The WIMGA is a rapidly growing and evolving organization, and needs to re-evaluate many aspects of the MG program and the Association. A strategic planning process has been implemented to assist us in determining what changes need to be made and how best to do that, within the framework of both short- and long-term plans. Strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide an organization and what it does.
On October 9, 1999 the Planning Committee (WIMGA Board members Catherine Walther, Pat Richie, Ron Richter, and Kathy Powell, and Program Coordinator Susan Mahr) met with Portage Co. CRD Agent Mark Hilliker, a member of the state-wide facilitation team for UW Extension. They identified the organizational mandates for MGs, the WIMGA and Advisory Committee, and the Coordinator's Office. The Planning Committee also developed a list of desired and/or expected outcomes of the strategic planning processes:
Development of short- and long-term plans
The
full Board met on January 8 in Stevens Point for the first of two Strategic
Planning Sessions, once again with Mark Hilliker facilitating. The board has a
representative from each of the 23 local associations, providing a diverse
perspective. The group reviewed the organizational mandates of the Association
(things that must be done, as defined in the by-laws or informal mandates) and
the WIMGA mission statement - and decided that the mission statement needed to
be revised to more accurately reflect the purpose of the WIMGA. The major
functions of the WIMGA include
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The
next step in the process was to assess the organization's internal and external
environments to identify strengths and weaknesses (internal) and opportunities
and threats (external). Once again, long lists were generated for each topic,
indicating that although the organization has a lot going for it, there is
considerable room for improvement. There are many problems that will be
addressed through this strategic planning process. After
compiling each comprehensive list, everyone selected the three specific items
they thought were the most important. The results were tabulated to determine
the perceived most critical issues.
The primary strengths of the WIMGA were identified as:
The primary weaknesses of the WIMGA were identified as:
The main opportunities the WIMGA should try to take advantage of were identified as:
Some important potential threats WIMGA needs to be concerned about were identified as:
The
Board met again on February 19, again in Stevens Point, to undertake the next
steps in the strategic planning process. Unfortunately not as many members were
able to attend as at the last meeting because of numerous conflicts, but the
members present were very active participants. We reviewed the proceedings of
the previous meeting that Mark Hilliker had prepared to document the specific
tools, procedures and and analyses we utilized and summarize the outcomes (much
more detailed than the discussion above).
At the end of the last meeting we were asked to identify what we considered the most important strategic issues (fundamental policy questions or critical challenges) facing the WIMGA, with each person writing them down on individual note cards. Between the two meetings the facilitators summarized these ideas and by this meeting had roughly organized them into various themes.
Our first task was to evaluate the organization of these ideas into themes, and to add any issues that had been missed. Working as a group, we moved cards around (they were taped to a wall) until we were satisfied with the groupings. By the end we had organized the cards into eight different themes that we reworded into the following strategic issues:
1. How do we develop and ensure
a stable funding base?
2. How do we develop and maintain strong leadership through development and
training?
3. How do we improve and standardize MG training?
4. How do we improve communications?
5. How do we build and maintain membership while securing volunteer hours?
6. How do we promote WIMGA to our stakeholders?
7. How do we improve organizational structure and operations of WIMGA?
8. How do we maintain and improve UWEX participation at the state and local
levels?
Then we started brainstorming to formulate specific strategies to address each issue. It was amazing the diversity of ideas that the board members brought forth. All these thoughts were summarized and written on large sheets of paper to hang on the walls for all to see. This is a bright and enthusiastic group, from diverse backgrounds and members of different types of local associations (big, small, urban, rural, etc.), and so there were many exciting ideas presented that many of us had never even considered before. We ended up with a huge pool of possibilities to explore for each of the three issues we managed to address. The next step was to come up with strategies for the remaining five issues.
The Board met again on July 29 in Stevens Point and continued the process with those remaining five issues, and once again created long lists of ideas. With a little time left before the meeting was scheduled to end, we tackled the development of action plans for the strategic issue we deemed most critical: funding. Lots of possibilities were discussed, but no firm decisions could be made without more information. We left with plans to discuss certain ideas (e.g. raising dues, raising training fees, local association "taxes") with local association members and bring back their input. Other ideas will be discussed by the MG Advisory Committee when it meets in November.
On Saturday October 14 many of the board were able to meet in Stevens Point to continue the discussions about funding and address some of the additional strategic issues. Most local association members favored increased dues, but not an association assessment, to help support the MG Program Office. Dues increases will be discussed at future meetings, but any increase will be small and incremental. It was suggested that dues cover only newsletter expenses and WIMGA operating costs and that Program Office operating expenses be covered by other fund raising efforts. Some suggestions for other opportunities included special tours or classes, such as "MG Summer Camp," a five-day hands-on course, that would include a contribution to the Program; sales of Garden Journals or other products; and increased training fees. Educational improvement was discussed as a separate category that requires funding. The Continuing Education Committee will investigate how often training is currently offered, what the demand is throughout the state, and possibilities for offering more frequent training programs that would also help to generate income. Video replacement was a focus of discussion with various ideas offered, from writing grants to soliciting industry support, to help underwrite production of new videos. A MG Foundation will be discussed at the Advisory Committee meeting in November.
Another strategic issue that came to the forefront was the organizational structure of WIMGA. Current by-laws only allow a maximum of 30 board members, there are now 27 local associations with one representative each, leaving only 3 additional spaces available for any new associations. The Board decided that the best short-term solution is to change the by-laws to accommodate more members, although this will have to be approved by the general membership (at the annual conference). The Long Range Planning Committee will investigate alternative representation systems to consider in the future.
Time ran out before we could address many of the other strategic issues to create action plans, but it was decided that those could wait while we focus on the issues of primary concern. Those issues will be addressed as needed instead of by a specific plan, until there is more time to tackle those projects.
A schedule for periodic review of progress was determined to assure that the organization continually reviews its efforts and takes steps to implement a new round of strategic planning as necessary. It was decided that annual reviews would be sufficient for this overall evaluation, and that most of the individual projects would continue to be addressed at monthly board meetings.Finally, the board recommended that WIMGA adopt the strategic plan as formulated (acknowledging that not all strategic issues currently have action plans).
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