Last summer, I wrote about the long range planning process that ODK would embark upon in the next twelve months. At the Board’s summer meeting in Albany, the Long Range Planning Steering Committee met for the first time and adopted seven strategic priorities:
- Strategic Priority #1: Increase membership and enhance member participation
- Strategic Priority #2: Advance leadership education
- Strategic Priority #3: Develop strategic alliances
- Strategic Priority #4: Strengthen and leverage existing programs of promise and distinction
- Strategic Priority #5: Diversify and increase revenue
- Strategic Priority #6: Recruit and retain great personnel and volunteers
- Strategic Priority #7: Increase charitable resources
During the intervening nine months, dozens upon dozens of national volunteer leaders from across the country – members of the Board of Directors, Foundation Board of Trustees and National Advisory Council – together with national headquarters staff worked to develop initiatives, action items and metrics for each of the seven strategic priorities.
ODK’s never had a “long range plan.” That’s not to say that ODK has never planned; ODK’s national leaders have planned extensively throughout the Society’s history. Both near term and long term plans have come and gone through the years and each provided valuable strategies for the Society and Foundation’s growth and development.
What makes this plan different is the decade-long lens through which the seven strategic priorities’ working groups viewed the associated initiatives and action steps. The members of the working groups did not simply consider the priority as it might look in 12 to 18 months or five to seven years. They considered the priority as it would look each year for ten years through 2024.
ODK’s Long Range Plan – “ODK 2024: Leading for Our Second Century” – provides a roadmap for our Society’s work for the next decade. To be clear, ODK 2024 is not a plan set in stone. Things change, and they will very likely change in the next ten years, but the core strategic priorities will largely remain unchanged. Ultimately, it will be the guidance provided by the seven strategic priorities and the sentiment contained in the various initiatives and action steps that will provide future national leaders with a plan for their work as they serve as temporary stewards of our Society during their time in office.
The Board of Directors provisionally adopted the draft long range plan at our conference call meeting yesterday. I invite you to review the draft of ODK 2024 available here. In the next few months leading up to our centennial celebration, we will continue to refine the plan, identify initiative managers and develop metrics to gauge the plan’s progress.
We will formally unveil ODK 2024 in Lexington, Va. this June as we celebrate ODK’s centennial and look to our second century with the help of our long range plan.
