Village Temple Strategic Planning Task Force:
February 25, 2013 meeting notes
Participants: Bill Abrams, Craig Albert, Emily Hacker, Deb Seidman, Jill Wilkinson (Betsy Krebs unable to attend)
Task force goal: Lead the VT community in completing a strategic plan by 5/31/13.
Objectives:
Why plan:
Need to think strategically, long-tem, etc. and stop fire-fighting
How have we planned in the past?
What have been barriers in effective planning in the past?
Principles that will guide the work of the Strat Plan Task Force (SPTF)
Participation and communication
The plan itself:
1. Deb and Jill to draft mission, vision, values, desired future state (based on current inputs)
2. Craig and Betsy to do context. Betsy leading on external context, drawing upon trend data for UJA and other sources. Craig to lead on internal context (with support from Don, Stephanie, Fred to access data) – including financial. [Bill to send contact info to Craig]
3. Bill and Emily to draft goals and initiatives (based on current inputs)
4. Bill and Emily to explore setting up strat plan website.
5. Bill to meet with Rabbi to brief her on the process, schedule a dinner with her and SPTF.
6. Deb to brief board at 2/19/13 meeting.
Next meeting: Monday, Feb 25 at 7 pm at Bill Abrams
Task force goal: Lead the VT community in completing a strategic plan by 5/31/13.
Objectives:
- Based on current inputs (prior board work, Town Halls, etc.), complete first draft of plan. Purpose of first draft is to have a framework for discussions with stakeholders.
- Design and implement a process to maximize involvement by VT community (clergy, staff, members, leadership) in refining the strategic plan, in order to have a plan that reflects diverse array of thought and input plus buy-in.
- Based on inputs from review process, complete final draft for consideration by VT community at May special meeting.
Why plan:
Need to think strategically, long-tem, etc. and stop fire-fighting
- Environment has changed. More competition
- Our membership, enrollment and income numbers are going in the wrong direction.
- Need to communicate more effectively with members. Need to engage community is a more inclusive, participatory way.
- Engage and cultivate future leaders.
How have we planned in the past?
- Annual budget (March-April)
- Annual calendar (May-June)
- Occasional board discussions (including workshop led by Steve Kaye in April 2012).
- Special purpose planning – such as developing Synaplex model several years ago, organizing recent Town Hall meetings
- Committees & management – such as new proposal for 5th grade curriculum
- Performance management – setting specific performance goals for clergy and key staff, followed by periodic performance reviews
What have been barriers in effective planning in the past?
- Lack of time and focus
- Difficulty for us, being heavily dependent on volunteer management, to execute well
- Too many ideas, lack of focus and realism on implementable ideas
- Occasional lack of alignment between leadership and clergy, not working together in a single unified process
Principles that will guide the work of the Strat Plan Task Force (SPTF)
- It’s important to complete the plan by 5/31/13, before summer break. We have to set the scope of the plan (level of detail, follow-up action planning, etc.) so that this deadline is achievable.
- Our time horizon is the next three years. Our focus is on strengthening the temple: stabilizing or growing membership, improving organizational capacity, strengthening our financial base, etc.
- The process must engage all in the VT community who want to engage.
- A small and efficient SPTF is essential to meeting our timetable. Having a small SPTF – a steering committee, to lead and coordinate, but not to be the sole author – is both necessary to meeting our deadline and consistent with good planning principles.
- The Rabbi is a very important participant in the process. While she need not be a member of the SPTF (see #4 above), her voice and vision are very important inputs into the plan.
- The board also is a key stakeholder and contributor to the process. We will talk to co-presidents about dedicating a portion of the March, April and May meetings to strategic planning.
- We have to be willing to pose difficult questions and then answer them. No sacred cows.
- Communicating effectively with the congregation during the strat planning process is very important.
- Our general approach is to identify our desired future state (3 years), see our current situation clearly, identify gaps between today and future state, identify specific actions that will close the gap, and identify resources that will be required. The plan must be achievable.
- We have done a substantial amount of strategic thinking already (board discussions, Town Hall) and we should use that to rapidly get to first draft, which then is basis for broader discussion and revision.
Participation and communication
- When we are ready to begin review process (probably April), small focus groups organized around specific topics (e.g., religious school, serving interfaith families, becoming a more welcoming temple, etc.) can be effective.
- It may be possible to build a dedicated website (linked to VT.org) with key documents, member comment function, etc. in order to invite participation and demonstrate our commitment to transparency. See http://strategicplan.tufts.edu/. We don’t have to be that elaborate or fancy, and there are easy web-building tools (Weebly) to do this, with some volunteer help from someone on the board.
The plan itself:
- Temple Israel (Connecticut) and Beth Israel (Austin, Tx) plans are good models. We may find a few more.
- Our plan will be compact: roughly 10 pages
- Possible table of contents
- Mission, vision, values
- Desired future state
- External context: population, demographics, interfaith, etc.
- Internal (VT) context: financial, membership, demographic trends and data
- Goals. Beth Israel model is interesting: 5 “strategic goals” focused on the kind of congregation we want to be for our members and community, plus 4 “support goals” that address the kind of organizational capacity we need in order to achieve the strategic goals
- Initiatives: a manageable number (10-15?) of specific actions to achieve those goals. (More detailed action planning will be required but are not within scope of the strategic plan).
1. Deb and Jill to draft mission, vision, values, desired future state (based on current inputs)
2. Craig and Betsy to do context. Betsy leading on external context, drawing upon trend data for UJA and other sources. Craig to lead on internal context (with support from Don, Stephanie, Fred to access data) – including financial. [Bill to send contact info to Craig]
3. Bill and Emily to draft goals and initiatives (based on current inputs)
4. Bill and Emily to explore setting up strat plan website.
5. Bill to meet with Rabbi to brief her on the process, schedule a dinner with her and SPTF.
6. Deb to brief board at 2/19/13 meeting.
Next meeting: Monday, Feb 25 at 7 pm at Bill Abrams