I am betting many of you at some point in your career (perhaps even now), have shared an office with THE Three Ring Binder. It usually resides on the top shelf of a bookcase or on top of a file cabinet. It’s likely cracking with age and lack of use. You know the one; the all-important-yet-no-one-ever- looks-at-it traditional five-year strategic plan.
The Three Ring Binder doesn’t work well for PRWA. For starters, we don’t have a central brick and mortar office – where would we keep it? It would have to rotate among staff home offices like the class pet during holiday breaks. We also have far too many challenges and opportunities continually popping up across the state to make plans five years in advance. Dynamic planning suits us much better and allows us the agility to act quickly when needs and potential partnerships arise.
Speaking of partners, we don’t just have the word in our name because it’s part of the name of our national organization (Partners for Rural America). It’s also there because that’s what we do: partner with communities and other entities/efforts to add value, promote efficiency and coordination, and get the work done. If your organization is not yet partnering with PRWA and you would like to talk about possible collaborations or ideas, just send me an email.
I’ll be at conferences next week, so will catch you up on what happened at those events on October 30. And if anyone is creative enough to dress up as a strategic plan for Halloween, be sure to send me a picture.
Take care,
Jody
