WPA to reveal its strategic planning initiative at the 2020 WPA Annual Meeting
Camas, WA – The WPA Board will reveal the results of its recent strategy planning efforts for the association at the 2020 WPA Annual Meeting in Rancho Las Palmas, California. The meeting, titled "Pallet Focus: Building a Sustainable Future," takes place January 17-21, 2020, and will be held once again at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort.
At the meeting, members will hear the results of work completed to date. The process began in earnest when several members of the WPA Board met in May to develop a long range vision for the Western Pallet Association. Paul Meyer, an association planning consultant, was hired to facilitate the process. Paul had worked with NWPCA and The Pallet Foundation to develop their long-range plans. Several of the WPA board members were in those meetings.
During the day and a half meeting, the board worked through a process to develop a vision statement and a vivid description of the desired future of the association. This started with a discussion about conditions, trends, and assumptions about the future that would have implications to the future direction of the WPA. The board is very excited about the vision and description statements that were developed.
While the vision statement is a great start, without an implementation plan it is all just talk. The next part of the process was to develop a set of 3-7 year goals that would achieve the vision that had been set. Initially 10 areas of focus were discussed in several small breakout groups. These were shared with the whole group.
While the vision statement is a great start, without an implementation plan it is all just talk.
Four key goals were chosen and the beginnings of an implementation plan for
each were discussed. The objectives were ranked according to immediate, maybe, and later timing and impact. The board is excited about the results and is eager to present the vision and goals to the members at the 2020 Annual Meeting. This year the opening event on Saturday evening will be a dinner at which time the long range plan will be unveiled.
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A key part of the plan is to have more ways members can be involved in the association. The four key goals will be driven by separate committees.
"We urge members to help us create the WPA of the future by volunteering for one of the committees," stated Dave Sweitzer, WPA President. "We hope you will be as excited for our future as we became during the planning session."
The WPA encourages all members to attend this milestone event, to be held Saturday, January 18 at the 2020 WPA Annual Meeting in Rancho Mirage.