What is Strategic Planning? Gavin Give-A-Hoot – Is taking charge

After a few more meetings with no outcome, Gavin decided some things have to change to be a great organization. He heard about Strategic Planning and wonders if a small organization like yours can do something like this.

He started going to seminars and reading books about it and finds out that all sizes of organizations can do it.

Gavin discovered the recipe that is needed to make this project successful and to bring a major impact in culture and arts to the people of Tinyville.

Let us see how Gavin starts his journey.

Gavin found out that there are five steps to Strategic Planning:

•   Step 1: Get Organized

•      Step 2: Situation Analysis

•      Step 3: Set Direction

•      Step 4: Refine and Adopt the Plan

•      Step 5: Implement the Plan 

He is so excited about it that he asks for a special meeting to present his ideas.

In this meeting, Gavin explains what Strategic Planning is:

•      Planning process starts with the future – What do we want?

•      Vision defines goals or objectives

•      Creating a sequence of steps to achieve

•      “What must be done on current level to achieve the next stage”

The president, Jane Knowitall, interrupts Gavin and says that they did this few years ago. When they applied for 501 (c) 3 they had to create a Long Term Plan. 

Gavin explains that there is a difference between a Strategic Plan and long-term plan. He continued that a long-term plan:

• Starts planning process from the current situation
• Is a road map that outlines the path to future needs
• Creates a list of interim goals that needs to be met

Jane does not like the idea that Gavin steps so forward, because she founded the Arts Council and she did everything right. Only for the last two or three years the organization didn’t meet their goals, because the people didn't understand. There is nothing wrong with the current plan. They should follow it without paying attention to the changes around them.

Gavin thanks Jane Knowitall for proving the point. Strategic Planning has a wider view and is more flexible in adopting the environmental changes.

The organization is in this situation even though it met their interim goals:

• All the bills are paid
• Some arts events were organized
• At least one meeting every month
• Always complies with the mission statement

Brian Nodecision speaks up and supports Jane’s argument. Everything is great.

The debate gets heated until Gavin asks, why do they only have thirty members and declining participation at their arts shows. Why is funding the organization getting harder? No one could answer.

The Board of the Directors decided to give it a try.

Without realizing it the Tinyville Arts Council already started with the first step. They all talked about their concerns and benefits.

George Letmedoit does not know much about Strategic Planning, but he is on fire to get started with it. He asks a few simple questions with an extremely high value for the Strategic Planning process:

• Is this plan for the whole organization or do we do this only for a specific part?
• For how long do we plan? For what period of time are we planning?
• What do we want to accomplish with the plan?
• How much time do we want to spend on planning?
• What is the time line for each planning step?
• Who is in charge of the planning process?
• Do we split the planning process into smaller parts?
• Are we going to use a consultant for developing a plan?
• If so, how much will it cost and is there any funding support in the form of a grant?

After the meeting, all questions got answered and were written down by Secretary Shonda Detailed.

Stay tuned to see how the Give-A-Hoots change the world of this small volunteer organization.

What is Strategic Planning? - Gavin Give-A-Hoot – Attend a Board Meeting

The next day Gavin goes to the meeting.
Even though it is a public meeting there are only five people present. He introduced himself. Gavin gets to know the board of directors.

Jane Knowitall – President

Brian Nodecision – Vice President

Shonda Detailed – Secretary

Mark Dontspend – Treasurer

George Letmedoit – Board Member

Gavin took a seat and the meeting started. Jane began the meeting with asking what they should talk about. After fifteen minutes the board agreed on an agenda.

Mark gave his report. “We have $5,000 in our account. All the bills are paid. Our thirty members paid their membership dues.”

The next point on the agenda was the need for more board members. Jane asked if anyone knows somebody who would like to get involved. Nobody had an answer. 

Shonda asked Gavin if he would like to get involved. Gavin nodded. Without hesitations the board voted for Gavin as their new board member.   

Gavin got up and took his new place at the table.

George asked if anyone has an idea what kind of art event we should organize this year. Jane said that is a great question. We should brainstorm about it. After two hours the meeting closed without any ideas. Jane decided we all should meet in two weeks.

On his way home, Gavin thought about the meeting. He knew all those people were great but totally unstructured and disorganized. If this should be successful, we need a plan.

Problems:

• Agenda – meeting management
• Leadership
• How to create a functional, supportive, and successful Board of Directors
• Vision

Stay tuned to see how the Give-A-Hoots change the world of this small volunteer organization.

What is Strategic Planning?

Gavin Give-A-Hoot wants to volunteer

Gavin Give-A-Hoot lives with his wife, Gloria, in Tinyville. Tinyville is a small town in the heart of Tennessee on a lake and not so far from the beautiful mountains. More than five thousand people call Tinyville their home and around thirty thousand live in Tinyville County. This beautiful town has everything that any other small town has like churches, a Wal-Mart, small businesses, factories, and farmers.

Gavin and Gloria Give-A-Hoot decided that it is time to give something back to the community. They are searching for opportunities to help in a field of their interests. They start looking through newspapers and searching the web. Gavin cannot believe that only a handful of organizations are publicly known. He has friends who volunteer, too, but not with those organizations that Gloria and Gavin have found. The Give-A-Hoots love arts and culture so they think Tinyville could use some more events in this area.

Gavin is wondering if the Local Arts Council is still operating; he remembers seeing an article about an arts event almost a year ago. Gloria helps him and finds a website from this organization. It has not been updated, but an email address in the contact section is available. Gavin sends an email and after three weeks, he finally gets an answer.

A standard email: “Dear Sir and Madam, Thank you for your interest in the Tinyville Arts Council. We are meeting once a month to talk about new projects like fundraising, art shows, etc.. If you are interested, please contact us.”

Gloria is dialing the number, which was in the footer of the email, and gets the voicemail. Two weeks later Gavin gets a call and talks to an elderly lady who invites him to a meeting the next day. Gavin asks about the agenda of the meeting, to find out there in no agenda.

Does this story sound familiar?

It does not have to be like that.

Stay tuned to see how the Give-A-Hoots change the world of this small volunteer organization.