Benefits of Tri-M: Why and How to Start a Chapter at Your School

By Nikki Wilson and Hannah Cole

I will never forget the conversation I had with one of my students that began my journey with Tri-M. This enterprising student wanted a way to combine several things he loved into one activity, including playing his violin, performing for appreciative audiences, helping people enjoy music, inspiring young children, and earning the Music Badge required for him to become an Eagle Scout. He also wanted a way to help himself stand out and look more attractive to the colleges to which he was applying.

At the time, I had never heard of the Tri-M Music Honor Society and was unaware there was a nationally recognized honor society for high school and middle school musicians. Therefore, in blissful ignorance, my student and I set out to “reinvent the wheel,” as they say, and start our own club open to any music students who enjoyed performing for the community, mentoring children, exposing others to music they may never have heard before, and completing service projects with other musicians.

Sound familiar?

Well, I’m sorry to say it didn’t sound familiar to me at first. It took me about six months before I finally got curious enough to search online and see if other schools were doing anything like this, and if so, what types of service projects they were doing. But as soon as I took that first step to search for student-focused, music-centered service projects, my computer screen exploded with all sorts of beautiful, organized, readily available information about NAfME, the Tri-Music Honor Society, and all the resources and benefits available to Tri-M members.

Tri-M students from Montgomery Bell Academy prepare to do clean up at a nursing home.

Talk about a sigh of relief. No more “reinventing the wheel” for me!

I pored through all the resources online and found everything I needed to set up my own chapter of Tri-M: the NAfME membership form, the chapter activation form, and a plethora of service project ideas for my fledgling chapter. The website also had ideas and suggestions for how to set up my chapter, requirements for membership, templates to use for the student officer position descriptions, and how to have an induction ceremony.

Among the many suggestions and resources I found on the Tri-M website, I discovered that I had lots of decisions to make. How did I want to structure my chapter? What duties did I wish to assign to each officer? What rules did I wish to follow regarding membership in the honor society? What sort of activities and projects did I want us to focus on?

I ultimately decided to follow eight steps to get my Tri-M Honor Society up and running:

Join NAfME and pay membership dues! This may seem like a no-brainer, but it really is important to incorporate this step first as it makes all subsequent steps so much easier. Once you are a member of NAfME, you receive access to so much helpful information, lesson plans, and professional development that will ultimately help you create a successful, engaged, inspired chapter.

Fill out the chapter activation form on the website and pay the activation fee.

Contact the administration and all music teachers at your school with fliers for Tri-M. Put requirements for membership on your fliers. I ultimately decided our requirements would be enrollment in a music class and maintaining a certain GPA in the music class. I wholeheartedly recommend getting all the music teachers on your campus involved in your Tri-M chapter.

Schedule your induction ceremony. Your Tri-M activation fee gives you access to all the merchandise necessary to have a meaningful, high-quality induction ceremony that will be memorable for your students and their families and friends.

Hold your first meeting to elect your officers and decide what their duties should be. Be sure the students who are running for office know up front what will be expected of them.

Decide with your officers what types of service projects or tasks they are interested in. Do they prefer activities that involve just the students at their school, the community around their school, or their whole city? Or would they prefer a mixture of all three? This will determine the direction your Tri-M chapter will take.

Take pictures during each event to commemorate the activity. If your school allows you to have a social media account for your chapter, this would be a great way to promote and bring awareness to your activities.

Order graduation merchandise for seniors. This is a wonderful way to bring them recognition during graduation ceremonies and make them feel appreciated for their contributions to your Tri-M chapter. All merchandise is available on the Tri-M website, and there are even items such as certificates, awards, pins, etc. to help you recognize your high-achieving students.

If you ever have questions about anything related to Tri-M, you can contact us at [email protected]. We will be glad to help support you as well. Happy planning!

NAfME.org