According to the organization's website, Tau Beta Sigma's mission is to "provide exceptional service to collegiate bands and promote equality and diversity, including empowering women in the band profession. We cultivate leadership, educational achievement, music appreciation and community development." Butler University's website notes that the sorority also exists to promote band music as an American cultural experience, to develop leadership through band participation and to encourage the relationship among collegiate bands, as well as recognizing women who have contributed to these goals. The sorority accomplishes them through a number of different programs.
Tau Beta Sigma sponsors the Women in Music Speakers Series, which brings women who are prominent in music, including professors, musicians, conductors and music therapists, to speak before the members of the sorority. The speakers are heard at programs presented at district and national conventions. Tau Beta Sigma has six districts: Midwest, Northeast, North Central, Southeast, Southwest and Western.
For more than 50 years, band members from Tau Beta Sigma and Kappa Kappa Psi, the fraternity for male band members, as well as unaffiliated band members from various universities, have come together to prepare a concert. Guest conductors lead the group in old favorites and new works that are commissioned especially for the concert.
Since 1953, the National Intercollegiate Band has premiered works written especially for it. Composers, some with experience in the genre and some new to it, have written more than 23 new pieces. Tau Beta Sigma joins with Kappa Kappa Psi in offering the commissions. The commissions demonstrate the commitment of the sorority and fraternity to being of service to bands and band music.
Tau Beta Sigma offers scholarships designed to encourage women studying music. Applicants who have been a member of Tau Beta Sigma for at least a year, who are entering their junior or senior year and who have a 3.0 GPA or better can apply for the $500 award for outstanding student leaders or the $500 award for musical achievement. Members entering their junior and senior year who have a 3.3 GPA or better and who are entering the field of music education can apply for two scholarship of $500 each, one called the Wava Scholarship and the other given by the Board of Trustees. Tau Beta Sigma gives scholarships of up to $300 to students entering music education so they can attend the Conn-Selmer University, a motivational workshop.