Planning Goals For The Next Three Years

In 2012, Osher published a strategic plan to guide its actions in the years ahead. Although that plan is still quite viable today, it needed updating with a new set of goals and specific action plans to accomplish those goals. These actions will be instrumental in guiding our organization over the coming years.

In early summer 2017, then President John Olmsted and I selected an ad-hoc committee to develop the specific goals for the organization to implement over the next three years. These goals would be accompanied by series of action plans to implement those goals that would involve each of the standing committees, the Executive Director, and Osher leadership.

To begin our work, we held a SWOT exercise that asked a group of members and staff to consider our organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Results from that exercise formed the foundation on which, over several months, we crafted a set of ten goals to be achieved over the coming three-year period. Those goals were approved by the Board of Directors the following October.

We then met with representatives from each entity that had responsibility for meeting the ten goals. We asked them to create action plans that would lead to achieving their particular goal. In a few instances, the mandate of a specific goal required responsibility for that goal be shared between two or more entities.

Each of the final action plans was created by the entity, or entities, that will take responsibility for its implementation. In addition to the lead entity accountable for a goal, several other entities may be asked to contribute to its completion. Specific timelines and deliverables are also to be included as part of each action plan.

Creating the many action plans, reviewing them, working with the various participants to fine tune their submissions, and the painstaking task of editing the final documents took over eight months. Then, we worked with the Executive Committee to fine tune the final document before submitting it to the Board of Directors. The Plan was approved on January 24th, 2019. Now, it’s up to the Executive Committee and the Board to oversee the implementation of the plans.

I want to express my deepest thanks to everyone who helped produce the document, particularly my committee: Rosalie Barsotti, Randy Weinberg, Pat Schroder, Fran Abraham, and Lyn Decker. Thanks, also, to the Executive Committee: Jim Reitz, Alan Hribar, Roz Goorin, and Lee Fogerty, and to John Olmsted for setting us off in the right direction.