by Stephen Abram and Jane Dysart

The "strategy game" at SLA has been an evolving venture. This article hopes to capture some of the highlights of the association's history of strategic planning and to describe the present process so that all members can better understand the current approach to handling our association's future. The evolution of strategic planning within SLA has been a process of maturation in both our understanding of and respect for planning for our association--your organization is probably somewhere along (or beyond) the path we have followed. There may be ideas and concepts you can take from SLA's experience with strategic planning to assist you in your own planning exercises. In many respects, SLA's experience has grown up with the strategic planning discipline in general. You can see a wonderful graphic representation (a six-foot wall chart) of the development of these management theories and the working environment in the special 75th Anniversary supplement to the September/October issue of Harvard Business Review. Our own recent milestones include our adoption of a Vision Statement in 1994, our recent review of our solid 1989 Strategic Plan in light of this vision, as well as our first steps to more broadly involve the whole membership and our partnership with SLA units to make the plan and vision a reality.

The strategy game at SLA is a complex dance of the inter-related needs and inputs of the membership, the units, the board, and the headquarters staff. The partnership that has grown to become our strategic planning process is neither complete nor perfect. Every time we go through a planning cycle, improvements to the process are made and learning happens. Some suggestions appear at the end of this article for ongoing improvements to our process. The Strategic Planning Committee, and indeed the entire Board of Directors, welcome any input you may have for further improvements to our future plans and the planning process. Feel free to contact any member of the committee listed on page 20 or any member of the Board of Directors who are listed in the most recent Who's Who.

A New Strategic Plan for SLA

In this issue of Information Outlook is a copy of the new SLA Strategic Plan. It builds on our first 10 year plan, Goal's for the 70's produced in the early 1960's, the first of our current five year plans produced in 1985, and the groundbreaking Strategic Plan of 1989 that has guided SLA since it was adopted. The new plan integrates a number of strategic planning initiatives that have occurred in recent years. You will note that this plan includes:

Need: Why does SLA exist? Its raison d'être.
Vision: What do we want to be? The picture of our preferred future--it's a stretch and gives us direction for the future.
Values: What common values do our members hold? What's important to us?
Mission: What do we do?
Environment: What's happening in the world that affects us?
Strategies and Tactics: What are the three most important strategies to us?
Priorities: What is our focus in the short-term based on this plan?

Take a look at our plan. You will see that it is, we believe, a far-reaching one based on a positive vision for the future of special librarians, information professionals, and our association. We know that it can drive and pull us in a direction where we will continue to achieve success in our professional lives. Of course, this will only happen if every member commits to make their own positive contribution.

Strategic Planning Committee Mandate

This committee is not mysterious and, like most association committees, its meetings are open to any member who chooses to attend. Since 1989, the Strategic Planning Committee has been composed of seven members. These include three members of the Board of Directors as follows: one second-year director as chair, one first-year director (serves as chair in the second year), and the president-elect; the treasurer and the executive director are ex-officio members; one chapter president, and one division chair. The committee is charged with revising the Strategic Plan every three years (or more often if it decides this is necessary) and deciding if a major update is necessary. The committee also facilitates regular discussion and selection of association goals and priorities by the board; provides opportunities for input by chapter presidents and division chairs, by the treasurer, SLA headquarters and SLA members; monitors progress under the current plan and reports to the board at the annual conference.

Key Dates in the Planning Cycle	Strategic Planning Committee and SLA Board	Finance Committee and SLA Board	SLA Executive Director and Headquarters Staff	SLA Units and Members
Fall Board of Directors meeting; (October)	Strategic planning session with board; usually full day; usually more free form and oriented to long term "blue sky" thinking.	Approval of next year's budget (1998, in October '97) following Finance Committee's recommendation. Long Range Financial Plan and communication plan reviewed and adopted in Oct 1997	The Executive Directors and EDAT (Executive Director's Advisory Team) report to the board on ongoing operational initiatives as well as providing documents for discussion of new or recommended initiatives.	Chapter cabinet chairs and board proctors report to the board ( at every meeting) on work and activities of chapters, divisions, caucuses, and committees.
Winter Meeting (January)	Topically-oriented Strategic planning session with Board (e.g. in 1998 this was on the SLA governance structure).	Association program planning assumptions for following year (1999).	Association program planning assumptions for following year (1999).	Units hear reports of strategic initiatives through DACOLT (Division and Chapter Officer Leadership Training) as well as chapter and cabinet and joint cabinet/ board meetings. In 1997, SLA initiated DACOLT and cabinet listservs to continue the networking and sharing throughout the year.
Annual Conference (June)	Association Annual priorities and goals reviewed (1998/1999).	Management Plan received and reviewed by board (1999).	Executive Director leads a post-conference retreat for senior staff (EDAT) to plan operational responses to board direction.	Units and committees report to the board on their activities or results in the past association year as well as receiving ongoing training through DACOLT.
Ongoing	The board is connected through a listserv where ongoing strategic issues are discussed informally prior to official board meetings.	Ongoing monthly and quarterly review of finances against strategic aims and objectives.	Executive Director constantly reviews headquarters operations to ensure they are aligned with the association's strategy, goals and vision.	An association-wide SuperSurvey is taken every five years to audit the state of the association.

