Sixty-five Board members and volunteer leaders of the American Supply Association met in February to review and revise the association’s Long Range Strategic Plan, first developed in 2008 at the Winter Board meeting. “The original plan provided ASA the ability to broaden participation, increase focus on desired outcomes, and integrate strategic thinking into ongoing responsibilities of all levels of ASA’s governance structure,” said Mike Adelizzi, ASA’s executive vice president. “So much of what has been pursued and achieved by the association over the past two years was driven by the ASA Strategic Plan.”

The 2010 planning session focused on developing better metrics for evaluating success of the association’s goals and objectives, and a more clear focus on desired outcomes.  “Over the past two years, ASA’s services were enhanced, new programs were developed - even in the light of difficult economic conditions - and support increased in key areas such as government affairs,” continues Adelizzi. “These decisions were driven by the strategic thinking of the ASA Board.”

Led by Jean Frankel of Tecker Consultants, an organizational planning consulting firm, the Board was challenged to think long term about what issues the industry may face, as well as how to position the association to better serve its members into the future. 

Breakout groups were charged with the task of analyzing the current 3-5 year goals by asking five questions about each goal:

• 1) Have we achieved this goal yet?
  
• 2) Are we satisfied with progress?
  
• 3) Should we make any changes to the goal statement?
  
•  4) Have underlying assumptions related to this goal changed at all?
  
• 5) What’s been our experience in executing work toward this goal - positive and negative?

Once the analysis was complete, the groups established objectives for measuring progress toward the goal and identified which should be prioritized for 2010. In some cases, goals did change and others were updated to better reflect today’s economic and political environment. “A more clearly defined plan has emerged that will enable ASA to work nimbly and better navigate the rapid change in today’s business and political climates,” concluded Adelizzi.

Members of the Board who participated feel the same. “The association’s past presidents showed up in numbers for this meeting, supporting that we are committed to the success and survival of ASA as an association,” stated Dottie Ramsey, president and COO of Modern Supply Company in Knoxville, TN and ASA’s first female president. “The groups came up with some pretty exciting and doable items that can be implemented now to help the membership. The Education Foundation has some great tools for training our employees. We all need to do a better job in using them.” 

Ramsey continued, “In this economic climate the membership needs each other more than ever for the exchange of ideas to create a better environment for all of our companies and the success of our industry.”  

In the coming weeks and months, the association will be establishing new committees, networking councils and task groups charged with implementing the goals and strategies developed during this session.

For a copy of ASA’s Year in Review, call 312.464.0090.

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