In 2003, ASLA Potomac
Chapter President Adele Askhar asked Mary Ann Lasch, FASLA to assist in the
design and implementation of a strategic plan update for the Chapter. The need
for the update was based on the Chapter President’s concern that the activities
of the Executive Committee might not be in alignment with the members’ desires.
In the previous year, significant time, effort and budget had been invested in
activities that were poorly attended to the disappointment and frustration to
those who had planned them. President
Askhar believed that the Chapter priorities needed to be identified and
supported.
Framework for Analysis
A framework derived from the Balanced
Scorecard approach was used to summarize the evaluation of the Chapter’s
organizational effectiveness in a complete and balanced manner. The four evaluation categories are listed
below. Each one answers the associated
questions:
Existing Conditions
The key findings about the existing
condition of the Potomac Chapter and the bottom line conclusion for each
evaluation category are listed below.
Key findings:
Bottom Line:
The chapter’s organizational capacity is insufficient. Major improvement must be made in order for
the chapter to adequately support its operations.
Key findings:
Bottom line:
There is no infrastructure to train and harvest volunteers
to support the Chapter.
This deficit in organization capacity directly weakens
volunteer enthusiasm.
Key findings:
Bottom line:
There are two responses to competition:
increasing leverage of the chapter’s resources through partnering and alliances;
and utilizing our innate resources to produce programs strongly targeted to
landscape architects. The issue of competition with ASLA should be addressed
directly to determine if there is a way to share resources for the benefit of
both.
Increased organizational capacity in
communication and program planning would support member satisfaction.
Financial
Key findings:
Bottom line:
The current budget does not support a growth in chapter
activities or paid staff.
Recruiting more members, developing a program to
significantly increase sponsorship, and/or raising dues could increase
revenue.
Recommendations
The following list of criteria were developed by the
Strategic Plan Workshop participants to describe the activities of a successful
Chapter:
These
three program were the highest rated to help the
Chapter achieve success:
1. Develop a
reliable schedule of high quality programs.
2. Engage an
Executive Director to supplement the all-volunteer effort.
3. Create a
system to deliver email on a regular basis and develop a chapter web site.
In its final meeting, the Strategic Plan Task Force met to
define the implementation initiatives for the strategic plan. Six initiatives were identified:
As of
this date, some progress has been made on all initiates.
Bottom line:
The strategic
plan update has been a critical effort to understand the chapter’s strengths
and weaknesses. It will not be possible
to complete its implementation initiatives without the continued support by the
2004 Executive Committee and the members.
The Executive Committee must make this implementation a high priority.
A four-step process was
recommended to accomplish the Strategic Plan Update:
1. Create a Steering Committee to plan and
support the effort.
2. Conduct data collection:
§
Electronic
survey for fast results and broad input from chapter members (and other LA’s)
to gain basic background and context. .
§
A series of 90
minute focus groups to dig deeper and understand more
3. Utilize a workshop to set direction and priorities, identify any some fast wins and
prepare for actions that require longer lead-time.
§
Use a 4-hour
workshop to review themes from survey and focus groups, develop strategies and
set priorities for the chapter for 2003 and 2004
§
Use the workshop
to develop action plans for implementing priority strategies, either by
attendees or executive committee, as appropriate.
4. Executive Committee must implement and monitor
the action steps.
Steering
Committee
The
Steering Committee met monthly from January through June of 2003 to plan and
conduct the strategic planning activities. The members included:
§
Adele Askhar,
Chair
§
Mary Ann Lasch,
Process Designer and Facilitator
§
Sunny Scully,
Member
§
Elizabeth
Fischer, Member
§
Cari Goetchus,
Member
The
committee began with a review of the 1995 Strategic Plan. They confirmed that
the mission, vision, and goals were still viable today but were described at
too high of a level to give guidance to the Chapter and the Excomm. The goals
are listed below:
1. Broaden Public Awareness.
2. Expand Professional Networking
3. Expand Professional & Continuing Education
4. Improve Chapter Management.
5. Improve Chapter Communication
Data
Collection
The
committee undertook two data collection activities. A Zomerang survey that
asked a broad series of questions and a series of focus groups that were
organized by practitioner type.