The Strategic Planning Process at SLA

While no one process is perfect or can be expected to continue forever, it is the very nature of SLA to build towards a formalized process that can grow to the next plateau. The chart on page 19 shows some of the steps that have become formalized over time in our process. You can see that no single group "controls" SLA's strategies, although final decision-making authority rests with the Board of Directors as advised by the membership, its committees, and our staff.

A Short History of Strategic Planning at SLA

1960--The Planning Committee creates "Goals for 1970"

1971--Long Range Plan developed for 1971-1974

1981--Special Committee on Long Range Planning authorized to "Plan for Planning"

1983--First "Mission Statement" adopted

1985--Long Range Planning Committee definition and composition approved

1986--First Five Year Long Range Plan approved based on a Membership Survey

1988--Adopted new SLA Mission Statement

1988--Long Range Planning Committee name changed to Strategic Planning Committee

1988--Strategic Planning Committee mandate and composition updated

1989--Strategic Plan 1990-2005 approved

1990-1996--Annual review of strategic plan and priority setting for Association goals

1994--SLA Vision crafted and adopted

1997--New Strategic Plan; renewed, revitalized, and adopted

1997--Strategic Priorities revisited and Vision Statement reviewed

1998--Communication of strategy and vision to association members and units

Improvements to SLA Strategic Plan and Process

We have some weaknesses in our strategic planning process that we can improve if we put our minds and energy into it. We suffer the shoemaker's children's syndrome in that we do not use research enough to inform our decision-making. We should consider improving our environmental auditing skills to more formally collect trends and innovations from outside of our realm. We get good advice from our headquarters staff about association management trends through their involvement with the ASAE (American Society of Association Executives) and can be justifiably proud of our progress and leading edge position in offering our association's services more virtually. As well, our own members involvement with library and information industries helps to keep us abreast of this area.

With the many rapid changes in our society and the erosion of barriers between what were once distinct industries, we must consider a more formal and broader environmental scanning service for the board as well as the membership at large to assist our association and our member's strategic planning activities. We will make some progress in this direction through SLA's participation in the Phase 5 study where we will receive semi-annual audits of our members' adoption of rapidly changing technologies (see "Filling the Planning Vacuum" on page 34). We strongly encourage you to participate in this Web-based survey, not just once but during every cycle. For those of you that subscribe to Edupage or Innovation or other e-mail trend-spotting services, we envision a similar service for the SLA community.

Although we have a well-built system of networking, we still don't communicate well enough so that all our members and units are well informed about the strategic direction, professional changes, and new information available. We are attempting to alleviate some of this lack of communication through a number of strategies. These include this special theme issue of Information Outlook; communication of strategic issues to the Chapter Cabinet and DACOLT at the Winter and Spring 1998 Conferences; as well as ongoing listserv discussions about long term strategies and their importance to our overall growth as a profession.

We will continue to struggle with ensuring that we receive enough membership input to ensure that the association plan both reflects the members' needs as well as includes enough stretch to move us forward to our futures. To this end:

• Use your division, chapter, and unit listservs to discuss what you need from your association; a number of board members lurk and participate in these forums.
• Contact your cabinet officer, president, or headquarters staff to make your views known (there's no excuse with the plethora of technologies from our Web site, e-mail, fax, and good old snail mail.)
• Take the opportunities provided by our face-to-face meetings in January and June 1998 to provide your input and ideas.
• Fill in all those questionnaires you receive from your units, headquarters, or on the Web site. We do actually work with this data and information.

Please participate--we need your input, your ideas, and your energy. Our future is what we decide to make it.

Note: The authors wish to especially acknowledge and thank SLA's Manager, Information Resources John Latham for his assistance with the research for this article.

Stephen Abram is director, Corporate & News Information at IHS Micromedia Limited in Toronto, ON, Canada. He may be reached via e-mail at: sabram@micromedia.on.ca. Jane Dysart is a partner with Dysart & Jones in Toronto, ON, Canada. She may be reached via e-mail at: dysart@inforamp.net.