Building Stronger Communities, Building Stronger Choruses

Building Stronger Communities, Building Stronger Choruses

Living Your Strategic Plan


At previous conferences we have held sessions on developing a strategic plan. However, for far too many of our choruses, the strategic plan becomes a binder sitting on a shelf, until our next attack of “we really need to update our strategic plan!”

For a strategic plan to serve its purpose it must be:

The guidelines for each year’s operating plan

Reviewed for progress on a quarterly basis

Updated annually to reflect changes in circumstances

Strategic Plan

Annual Operating Plan

Monthly Budget Reviews Quarterly Plan Reviews


The strategic plan must link to the annual operating plan and budget which must be monitored for progress on a regular basis. Each year’s results then are considered in the update of the strategic plan.



GALA Choruses’ strategic plan is contained on one 11 x 17 piece of paper. It provides general guidance on our goals and action steps for the current and two following years in each of the strategic areas we are organized in. It helps if your strategic plan follows your internal committee structure as it then becomes clear who is responsible for executing which goals/action plans.


The strategic goals and action steps for each year are developed down to a further level of detail in the annual operating plan and budget. The plan describes how we intend to achieve our goals and the budget translates those plans into dollars and cents.


Each year’s operating plan begins with a review of results from the prior year so that we maintain the continuing feedback loop of planning, taking action and assessing results.


The annual operating plan then goes on to describe the goals for the current year as they are set out in the strategic plan.



Progress against the goals is tracked on a quarterly basis both with text explanations and budget reports.



The format of the strategic plan makes it easy to continually add a new Year 3 as each year is completed.

Documents

Building Stronger Communities, Building Stronger Choruses