UPDATE: Proposed Strategic Plan for the Capital District
By Governor-Elect Tom Ganse

By the time you read this, the proposed Strategic Plan has been reviewed in two increments by the District Long Range Planning Committee, those incremental results have been endorsed by the District Board, and all eight District Regions have had the opportunity to attend presentations on "VISION: 20/15", to include the Strategic Plan. All input from all sources is being considered and a final proposed plan will be presented to the Board for final endorsement on May 30, 2008. That final version will be presented to the House of Delegates for ratification at DCON 2008 in Richmond, VA this summer. Once ratified by the District delegates, the plan belongs to the District membership and the District Board will be charged with executing it. You can view an example of the promotional/educational material covering the Strategic Plan by clicking here or by going online to http://www.capdistkiwanis.org/GovDesig/KIStragtegicPlant.pdf.

In short, the Plan is comprised of:

• Mission Statement: "Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time." Amplifying information is provided to describe how local clubs accomplish that mission.
• Core Values: These are the Six Objects of Kiwanis.
• Strategies For Success - the Five Goals that feed our vision. Those five goals are 1) Increase Service Hours, 2) Increase Funds Re-invested in Local Communities, 3) Increase Sponsorship of Service Leadership Program Clubs, 4) Increase Membership, and 5) Modernize Our Operating Environment.
• Metrics, or incremental measurements, were developed to track our progress toward each of these goals.
• Vision Statement: "In the year 2015, 20,000 Capital District Kiwanians will provide 350,000 service hours, invest $4,400,000 to support community needs, and sponsor 860 Service Leadership Program clubs throughout Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia."

Promotion and awareness are critical to succeeding, since this plan ultimately is executed at the most fundamental level by individual Kiwanians working within their individual clubs. The key to success then, is that this plan must become common knowledge and every member must know and understand his or her role in our unified success.

The other two pillars of "VISION: 20/15" are effective training and adequate resources. Separate initiatives are in work to have the complete package in place by October 1, 2008. Your comments are not only welcomed, but strongly encouraged. Now is the time to make your impact on this critical planning tool. Please let us hear from you.

With a Kiwanis servant's heart,
Tom Ganse
tganse13@earthlink.net