Strategic Plan Update
Jay Anhorn, Past President
March 2009
As the Association enters into the final stages of the 2005-2010 Strategic Plan, the Executive Board continues to identify the remaining needs of the membership in order to move AFA forward. Over the past year, we have found that many of the pertinent action items have been completed through a variety of ways, including projects completed within the Central Office, resources produced by workgroups, and intentional partnerships with our interfraternal and higher education colleagues. To our members, and you as volunteers, some of these initiatives may seem to naturally occur given our success in building relationships with our constituents over the years and our commitment to constantly meet our members need and want. Here are a few of the action items on which the Association will continue to focus this year:
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Design Member Categories to Reflect Resource and Information Needs
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Develop a Comprehensive Communications Plan
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In terms of the Association’s internal/external communication plan, the Executive Board is meeting with consultants to produce an audit of the Association’s brand, external image, and outreach. This is beyond a new logo or the approved name change, but rather a concept that will allow us to best meet the needs of our members through a comprehensive assessment, which will in turn dictate how we communicate our message to our members and external audiences.
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Integrate the Core Competencies into all Association Resources and Services
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The revised Core Competencies for Excellence in the Profession have been used to code the 2008 Annual Meeting program booklet (after serving as a criteria in the Call for Content process) and other resources according to the various areas encompassed. You can note these on the Association website, with special thanks to Jason Pierce, AFA Director of Programs. The First 90 Days Program curriculum is also being revised to focus on the Core Competencies. The Central Office and the Executive Board will continue to determine other methods for promoting and highlighting the revised Core Competencies on a regular basis.
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Conduct Research on the Fraternity/Sorority Advising Profession and Disseminate to Constituents
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The Profession Advocacy Workgroup, chaired by Carrie Whittier in 2007, used data from the AFA/CSCF Fraternity/Sorority Advising Profession and Community Status Survey for an outreach initiative to senior student affairs officers. Highlights from the survey results have also been published in the Association Update, available on the AFA website. The Executive Board may rework this action item to see if it is necessary to produce some scholarly research related to the fraternity and sorority advising profession, in addition to the benchmarking type-data generated by previous surveys.
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Develop an Advocacy Campaign to Increase Funding, Support, and Status of those Advising Fraternities and Sororities
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Due to the complexity and importance of this action item, the Executive Board will note this as something to be carried over as a priority for the 2010-2015 Strategic Plan. This involves working with our partners to collect data/information on the fraternal movement and create publications to help members engage in advocacy. An anticipated strategy is to work to include appropriate fraternity/sorority content in higher education/student affairs graduate programs. The recently-appointed Recruiting Supervisors Workgroup will also likely yield some results in this area.
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Develop/Plan a Forum that Unifies the Movement
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Identify and Address Critical Issues Facing the Fraternal Movement that Require Collaborative Efforts
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This is another ongoing effort that is based on what our members are facing in their work with fraternity/sorority chapters, councils, communities, and leaders. Examples of this include our work with HazingPrevention.Org and the National Hazing Symposium, as well as the range and scope of Annual Meeting pre-conference workshops and educational programs and topics addressed in our Virtual Seminar Series.
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Evaluate Structure/Effectiveness of Existing Partnerships and Develop Framework to Guide Future Partnership Decisions
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AFA’s liaison positions are ever-changing and developing, as we see the need for future partnerships. With our profession intersecting with many areas of the interfraternal and higher education landscape, we continue to examine efforts of other associations and identify areas where AFA should provide support.
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Diversify the Pool of those Nominated/Elected for Association Leadership Positions
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This is a topic that has involved specific workgroups, the Volunteer Coordinator, as well as meaningful discussion on the Nominations and Elections Committee every year. Recruiting members for Association leadership positions also means recruiting people into the Association as members, and beyond that, recruiting students into the profession itself. This is always a priority for the Association and may involve rethinking our governance and infrastructure model to best reflect the demographics of the membership.
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Develop a Recruitment and Retention Plan that Addresses Mid-level and Senior-level Professionals Committed to the Fraternal Movement
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This is a recent addition to the Association’s list of action plans. The intent is to create/expand professional development efforts targeted for specific member segments (10+ years, new professionals, etc.). Some possibilities being discussed are working with our interfraternal partners to create a senior professionals institute geared toward fraternity/sorority professionals who have 10+ years of advising experience.
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Assess Members’ Perceived Value/Return on Investment of Membership and Use this Data in Association Recruitment and Retention Efforts
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Membership research will be conducted in Summer 2009 as part of our branding efforts, mentioned earlier, and in preparation for the 2010-2015 strategic planning process. We are still deciding what form this assessment will take and how it will be administered.
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Examine Board/Association Governance Models and Identify Necessary Adjustments to Association Operations
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The 2008 Vice President for Membership, Jennifer Jones, worked with the Regional Directors and the Membership, Marketing, and Recruitment Teams to assess the current regional model, and the group made some recommendations for new ways to target and communicate with potential and current members. A workgroup, chaired by Jenny Levering, was also created to explore the creation of membership groups, potentially to be called “Affinity Groups,” targeted at topical and developmental areas and helping members connect in different ways beyond geographic regions or membership categories.
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Enhance the Rigor and Quality of Information/Content in Association Program and Services.
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Ensuring our current resources are relevant and accurate to today’s professionals is always a priority for the Association. This includes a review of the Virtual Seminar Series to assess its current relevance and determine need for updating and reissuing certain topics, and also comes into play in the Annual Meeting Call for Content process as well as the review and selection of articles for all AFA publications.
There are some specific projects that we are definitely striving to complete this year. However, we are finding that several of these action items are ongoing and relevant every year, and others require collaboration and time to develop. As such, some of the items listed may carry over into the next plan with new avenues or approaches as to how to accomplish them. That is the beauty of this process: we are constantly growing and expanding the breadth and depth of our profession and the Association is committed to involving its members every step of the way.