Charting New Territory The Library Boards Role in Planning and Budgeting for a Successful Future Pre

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Charting New TerritoryThe Library Boards Role
in Planning and Budgeting for a Successful
Future Presented by Anne Marie Madziak,
Consultant, Southern Ontario Library Service
Debra
Jackson, CEO, Haldimand County Public Library
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Presentation objectives

• Provide an overview of a strategic planning
  process
• Highlight the Boards roles responsibilities in
  strategic planning
• Offer practical experience and solutions to some
  of the challenges of strategic planning
• Identify success factors in strategic plans

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AN OVERVIEW OF THE PLANNING PROCESS
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THE PROCESS IN MORE DETAIL

• 1. Prepare to plan
• Board and staff buy-in commitment to process
  outcome
• Articulate what you want out of the investment in
  planning understand planning is not a license to
  expect to achieve the impossible
• Ensure resources are in place for planning
  process time money
• Agree on process (seek assistance as necessary)
  set limits
• Establish small board/staff committee to oversee
  planning

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PROCESS CONTD

• 2. Gather information about your current
  situation/where you are (the situational half of
  Situational Analysis)
• 3. Collectively make sense of the information
  gathered (the analysis part of Situational
  Analysis).

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Situational Analysis defined

• The collective analysis of a body of information
  that describes the librarys current programs and
  services, the librarys mission and values, the
  community served by the library, feedback from
  current library users, and external environmental
  forces that influence or have the potential to
  influence the library.

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2 important components of the definition

• The collective analysis (making sense together)
• A body of information coming from different
  directions

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The work of conducting a Situational Analysis
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Articulate mission values

• The mission is a declaration of purpose, a
  concise statement that tells the community what
  the public library does exceptionally well that
  is unique or different from what other
  organizations do.
• Example
• London Public Library provides equitable access
• to the world of information and creative
  expression.
• The power of the statement comes from its
  simplicity, the fact that these few words make it
  absolutely clear why the library exists and what
  difference it makes to the community.

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Profile the Library

• Library Profile Worksheet
• Accessibility of library service
• Library roles and mission
• Library services
• Materials/ resources
• Staffing
• Library activity

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Gather user feedback

• Suggestion box/ feedback form
• Appeals for feedback on library website
• Roaming CEO/ manager
• Talk to us corner or table
• Observation
• Topical questionnaires
• Exit interviews
• Staff questionnaire
• Staff focus group
• Focus groups
• Key informant interviews
• Open houses/ public meetings
• Surveys

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Scan the environment

• Trends and issues in the broader library world
• Trends and issues in the public/ not-for-profit
  sector
• Social and demographic factors
• Economic/ political issues
• Technological advances

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Profile the community
6 Ways to Describe Your Community

• 6 ways to describe your community
• Social and economic factors
• Lifestyles and interests
• Groups and affiliations
• Agencies and services
• Changes occurring
• Community assets

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Common sources of community information

• Existing information
• Census data
• Municipal and/or school planning information
• Planning documents of local organizations
• Telephone book yellow pages
• Bulletin board notices, pamphlets, etc.
• Local directories
• Local regional newspapers, radio cable
  stations

• New information
• Conversations, interviews and/or meetings with
  municipal staff, community leaders, media
  personnel, representatives of service clubs,
  organizations, and agencies
• Public consultation, if needed.

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The Boards work in conducting a SA

• Assess type/depth of information needed for
  planning purposes
• Ensure information is gathered from different
  directions
• Participate in the information gathering process,
  especially regarding community information
  environmental scan
• Spend time agreeing on core purpose of the
  library and articulating it as a succinct mission
  statement
• Commit to reading and pondering the implications
  of the information that has been gathered
• Engage in a group conversation (Board senior
  staff) aimed at summarizing and making sense of
  the information

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The analysis part of Situational Analysis

• Make sense together
• Discuss, exchange perspectives impressions
• Identify Key Points
• Record questions
• Summarize and synthesize.

