Strategic Plan 2011-13

 

In a continuing effort to improve as an organization, your Chamber Board embarked on a journey to create a three-year plan for strategic improvements.

 

They took "a step back and looked at the core functions and values of the organization," said Luanne Stauffer. The outcome is not only a vision statement, an updated mission statement, and three primary, strategic goals, but also includes operational improvements that our members wanted. Marcia Moll Barone, former project coordinator for PerkUp was contracted to facilitate the process (with assistance from Michele Fillippo). Marcia grew up in the area – her family owned the former Furniture Shop in East Greenville. She knows the Valley well. The full Board participated with feedback throughout the process, but the Board Development committee was charged with final oversight.

First, Marcia developed a process that was approved by the Board. Second, information was gathered from meetings, surveys, outside sources, and input from more than 80 individuals to learn what people see as the 21st-century role of a chamber of commerce. It was learned that "businesses are members of the Chamber for different reasons – for many different reasons," said Luanne. However, common themes were found, and all the input was very helpful.

 

Third, Marcia separated out the components that were strategic in nature from those that were operational (some as simple as switching from stapling to wafer sealing this newsletter).

 

Finally, after multiple working sessions, the Board took the strategic information on a retreat to craft the Strategic Plan 2011 - 2013.

It was confirmed that a Chamber of our size does have some unique challenges. "We have a really wide range of needs that we try to meet," said Luanne. Thanks to an engaged and dedicated Board, Luanne feels strongly that we are prepared for the challenges despite limited resources and a small size. She sees the Board’s willingness to spend hours on this strategic-planning process as a tribute to the hard-working people who presently are serving your Chamber.

 

Specifics within the final plan include development of a 501(c)(3) entity to pursue new revenue sources for PerkUp goals and to make contributions to the educational scholarships tax-deductible.

 

We also plan to "integrate more closely the mission of PerkUp," said Luanne.

 

Even though we aren’t striving to grow our current boundaries, "we want to be an advocate beyond just the parameters of our geographic designation," said Luanne. "We don’t want to be a huge chamber, but we are stronger as an organization if we have more, local participation." A broader range of business types will increase the networking opportunities for all. Every member should therefore act as an ambassador and reach out to potential and new members.

 

Today, Marcia’s role is complete. Since the Board didn’t want a complicated, lengthy plan, the finished document is a simple piece. It is prefaced with existing tasks that were deemed important to the membership – our core functions. It ends with three significant, achievable, beneficial, challenging, and measurable goals. These will keep us healthy and strong:

 

The new vision and mission statement can be found on our mission page of this website. The plan is available for you to read below.  Please take a moment to review it. Together we will achieve the defined goals because – as the new tagline says – we will find "Strength through Connections."