For this month, we are going to look at how to assess where your chapter is and wants to go. To do this, I recommend that you do a SWOT analysis which will help you categorize your chapter strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to what your chapter wants to do. This discussion(s) can be enlightening to the membership and I encourage you to get your whole membership involved so you get the full picture of the current state of your chapter.
This can easily be done on a piece of paper or flip chart divided into four quadrants. Examples of each category include: strengths – business opportunities, friendships, community involvement; weaknesses – membership retention, mentoring, employer support; opportunities – professional growth, networking, leadership skills; and threats – no time, member burn out, being too social.
Once you have captured this information, you should be able to start to visualize what your chapter will need to do to ensure its future growth and meet the needs of a changing membership. We will look next month at what the next step will be to setup a strategic plan.
If you would like to access videos on strategic planning, I encourage you to go to Tecker International and look at their video library and publications. Their videos are short so take a few minutes to look at them. I learn something new every time I review one.
If you need any assistance, please contact me at cleipard@aol.com