ITG Members Sought for HBS Leadership

ITG members have been invited to run for office of the History Brass Society as they seek new leadership. 

Historic Brass Society Seeks New Leadership

 The Historic Brass Society (HBS) was created in 1988 and has served the Brass community with a wide range of activities and services. The HBS Board of Directors wants to ensure the relevance of the HBS in the third decade of the 21^st Century and beyond, encourage greater participation by members of the brass community and elicit new ideas from a broader range of people interested in the history of brass music.  To this end new leadership and increased participation in all areas of the Society’s activities is actively being sought.

The organization of the HBS has been modified by the Board to encourage greater participation and turnover in senior positions and has increased the number of opportunities to participate in a variety of areas.  In addition, the editorial process is being changed to encourage more ideas and greater participation as well as better distribute the workload.

We are seeking people interested in participating in the following roles, some elected, some appointed.  Elections are to be held in the Autumn of this year (2020) and appointed positions as early as August.

Open Elected Positions Autumn 2020 (Term to begin January 2021)

• Vice President: A position with a two-year term to assist the President and learn from the President the duties of the role of President. Upon the end of the two year term as Vice President, this person automatically becomes the new President for an additional term of two years, performing the duties of President and working with the new President-Elect to train that person for the role of President at the end of his or her term. The President cannot run for Vice President again for a period of two years (one term) to encourage greater participation in the leadership of the Organization.
  • NOTE: Our long-time President, Jeffrey Nussbaum, after serving as President since our organization’s beginning, is eager to step down so in 2020, the Vice President will serve in that role for one year, rather than two, becoming President beginning in January 2022. In the election to be held in the Autumn of 2021, a new Vice President will be elected that will serve the normal two-year term beginning in January of 2022, becoming President in 2024.
• Secretary: The position of Secretary has a term of three years. Duties include:
  • Managing the membership through the online database and tracking payments
  • Communicates with members regarding membership issues or directing them to proper staff member or officer
  • Works with the other Officers, Board of Directors and Technical Director to prepare email campaigns and physical mailings to the Membership and others
  • Takes minutes at Board Meetings and Membership meetings
  • Serves on the Nominating Committee and manages elections with assistance from other Officers and Technical Director.
• Board of Directors: The Board of Directors is being expanded to consist of nine members of which four are Officers (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and five members who are elected as Members of the Board by election by the Membership. Board Members serve a three-year term.  In 2020, there will be two open positions on the Board on the ballot.  Most of the current Board began serving in 2019 but the intent is that there will be a rotating Board with staggered elections.  The 2021 Nominating Committee will work with the Board to determine the openings that will be open in the Autumn 2021 elections.

Note again that the term of Vice President serves for two years as assistant to the President and "President Trainee" and then automatically moves into the role of President for an additional two-year term, making this a four-year position. All other elected positions have a three-year term.

Likewise, members of the Board of Directors will hold three-year terms, with elections to be held each year. A Nominating committee will accept nominations for all positions and have authority to work with Board Members to ensure continuity of leadership in the board while ensuring that term limits of three years are respected.

Additional Positions Available

There are several other areas where we are seeking participation.  These are not elected positions but appointed positions for which we seek applicants.

These include:

• Editorial Board and Staff Members
• Advertising Manager – Primarily for the Journal but may include online advertising as well
• Archivists: The HBS has both physical and digital documents, intellectual property, and other assets. Although we have had our office in New York City at the home of Jeff Nussbaum, we need to transition to a post-Jeff world as well as improve our virtual office capability and ensure that our digital assets, including our Journals, are all online with up-to-date reference links (called Document Object Identifiers, or DOIs) so that the articles may be referenced by other scholarly articles.  Thus, we have a need for both physical and digital archivists.  While this may be one person who lives in the New York City area, it would be better if we had two people, one in the NYC area who can manage the physical assets who is also comfortable with scanning and uploading certain documents into our virtual office environment as well as someone who only works on digital assets like the Journals.  The Archivists would work with the Officers (Primarily Jeff at this time) for physical assets and with the Technical Director (Steven Lundahl) for digital assets.
• Committee Positions Available on:
  • Christopher Monk Award Committee
  • Joe and Joella Utley Student Support Award Committee
  • Events Committee
  • Membership Committee

You can find more information on the above positions and committees on our website, www.historicbrass.org

If you are interested in participating in any of the above positions or wish to nominate someone else, or if you would like more information, please contact us at [email protected]