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Strategic Plan

IDRS Strategic Plan 2025-2027

Mission

The International Double Reed Society (IDRS) is a member-based organization made up of professional double reed players, students, amateurs, hobbyists, university/college instructors, music teachers, institutions, instrument manufacturers, double reed product retailers, reed makers, and enthusiasts.Membership in the IDRS is available without regard to race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin. The International Double Reed Society is committed to celebrating diversity, equity, and inclusion in the worldwide double reed community through performance and educational opportunities, grants, and ensuring representation that reflects the richness of our multi-faceted membership.

IDRS was established in December 1971 for the following purposes:

  • To encourage the performance of double reed literature.
  • To encourage the improvement of instruments, reeds, and related materials.
  • To encourage the composition and arranging of music for double reeds.
  • To act as a resource for performers.
  • To assist teachers and students of double reed instruments to attain a high standard of performance.
  • To encourage cooperation and an exchange of ideas between the music industry and the Society.

Strategic Objectives

1. Engaging Membership

There is no greater asset to our society than our membership. With the increasing number of resources available online, IDRS needs to position itself to provide new, unique opportunities for its members to engage with and benefit from the society.

2. Activating Our Resources

Our current resources are a result of IDRS’s legacy of success. Continuing to nurture these existing resources while creating new materials will foster excellence in what we provide our membership.

3. Nurturing Excellence in Governance

Fiduciary responsibility and fiscal stability are key to the future of our organization. IDRS will continue to engage in current fundraising efforts, while working to find ways to lower costs for our membership.

4. Strengthening Our Team

Collaboration is essential to achieving our goals. Composed of elected directors, staff, and volunteers, IDRS leadership will work together to secure the continued long term success of our organization through future planning, organization, documentation, and preservation.

Goals

Engaging Membership

Goal 1: Foster a strong collaborative culture, increasing the number of opportunities for membership involvement.

Action Items:

  • Establish new expertise-based committees to include the areas of pedagogy, student members, health and wellness, historical performance, chamber music, new music, avocational playing, self-employment, and business.
  • With reasonable exceptions to ensure committee diversity, end the practice of using invitations to fill vacancies (staff, volunteers, etc.) within IDRS.
  • Offer Office Hours with the President virtually and at the conference.

Goal 2: Increase the number of membership benefits beyond the conference attendance

Action Items:

  • Expand and increase virtual events
  • Expand variety and depth of resources.
  • Include Regional Chapter membership for all US members and discounted IDRS membership for all Associate Organization members.

Goal 3: Increase the number of IDRS members outside the United States

Action Items:

  • Continue to include at least one member from outside the US in all IDRS Committees
  • Improve communications with Associate Organizations and continue to organize at least one meeting of Associate Organizations officers per year.
  • Establish a Latin American Outreach Taskforce.
  • Promote the discounted IDRS membership for Associate Members more actively

Goal 4: Adjust the conference schedule to better serve the needs of our business members and exhibitors

Action Items:

  • Include at least one hour dedicated to exhibits separate from meal times per day in the conference schedule.
  • Schedule one hour per day in which exhibits are closed so exhibitors can eat lunch.

Goal 5: Respond to the requests of our members as expressed in previous conference attendee surveys

Action Items:

  • Include pronouns on conference badges
  • Strive for schedules that avoid overlapping events with similar target audiences.
  • Integrate a State of the Society address and annual report into every general meeting that overviews IDRS operations and finances.

Activating Our Resources

Goal 1: Ensure the continued success of The Double Reed

Action Items:

  • Establish ongoing policies and procedures for determining the journal cover image.
  • Determine if a long term plan to move the journal to an exclusively digital format is necessary.
  • Create a long term plan to finance the hiring of an Editor-in-Chief
  • Increase resources through required committee submissions to the journal

Goal 2: Expand and diversify the resources available to IDRS members

Action Items:

  • Increase resources through required committee submissions to the video archive.
  • Diversify the offerings within the fingering database to include more auxiliary instruments and regional variants.
  • Diversify the offerings within the Theses and Dissertations database to include more documents in languages other than English.

Goal 3: Ensure the continued success of IDRS competitions

Action Items:

  • Sustain the reduced competition prize money structure to better balance the budget and align with best practices amongst other instrumental societies.
  • Under the advisement of the Investment Subcommittee, continue to use investment funds to cover competition expenses.

Goal 4: Ensure the successful completion of the 50 for 50 project

Action Items:

  • Having concluded the Composition Competition, award only commissioning grants for the remainder of the project.
  • Follow the established budget for the continuation of the Commissioning Grants through 2027 and 50 total works.
  • Implement the new recording policy to allow composers to promote their winning compositions.

Nurturing Excellence in Governance

Goal 1: Provide fiscal stability through fundraising opportunities

Action Items:

  • Expand and improve the ways we acknowledge donors on the website
  • Acknowledge donors on conference badges
  • Develop and launch end-of-year social media giving campaign

Goal 2: Position IDRS to lower the prohibitive cost of conference attendance

Action Items:

  • Where financial and available venues permit, prioritize and pursue conference locations in large metropolitan areas.
  • Create a long term plan to lower conference registration fees.
  • Continue the Student Conference Scholarship initiative.

Strengthening Our Team

Goal 1: Ensure a smooth transition between subsequent Board of Directors

Action Items:

  • House and maintain all IDRS documents within the shared drive by December 2027.
  • Transition from lastname@idrs.org emails to position@idrs.org emails for all except VP/P/PP to preserve documents, history, and institutional knowledge.
  • Create written guidelines for all organizational procedures and positions that do not currently exist.

Goal 2: Position IDRS to shift from volunteer administrative leadership

Action Items:

  • Balance the annual operating budget
  • Launch new revenue stream initiatives including the IDRS merch store and the new conference model.
  • Implement a hold on any new initiative that requires a significant financial investment during the current Presidential term.
  • Create a long term plan to finance the hiring of an Executive Director.