| Why join Tau Beta Sigma?! |
| Joining Tau Beta Sigma benefits the band member in many ways! A sense of belonging: Membership in Tau Beta Sigma gives the member a family here at Clarion University. With many students living away from home for the first time, life at school can be confusing and scary! Tau Beta Sigma acts as a support system of sisters and brothers in the bond who will always be there for eachother no matter what! Tau Beta Sigma offers the member the best friends of their life! Service to the bands: Tau Beta Sigma is all about band service! We act as a "band booster" since college bands do not have as much parental support as the highschool bands do. Delta Omicron supports the Clarion Golden Eagle Marching Band by distributing and collecting uniforms, planning the Wind Ensemble Tour and other neccisary service work. We also help out local highschool bands, at Union Highschool we help run the concession stand with their band boosters. Musical Involment: Tau Beta Sigma encourages band participation by each member having to be in one "band" ensemble per year. The ensambles include: marching band, symphonic band, wind ensemble and jazz band. The ensembles cater to a wide range of abilities and varied pieces. The colorguard and majorettes are able to join Tau Beta Sigma as well! Nationally and district wide ensembles are open to Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi members by auditon and provide a learning and networking oppertunity by premiering new pieces and showcasing guest conductors. Social: An organization is supposed to be fun, right?! Tau Beta Sigma has many social activites for members and non-members! We sponsor many band socials with Kappa Kappa Psi, including band dances and band camp activites. Tau Beta Sigma holds "Sisterhood Week" each month where members get together and eat dinner, make crafts and play games to increase our bond. Delta Omicron annually has a formal, this year it is being held in Pittsburgh with our Pitt chapter! National: Tau Beta Sigma is a national organization with chapters all over the country! The country is divided into districts, and the districts into precincts. Each year Delta Omicron travels to the North East District (NED) central precinct meeting and the NED meeting. These meetings are held at host schools and ran by our district council and the host chapters. Both meetings are relativly low in cost and offer the member learning oppertunities, social connections and fun! In the spring of 2004, Clarion will be hosting the NED Central Precinct meeting! National Conventions are held every two years at different places in the country. The 2001 Convention was held in Texas, which Delta Omicron sent three members to. The 2003 Convention is in Norfolk, Virginia and we are planning to send most of the chapter! No matter where you travel in the US, when you find a TBS member you will be accepted and welcomed! Honorary: Members are chosen for their outstanding band performance, musicianship and leadership, therefore it is an honor to be chosen for membership in Tau Beta Sigma and is not a thing to be taken lightly! Every year or so, the chapter chooses to make an adult member of the commuinty or a brother of Kappa Kappa Psi, an honorary member of Tau Beta Sigma for their service to the band program or to the Delta Omicron chapter. This means that they are able to attend members only functions and learn the ritual of the sorority. In the past Delta Omicron has made music department faculty, parents, Kappa Kappa Psi brothers and even a past Tau Beta Sigma National President, honorary members of our chapter! Ritual: You may wonder the purpose of our secrets and our rituals. We hold rituals, which are special ceremonies, to remind us of why Tau Beta Sigma was founded. The secrets we share help to create the bonds of sisterhood and make membership a bit more important. Remember when you were a kid and there was something that only you and your best friend knew? Its kind of like that, it keeps the sisterhood special and different from just a group of people doing band service! Leadership: Tau Beta Sigma looks for and creates leaders in the band! Our members have been drum majors, section leaders and colorguard captains! We can produce these band leaders by letting each member have a chance to be a leader within the chapter. In a Tau Beta Sigma chapter every member counts. Every member has a job and a voice. Tau Beta Sigma also provides a higher form of leadership by letting collegiate members lead the districts on the district council. And upon graduation a member can look into running for a national office. Tau Beta Sigma prepares its members for a life time of leadership! Joint Relations: Tau Beta Sigma has a brother organization called Kappa Kappa Psi. Both organizations started off as single sex, and are now both co-ed. Most schools are lucky to have a chapter of both, providing two different personalities and more band service. Joint relations is what we like to call the way the chapters get along. The Clarion chapters have good joint relations and keeps them by working on joint activities, good communication and hosting events like precicnts. We also work to have good relations with our Phi Mu Alpha (social music fraternity (men)) and Sigma Alpha Iota (special interest - music fraternity (women)) chapters. Lifetime: Above all, Tau Beta Sigma is for a lifetime. Wava Banes (Henry)Turner, our founder, is still very active and is a Lifetime Member. Tau Beta Sigma offers a "Lifetime Memebership" to graduated members for a fee of $250. Lifetime membership is truely worth it. Lifetime members get special privlages that alumni dont. They get to have a voice at national conventions, a lifetime subscription to the national magazine "The Podium" and can hold district office for two years after the graduate to name a few. Tau Beta Sigma - For Greater Bands! |