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Synthesize with SWOT

• A quick, effective way of synthesizing
  information about the library and the community
  is to identify the librarys
• STRENGTHS
• WEAKNESSES
• OPPORTUNITIES
• THREATS
• Strengths weaknesses are internal, things the
  library has some control over
• Opportunities threats are external, the library
  controls how it responds.
• The Strategic Plan will endeavour to build on
  strengths and opportunities, and eliminate or
  minimize weaknesses and threats.

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PROCESS RECAP

• Now that you have conducted a thorough
  Situational Analysis and, as a result, have a
  good understanding of where you are right now, it
  is time to turn your attention to the future.
• What will the community look like 10 years from
  now?
• What will the library look like 10 years from
  now?

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PROCESS CONTD

• 4. Endorse a vision of what success will look
  like in the future
• Take the time to imagine various future scenarios
  and develop a shared one that everyone can buy
  into (board staff) the preferred future,
  describing a compelling picture of success
• Attractive visions of the future have great
  power. We call the organization that is
  organized around a deep sense of values, mission
  and vision the essence-driven organization. This
  kind of organization has tapped the energy that
  results from its own clarity of direction and
  focus. The essence-driven organization has a
  greater capacity to weather changes in
  marketplace and customer demand because of the
  clarity of its core purpose.
• Cynthia D. Scott

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PROCESS CONTD

• 5. Identify 3-5 strategic directions
• What is the work that will close the gap between
  where the library is right now (Situational
  Analysis) and where it wants to be (Vision)?
• What are the major themes or thrusts that emerge
  when you review the important points from the
  Situational Analysis?
• What about your vision is not yet true?
• Put it all together and identify no more than 5,
  preferably 3 or 4 areas of work which will serve
  as the building blocks for the strategic plan
  (this stage is crucial Board work)

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PROCESS CONTD

• 6. Write the plan
• Writing best done by small group of staff board
  (need ownership by both)
• Develop no more than 5 objectives for each
  strategic direction
• An objective is a milestone that gives you
  information about your progress in achieving the
  strategic direction
• An objective
• Makes something about the library different
• Represents a worthy expenditure of library
  resources (cost benefit analysis)
• Addresses the gap between where the library is
  and where it wants to be
• Serves to either improve service or build the
  librarys capacity to improve service
• Is conveyed in descriptive terms that make the
  achievement of it recognizable.

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• 6. Write the plan (contd)
• For each objective, identify the concrete actions
  necessary to successfully achieve the desired
  outcome
• Assign responsibility and time line
• Include measures/ indicators of progress/success

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PROCESS CONTD

• 7. Allocate the resources needed to achieve the
  plan
• Advocate and budget for new funding as necessary
• Reallocate existing resources as appropriate
• Consider staff time necessary to carry out the
  activities outlined in the plan
• Plan and budget for capacity building as needed,
  eg. staff expertise, training, technology, etc.
• Be prepared with contingencies should new
  resources not become available
• Use the strategic plan to support the budget, and
  raise the librarys profile, credibility and
  accountability

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PROCESS CONTD

• 8. Use the plan to create the future youve
  imagined
• Communicate internally as soon as the plan is
  endorsed by the Board
• Make the document short a ready reference tool!
• Develop key messages for the community and
  funders based on the strategic plan
• Create annual operational plans and annual board
  objectives related to the plan
• Tie strategic directions and objectives to
  individual performance give people the resources
  they need and hold them accountable
• Monitor progress report regularly at Board
  meetings
• Reference the plan in every major decision keep
  it on staff radar refer to it in reports at
  meetings
• Celebrate successes
• Revise/ update to reflect changing circumstances,
  new opportunities

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Principles of an effective (able-bodied)
strategic plan

• Futuristic responsive to emerging trends
• Desirable appealing and worth aspiring to
• Imaginable conveying a picture of the desired
  future
• Practical full of concrete tasks with timelines
  responsibility assigned
• Achievable realistic do-able and affordable
• Defensible responsive to service demands and
  external influences, (ie) the plan makes sense,
  given the circumstances
• Measurable objective language defines success
  through the use of descriptive milestones/outcomes
  and quantitative indicators
• Memorable concise and relevant easy to
  remember and apply
• Flexible adaptable to new ideas and/or changing
  circumstances

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Check out www.library.on.ca the OLS
Clearinghouse
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the Index to Public Libraries