The
Steering Committee developed a survey to explore opportunities and concerns
based on each of the chapter’s 5 goals.
In March 2003, the questionnaire was distributed electronically via
Zoomerang to chapter members and by mail to those members that did not supply
an email address to the chapter. In
addition, some non-member landscape architects were invited to respond. A total of 85 responses were received. This was a significant level of participation
level for any chapter activity.
The
survey responses were used to develop the focus group agenda and to help
understand the commonalities and differences between different types of
landscape architects. The focus groups
were held in March and April 2003. Each Steering Committee member organized a
focus group and the Chapter President and President Elect attended all 5 focus
groups.
The
focus groups were:
The summary recommendations
across all focus groups are listed below:
Best things the
1. Email communication
2. Listing of local lectures, speakers
3. Big name lectures
4. Happy hours
5. Awards banquet
6. Local touch (vs. national)
1. Not enough outreach to LA community
2. Little visibility in the larger professional
community
3. Put more on website
4. Provide a forum for all that LA’s do
5. Digital newsletter
6. Unclear mission
7. Career diversity
8. Visiting construction projects
Strategic
Plan Workshop
On
April 26, twenty landscape architects attended a 4 hour workshop to review the
findings from the survey, the focus groups, and a report from the ExComm on the
existing conditions of the chapter. The
participants then identified criteria for a successful chapter.
The following list of criteria describe
the actions of a successful Chapter:
A series of actions that the
chapter could implement to become more successful were proposed and
prioritized. The top three actions were discussed and scoped for
implementation. The top
three recommendations were:
1. Develop a
reliable schedule of high quality programs
2. Engage and
Executive director to supplement the all-volunteer effort
3. Create a
system to deliver email on a regular basis and develop a chapter
web site.
On May 19, The Strategic Plan Task Force met to discuss
initiatives for the development of the strategic plan. Six initiatives were identified:
1. Create a
communications package that provides an immediate email solution, evaluates the
ASLA sponsored web site and templates as a short term solution for the chapter,
and look at long term direction and needs.
2. Strengthen
chapter leadership by hosting the Leadership Seminar and by hiring an
Executive Director.
3. Offer
quality programs by beginning to plan for the December Annual Awards Program
and by developing guidelines for how to deliver successful programs.
4. Raise
adequate revenue to support expanded Chapter operations.
5. Study
competition issues with ASLA and opportunities for alliances, start
by meeting with ASLA to discuss competition and alliances between the Potomac
Chapter and the National Office.
6. Increase
membership participation and numbers of members by establishing
an email/ phone tree to contact members in a more personal and immediate way
and by sending thank you notes to all strategic workshop attendees.
The initiatives were staffed as
follows:
|
Imitative |
Committee |
|
1. Create a
communications package |
Cari Goetchus, Kristi Farnsworth, Hui
Ward , & Faye Harwell |
|
2. Strengthen
chapter leadership §
Leadership seminar §
Executive Director |
Adele Askhar, Mary Ann Lasch, Rob
Tilson, Brian Ray, & Cari Goetchus Sunny Scully, Elliott Rhodeside, & Bob Goode |
|
3. Offer
quality programs §
December Mtg. §
Program Guidelines |
Heather Hammatt, Kristen (EDAW?),
Kurt von Sternberg, Mike Mastrota & Rob Tilson Heather Hammatt, Charles Trace, Faye
Harwell, Keely Dunaway, Glenn Bayfield |
|
|
|
|
4. Raise
adequate revenue |
Not staffed (Chapter Treasurer) |
|
|
|
|
5. Study
competition issues with ASLA |
Rob Tilson, Adele Askhar, Mary Ann
Lasch, Jon Parsons, Jeff Lee |
|
|
|
|
6. Increase
membership participation §
Email/ Phone tree §
Thank you’s |
Sunny Scully & Brian Ray Heather Hammatt |