The highlights :
• It was agreed that a 3-year plan was most appropriate .
• We revised the Mission , Vision , and Values to be more succinct identifying our association ’ s vision to be the premier occupational therapy resource in Illinois .
• We honed our mission to an organization committed to the profession and support for our practitioners and our students .
• Our values statements remained with some minor wordsmithing to create more clarity about what we value as a membership association .
• After working in smaller groups , we found that everyone on the Board agreed about the areas we wanted to focus on : Advocacy , Membership , Education ( new ), Governance ( new ), and Finance ( new ). Our members identified the continuing education opportunities as a priority to them in the recent membership survey , and we all agreed this needed to be an added focus area .
As a responsible membership organization , a closer look and restructuring of our governance was identified as important . Finally , the Board recognized that making Finance a focus area fulfills our fiduciary responsibility as the governing Board of Directors .
• Our past plans have identified diversity , equity and inclusion as well as communication as focus areas . Through our discussions , the Board determined that these two areas should be reflected throughout each identified focus area as they are imbedded in the revised Mission , Vision and Values .
• The implementation plan identifies initiatives we will address over the next three years , the owner of those initiatives , what supports are needed , a timeline , estimated duration , and the level of effort each initiative needs . The Board of Directors will be discussing a more detailed timeline for each initiative in their next meeting .
• Finally , Mariam provided the Board with the plan in a graphic diagram that allows us to view the plan in a different way .
Please take time to look at the details of our 2024-2027 Strategic Plan and think seriously about the focus areas you care most about and might like to participate as a volunteer to address . We will be developing several working groups or task forces to work on some of the initiatives and we will need a diverse group of practitioners to participate . Please watch for email announcements as groups form and contact George Buckley , our Executive Director , via email if you are interested in becoming more involved : office @ ilota . org
I am grateful for the time that Mariam Huss took to meet with us in September . Her facilitation of the strategic planning process was very helpful . I am also grateful for the active and dedicated participation of all the Board members who attended , including Anne and Robin , who , as outgoing Board members , did not have to participate – but they did , and their input was so valuable . We are all looking forward to a productive three years with a strong strategic plan as our guide !
15 Illinois Occupational Therapy Association | 2024 ISSUE 3 / 4