FMCA Insights
By Bill Gowen, F93847, Chairman, Long-Range & Development Committee
National Vice President, Northeast Area
January 2002
All organizations should spend time thinking about, working on, and putting in place a long-range plan, also known as a strategic plan. FMCA is no exception. Once developed, the plan becomes the map that will take the organization down a well-defined road. One pitfall many organizations succumb to is that they work long and hard to develop a strategic plan, and then the next year newly elected leaders assume their positions and the plan languishes on a shelf in the back closet.
This will not happen to the strategic plan that was approved by the FMCA Governing Board at its annual meeting in Redmond, Oregon, this past August.
The plan was developed over a three-year period by an 11-member select committee. Hours and hours of volunteer time were given to building this plan. I quote directly from the plan text: “The plan includes six outcome-oriented goals that describe how FMCA will likely be different in the future, each with a set of objectives that serves as a guide indicating desired direction, leaving the how of implementation to those on the front-line — committee and staff responsible for executing annual programs.”
The six goals are as follows:
- Advocacy
- Motorhome Lifestyle/Industry
- Membership
- Resources/Facilities
- Information, Education, and Knowledge
- Organizational Structure and Governance.
All of the above goals will be touched upon in some way by one or more of the national committees during the upcoming year.
This year the work of the Long-Range & Development Committee will be centered primarily on the following three items: Marketing, Advocacy, and Membership. We also will develop some recommendations as to how to make the Governing Board meetings more effective and productive. The structure of the nine area associations will be reviewed, as will the progress of the implementation of the long-range plan by the national office staff and the national committees.
The Long-Range & Development Committee held its first meeting at the national office in Cincinnati in November. I am very fortunate to be working with the following people as committee members: Wilma Jean Alexander, F163804, and Jim Kussy, F52982 (three-year veterans of the prior Long-Range Planning Committee, who bring continuity to this year’s committee), and newcomers Susan Lowe, F147205, and Jim Moir, F102582.