What is Focus on Five?

Focus on Five is a national campaign to promote participation in our national programs. You can find more information about Focus on Five here.

Each chapter is expected to complete all of the stripes every year, and the lyre pieces are bonuses. When planning your projects, your chapter should try to prioritize completing the stripes. Even if you can’t complete everything this year, you should try to get at least one or two more pieces than the year before!

But why Focus on Five?

  • Our programs, such the Women in Music Speaker Series and Crescendo, help set us apart from other service organizations
  • By participating, you’re furthering TBS’s ideals along with people from across the country!
  • Nationals uses is to track participation and uses the participation to give out awards
  • Your chapter probably already does projects that fulfill these requirements, so make sure you get credit for it!

Most participation is tracked through submissions to the official Focus on Five Facebook page! You can find what your chapter has successfully submitted on our standings sheet. Tips for Posting on the FO5 Page:

  • Post a lot of pictures (AT LEAST 5) to provide evidence you participated
  • Use #StripesForSpike so the SED can track all the awesome work you’re doing

You can access the National Risk Management Video here. Be sure to fill out the “Take a Stand” Pledge sheet as well, which can be downloaded here.

 

 


Participate in the CODA program. It is essentially Crescendo, except with the elderly! There’s plenty of things you can do, and feel free to come up with your own unique ideas to help your specific community. You can access the CODA National program guide here. 

 


Your speaker can be any woman involved in the music profession–it doesn’t just have to be a professor at your university, so reach out into you community as well for speakers! Have your speaker talk about their experiences in their profession, including any challenges they’ve faced and how they’ve overcome them. They can also talk about their own philosophies in their profession and life, and how it can apply to the audience’s lives as well!

Other ideas/tips to make your WIM Speaker a success:

  • Hold a Q&A session at the end
  • Instead of one speaker, you can have a panel of several women to talk about their experiences
  • Live stream on Facebook or Youtube so anyone can see it, even if they can’t be there!
  • ADVERTISE your speaker and invite other people! Since you’ll be having a reception, people always love free food! 😉 It’s great that sisters are there, but we can progress our mission further by reaching out to people who aren’t directly involved in our organization! Some chapters have even had their whole band involved!
    • Invite local Girl Scout troops, other music organizations, etc.
  • Make sure you thank your speaker at the end for taking their time to speak with you!

You can access the WIM Speaker National program guide here.

Interactive programs are especially successful with younger students and can be a lot of fun for both the kids and sisters! Also reach out to local schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, scouting troops, etc., to see if there are any specific projects that would benefit them.

You can access the Crescendo National program guide here.

You can access information on the For Greater Bands and Baton Awards here.

 

 


You can find more information on Conduct Us here. You can find more information on Service in Music Month here.