Strategic Planning
Some chapters will experience bad years – a lack of interest from the membership and very little progress made by the chapter. Many factors could contribute to this. All nonprofit organizations perform their public service in an economic, social and political environment that is becoming increasingly complicated, full of changing opportunities, and subject to unpredictable pressures.
It is not always easy to locate the exact reasons why the chapter is enduring a bad year. A Strategic Planning Committee should be appointed to share the problem with the general membership and to present their recommendations for the long-range plans of the chapter, to remedy the problem.
COMPONENTS
Strategic planning will affect all aspects of chapter life, including programs and services, recruitment, sponsors, communications, finances, public relations, etc. The process of strategic planning therefore will affect and be affected by all constituent groups of members who have an interest in the organization's success.
The members of the Strategic Planning Committee must have a clear understanding of what strategic planning is and how the process can benefit the organization. Properly conducted, strategic planning is simple, effective, and should answer questions such as:
- What is the purpose or mission of the chapter? Why does the chapter exists?
- What vision does the chapter have of what it might become in the future?
- What services and opportunities does the chapter provide, and what services and opportunities should it provide in the future?
- Who benefits from those services? How might this clientele change in the future? How might the chapter respond to these changes?
- Given the surrounding environmental conditions and the current capability of the chapter, where should it concentrate efforts and resources to carry out its vision of the future?
- What performance measures will be used to track implementation of these priorities?
- What efforts will be made to revise the organization's priorities as conditions change?
STEPS
- Prepare a "plan to plan." The chapter must decide who will be involved in the procedure, what end products will result from each stage, and how the planning process will be carried out.
- Gather information toward a self-study or organizational analysis. Make a full and accurate list of every facet of the chapter:
- Meetings
- Chapter assets
- Awards
- Finances
- Recruitment procedures
- Induction ceremonies
- Communications
- Elections
- Community projects
- Training programs
- Areas of Opportunity programming
- Chapter publication
- Constitution
- Administrative structure
- Dues
- JCI Senators
- Social functions
- Public relations
- National commitments
- Regional involvement
- Correspondence
- Junior Chamber International
- Chapter objectives, etc
- Identify the key issues for the future of the organization. The committee should analyze the data to see what light it sheds on the long-term future of the chapter and then make a short but comprehensive list of six or eight key issues to be addressed by the Strategic Planning Committee.
- Choose strategic priorities to guide the chapter for the next several years. The strategic priorities should affect the chapter as a whole and address the relationship between the chapter and its members. No step is more important than the decision to concentrate limited resources and time on the achievement of a few vitally important goals.
- Develop initiatives or plans of action for each of the strategic priorities. Brainstorm ways the chapter can improve its performance in each area.
- Select and monitor performance measures to track progress in implementing each of the strategic priorities. The services offered are often qualitative in nature and therefore difficult to measure. For this reason it is good practice to use performance measures to track progress on each priority.
- Review progress toward accomplishing the chapter's strategic priorities, and revise the plan at least once a year. This step should also be done any time that outstanding problems or opportunities present themselves.
Changes in the internal and external environments often require new and different responses from the organization.
SUMMARY
When properly conducted, strategic planning can be among the most satisfying and rewarding aspects of a chapter's life. The process embraces a wide range of visions, ideas, people, feelings, specific data, hard realities and grand dreams.
The technique of strategic planning builds the chapter's knowledge of the organization and its environment. This knowledge, in turn, enables the chapter's Board to make informed decisions on the important policy issues of institutional mission, long-term priorities, and organizational goals and objectives.
Common understandings, agreements, and commitments must be built among the members of the chapter on what the organization will do and become in the future.
Printer friendly version |
Next: The Chapter Business Plan
|
Word® (1.28 MB)