The purpose of strategic or long-range planning is to assist the Association in establishing priorities and to better serve the needs of the membership. A strategic plan must be flexible and practical and yet serve as a guide to implementing programs, evaluating how these programs are doing, and making adjustments when necessary.
A strategic plan must reflect the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and wants of the developers and mold them along with the Association's purpose, mission, and regulations into an integrated document. The development of a plan requires much probing, discussion, and examination of the views of the leaders who are responsible for the plan's preparation. However, more often than not, the development of the plan is less complicated than is the implementation.
Implementation, in essence, pulls a plan apart and diffuses it throughout an organization. Every unit within the organization which is involved must then accept the plan, agree to its direction, and implement specific actions. In order to effectively and efficiently implement a plan, all individuals involved in its implementation must function as a whole or the plan is destined for failure.
[pic]
Part A
A DEFINITION OF STRATEGIC PLANNING
Strategic planning is a tool for organizing the present on the basis of the projections of the desired future. That is, a strategic plan is a road map to lead an organization from where it is now to where it would like to be in five or ten years.
It is necessary to have a strategic plan for your chapter or division. In order to develop a comprehensive plan for your chapter or division which would include both long— range and strategic elements, we suggest the methods and mechanisms outlined.
The plan must
