NCDA’s Long Term Plan
April 2015
Over the past several years, NCDA’s Board has had a conversation around setting up a long term plan for NCDA. The goal of this discussion was to help future presidents and boards move the association forward along a given path instead of the president-to-president model we had with each president setting the agenda to move the association forward. Presidents still have the freedom to move individual ideas forward, but it needs to be in the context of the plan.
This past fall and winter the NCDA board worked on the plan to adjust and tighten it up. From that work, we have the following plan. There are seven areas that the board has decided to focus on. The areas are as follows:
Partnering with states to grow both state and national association and members
Partnering with other associations
Better utilization of committees
Define board and constituency group expectations
Diversity in membership and leadership
Professional Development (within NCDA)
Professional Development (with OTHER GROUPS)
These are various large and broad goals. In putting the plan together, the board reached out to various groups in crafting goals, to have a broader understanding and ensuring we leverage our members' expertise. During this 2015-16 year, we are focusing on better utilization of the Committees. We started this last year and are continuing with a new communication structure, following up and tying into the long term goals. With this goal, the long term plan was shared with committees. The president and president-elect have been active in talking with the chairs of the committees to make sure the tasks we talked about completing, complement and carry out the long term plan. A second focus surrounded asking the Committee on Diversity Initiatives & Cultural Inclusion to reach out to encourage diversity in membership and leadership. The committee is working on a number of steps. One is conducting a survey with the assistance of a Leadership Academy student focused on evaluating NCDA’s cultural inclusiveness and organizational commitment to diversity. A second step will be a reception focused on educating people and including all that attend the conference. The last step that we are working on is defining board and constituency group expectations. In 2014, we went to a constituency based model for membership, and had meetings for each constituency group at the annual conference. This year, we are working on reaching out to the different groups before the conference to begin a dialogue and plan for the meetings during the conference to better meet the needs of the groups.
The Board is working hard to make NCDA an outstanding association to meet the needs of all the groups we serve. We want to make sure all members understand and know what we are doing. The detailed long term plan is on the NCDA website. I encourage you to contribute in any way you can and be a part of a fantastic organization, NCDA.