As you know we have been collecting member input on our Strategic Plan and the board had discussion on it in January. The Executive Committee, at its March meeting, spent some very productive time reviewing and updating a draft of the plan to submit to the board. This was all in preparation for a full board Strategic Planning session in July.

We plan to devote one full day to our Strategic Plan with professional facilitator Bud Couch, who has worked with us several times in the past. In order for us to accomplish this it is very important, obviously, that we complete our board business in one day so I want to take this opportunity now to encourage each of you to be prepared ahead of time to accomplish this, especially if you Chair a committee. This includes submitting reports on time, ahead of the meeting, and also that you read the reports ahead of time as well and ask any questions you may have regarding those reports prior to the start of the meeting. It really isn't necessary to arrive at the meeting and request a report be removed from the Consent Agenda simply to have someone read their report to you.We were able to do this in July, 2006 when we held a session (without a professional facilitator) to update the Strategic Plan so I'm confident we'll be able to do so again.

The exact framework of the Strategic Planning session is yet to be finalized. The Executive Committee will be working with Bud in the coming weeks to do so. It will be completed and distributed to you well in advance of the meeting.