Strategic Plan
Text: Soukaina Legdani
Among the of?cial documents which
run our association, the Strategic Plan
is considered to be very characteristic of it. It describes the long term direction that EESTEC is following and
puts into words a strategy that can be
understood not only by our members,
but also by our partners and donors.
This is particularly important when
we know that EESTEC attracts new
members every year, every month,
every week, and that the probability of losing its long term vision gets
higher.
Our current Strategic Plan will expire
this year and therefore, one of the
tasks of our Board will be the writing
of the next one. Based on the current
document, this new version should
prolong the steps that should be taken in EESTEC and extend the re?ection on time of our projects.
‘Where are we now’? ‘Where do
we want to be in two, three, ?ve
years?’ ‘How can we get there?’
These are the questions we have to
ask ourselves and only with answering
them we will be able to make a coherent and valid Strategic Plan. This
will produce fundamental decisions
and actions that will shape what our
association is, what it does, why it
does it, and to whom it serves, with
a big focus on the future. But most
of all, creating an effective plan is not
only about drawing a path for EESTEC and planning the actions which
are needed for progress. It also sets
measurement tools that can rate its
success.
Many different frameworks and
methodologies for strategic planning already exist. But while there is
no absolute rule regarding the right
framework, most of them follow a
similar pattern and have common attributes.
We can summarize this methodological cycle in the following steps:
1) Analysing and understanding the
current internal and external environments
2) Formulating a strategy with different
levels and documenting them
3) Translating the strategy into execution by focusing more on operational
plans and actions
4) Evaluating the sustainability and
the performance of such strategy.
When such important process is
conducted and when important decisions must follow, it is only normal
that all our members need to be
actively involved. In fact, this strategic
planning is an excellent opportunity to
gather their views and wishes as well
as those of the other stakeholders of
our association including our partners
and supporters.
Acknowledging their views, even if not
accommodated, will lend more legitimacy to this exercise. Furthermore, it
will have signi?cant impacts such as
team building, improving the internal
communication, and expressing
a commitment to changing the
organisational and functional culture.
Because a participatory approach will
create a sense of ownership to our
members, it will also encourage their
commitment and make the achievement of our strategy more likely.
The evaluation of the activities of our
association was given a lot of thought
in the past months and the Board
already had discussions about prospective strategies for the upcoming
years. In fact, this evaluation was a
base for many decisions that involved
the continuity and the future of international projects. Experience says
even more energy should be put in
planning and up to date follow up. If
this was previously not done so thoroughly, a lot of efforts have been put
afterwards to ease and frame the
working processes.
This experience, even if short in time,
was long and rich in results. With the
help of senior members, the Board
should be able to produce a realistic
and coherent plan in order to present
it to our General Assembly in the next
spring.
A few days Board meeting will be held
in order to provide the best environment for the Board work. Do you think
your Local Commitment can host us?
Then please feel free to contact us via
[email protected]!
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