOSING: Let me end this long post by acknowledging that implementing transformational changes like I have described above will:

1) NOT be easy,
2) NOT sit well with those comfortable with the status quo,
3) Likely require the assistance of some paid staffers, consultants, and mission-driven volunteers (not currently within our leadership ranks) to make it happen.

However, providing we’re:
1) Utilizing best practices in project management,
2) Implementing some, minimum standards and expectations of singers and leaders at all levels of the organization, and
3) Presenting a leadership development program where attendees are clamoring to attend and have funding allocated (locally/regionally/nationally) to make it happen,
4) Still having FUN singing at our weekly chapter meetings…

…we will become an organization that is better-positioned to grow and be around for future generations of singers to enjoy.

Todd Wilson
Vice-President of Marketing & Public Relations
Webmaster and Bulletin Editor
Director of Music
Nashville Singers, Inc.
http://www.nashvillesingers.org
International Chorus & Quartet Champion
with the Vocal Majority and Acoustix
Former Barbershop Harmony Society Director of Marketing

P.S. If you know any organization that would benefit from my skills and experience, please send them the link to my personal website: http://www.toddwilson.info