Strategic Planning

 A strategic plan is often a word that scares people off, however you can look at is as a wish list or a guidance document of what your association or club would like to achieve over the next couple of years (a plan you stick to, to try and achieve this).
 
  • A strategic plan is simply the first of three steps when creating an  organisations long term plan.
  • The second step is the business plan.
  • The third step is an annual plan and this extracts info from the business plan on a year by year basis, so it is easy to manage, and implement.
 
A strategic plan will take a little bit of time to create but Softball NZ has their Softball Officers which can help you through this process (from start to finish).
 
There is no right or wrong way to prepare a strategic plan however you can now make the strategic plan a 1 page document that is simple, clear and easy to understand for both you and your membership (refer to the Softball NZ Strat plan in the downloads)
 
A strategic plan;
 
  1. Will outline the organisations vision, its purpose and values all (of which are important)
  2. Is usually done for a 3 – 5 yr period
  3. Does not need to be lengthy – you can create a one page strategic poster
  4. Involves consultation with its members, stakeholders and sometimes the community (depending on the organisation)
  5. Highlights areas of priority that an organisation wants to develop (usually 4 – 5 priority areas ie: participation development, facility development, business development etc)
  6. Outlines what the organisation wants to achieve in each area of priority (your overall goals) and it will summarise how you will achieve this (the objectives or sometimes called strategies).
 
 
Please find below a list of resources that will get you well on your way with creating your Strategic Plan.
 
Please contact your appointed SNZ Softball officer for further assistance. Remember they can help you from start to finish with the process, or provide you help in a specific area.
Additionally you can also contact them if would like soft copies of any of the templates provided in the resources
 
Resource or link Description
Why is there need for Strategic Planning The aim of this document is to explain the difference between a Strategic Plan and a Business Plan and show why both are important to the association, club or an organisation.
 
Breaking down long term planning quickly
The 2 page document outlines
  • key points included in both a Strategic and Business plan
  • 7 essentials of a good plan
  • provides a handy flow chart of how to create both of these documents
Strategic Plan Poster Template A template that may help with the formatting of your strategic Plan
Softball NZs Strategic Plan Coming soon.
Softball NZ’s Strategic plan 2014 - 18
The importance of Values in long term planning This document breaks down
  • What are values all about
  • Why does our association need a set of values
  • What does a set of values look like?