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INTRODUCING THE SCB STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS: WHAT DO YOU THINK SCB'S OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES SHOULD BE?

• Overview
• Why Do Strategic Planning?
• How To Do Strategic Planning

SCB Development Committee (Nick Salafsky, chair, Dee Boersma, Reed Noss, Sandy Andelman, & Kent Redford)

Overview

At the SCB's 1998 annual meeting, the Board of Governors was faced with a number of questions about where the Society should devote its energies and how it should use its growing resources. In light of these questions, the Board voted to develop a long-term strategic plan for the SCB. The Development Committee was created and charged with organizing a strategic planning process for the Board. This article outlines the process that the Committee is proposing for moving forward with this strategic planning exercise. The Board is planning a strategic planning meeting from 19-21 February at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California. All current Board members, officers, and past presidents of the SCB are invited to attend. As outlined in greater detail below, the February meeting will be only one step in the overall process. An important part of the process also will involve obtaining ideas and feedback from the SCB membership. The results of the meeting will be published in the SCB newsletter and presented at the 1999 annual meeting. However, we also would like to get feedback from members prior to the meeting. In this article, we thus present an overview of what strategic planning is, why it is important, and describe the process that SCB will be undertaking. We also include a brief survey that we encourage you to fill out and send to us by 15 December 1998.

Why Do Strategic Planning?

Any organization should have certain goals and objectives that it is trying to accomplish. These are typically captured in a Mission Statement. SCB's mission, reprinted in full in each issue of Conservation Biology, states,

"Our goal is to help develop the scientific and technical means for the protection, maintenance, and restoration of life on this planet - its species, its ecological and evolutionary processes, and its particular and total environment." In the service of this goal, our objectives or strategies include (1) promoting research that meets the highest standards of quality and ethics; (2) disseminating scientific, technical, and management information; (3) encouraging communication and collaboration between conservation biology and other relevant disciplines; (4) educating, at all levels, the public, biologists, and managers in the principles of conservation biology; (5) promoting all the above through the provision of adequate funding; and (6) recognizing outstanding contributions to the field.

To accomplish its goals and objectives, an organization can draw on certain resources. Examples of SCB's resources include:

• Scientific credibility,
• Talents, and skills,
• Conservation Biology and other publications,
• Money in our bank accounts and endowment.

Any organization also faces constraints. Examples of those that SCB faces include:

• Limited time for any one member to contribute,
• Limited ability to organize and manage activities,
• Need to preserve scientific "impartiality,"
• Limited funds.

Strategic planning involves considering how an organization can allocate its resources and overcome constraints to achieve its goals and objectives in the most effective way possible. A strategic planning process thus considers questions like:

• Does the mission statement reflect the current purpose, strategies, and values of the SCB? If not, how should it be changed so as to create an inspiring vision of the future?
• What are the specific objectives of the SCB over the next few years? And over the longer term?
• What strategies and activities should the Board prioritize over the next few years to achieve these objectives? For example, should the SCB focus more effort outside North America? Should the SCB reach out to conservation practitioners? If so, how?
• How should the SCB spend its limited (but growing) funds? Should we be fundraising to support additional activities?
• Who will undertake and implement these activities?
• How should the SCB monitor the results of its activities to ensure that they are having their intended effects?

Many of these types of questions arose during the 1998 Board meeting and it was broadly felt that the Board and the SCB as a whole needed to think about the appropriate answers. As a result, the Board decided to go through a formal strategic planning process.

How To Do Strategic Planning

The basic process for the SCB Strategic Planning Session will involve the following steps. (A good overview of strategic planning can be found at http://www.compasspoint.org.)

1. Outline the issues to be discussed. Present an overview of the strategic planning process and the issues (this article).
2. Survey the membership. It obviously is important to ensure that the Board's plans reflect the thoughts of the overall membership. Please return the enclosed survey by 15 December so results can be collated prior to the strategic planning meeting.
3. Hold strategic planning meeting. The Board will meet and go through a formal strategic planning exercise.
4. Present results to the membership for discussion and (hopefully) approval. The results of the meeting will be published in the May newsletter. We hope to encourage discussion and debate, culminating in a session to be held at the 1999 annual meeting. If a general consensus can be reached, we will then adopt the results at the membership meeting
5. Enact steps. Once the plan has been approved, it needs to be implemented.
6. Periodically evaluate plan. We will build into the plan ways of evaluating it to make sure that we are staying on track. In addition, we will review the plan on a regular basis to make sure that it still makes sense and that we are still on track.

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