Causes

What’s Causing Barbershop Harmony Society Membership Decline? In short, changes in our North American social context—changes like electronic media usage, suburban commute lengths, vocational demands and the speed-up of everyday living. These changes have caused men to shift their priorities when it comes to what they value in their discretionary time. This is not a pet theory or an armchair guess-this is from rock solid research. The research shows that men today most highly value creativity, efficiency and skill & talent growth in their discretionary time compared to earlier generations who most highly valued social affiliation and recreation.

[If you're curious about the research—about the changes in social context to which the Society must adapt in order to thrive—pour a very tall beverage, get comfortable and click on the "Research" button in the navigation bar above.]

Most Society chapters have not adjusted to do well in today's social context. The right adjustments will cause chapters to become compellingly attractive as an investment for men's discretionary time.

From the research, these changes in our social context—external forces—have similarly affected thousands of other non-profit organizations with a club, chapter or congregation structure. The list of organizations whose membership graph roughly parallels the Society's graph is striking. It includes Knights of Columbus, NAACP, Civitans, Jaycees, AA, Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H, Optimists, American Legion, Elks, PTA, Veterans of Foreign Wars, AMA, American Contract Bridge League, Lions Clubs, trade unions, most professional associations, most mainstream religious denominations, the majority of service clubs and many others.

Notice that this list cuts across age lines, gender lines, ethnic lines and class lines. Here’s the other reason for listing so many:

The Barbershop Harmony Society is not an exception—it's an epitome case.

Three important items from the research are:

1. The causes of Society membership decline are external, not internal—members did not suddenly start doing detrimental things inside the Society three decades ago.

2. As external causes, they cannot be changed or controlled—only adapted to.

3. The causes are related to what new priorities men value for their lives in this day and time—not what pop music fad is hot

From these factual points of research, it's easy to conclude:

Some liberal ideas—for instance, substantially widen the definition of Barbershop music, become coed, add vocal percussion and/or instruments, make performance excellence a Society requirement or standard—are not ideas that will reverse the membership trends.

Likewise, some traditionalist ideas—for instance, go back to what used to work so well: fun social camaraderie first, mostly era music, simple moderately-ranged consonant chording, lots of woodshed quartetting—are not ideas that will reverse the membership trends.

For chapters to thrive, they must adapt—change their strategies—to compellingly provide the new priorities men value today.

And that begs the question, “Well then, what are the changes—what new strategies will get Barbershop Harmony Society chapters thriving again?” Click here . . . >>>