Strategic and Long-Range Planning for All - business planning for camps

Camping Magazine, March, 2000 by Steven M. Grove

Tips on getting started and creating a winning plan

Whether you are a for-profit or nonprofit camp, you are a business and certain important factors must always be considered. One of these is strategic planning.

Many organizations think that taking last year's ideas and putting a new date on them constitutes the planning process. However, the planning process involves a thorough review and look at your entire operation from a fresh perspective. It is a look at where your organization is and where you are heading, as well as thoughts as to how to get there. Organizations refer to the planning process in many different ways -- strategic planning, long-range planning, business planning, and strategic long-range business planning -- but they all mean the same thing: a road map to follow.

Getting Started

Getting started seems to be one of the hardest parts of all large projects. You sit and wonder how you will get a plan completed and how it will be implemented. It is important to remember that your plan is just lots of baby steps. Starting is the key to actually getting the plan completed. Begin your project by deciding:

* Who will be on your planning team? This group holds the key to your future. Assemble the right talent to assist you.

* Will the committee act as one large group or several small groups? Who will lead?

* What is the time frame for completion of the plan, including the distribution of the final draft? A good plan will take six to twelve months to complete. Being as specific as possible with the time frame will help the plan be successful.

* What is the scope of the project you are planning and why? This should be the first and very general approach that starts you heading in the right direction.

The start of the planning process is the hardest. Everyone will be very skeptical, and the thoughts and ideas may be so far in the future that many will believe the goals are unattainable. Be sure to maintain enthusiasm and interest at this point, and make sure those involved feel appreciated.

Selecting the Committee

Your plan will be a collection of thoughts from people who believe in its implementation. You will need to have a team who is going to buy into this process and then assist in its implementation and success. The group should include a mix of talents, ages, and constituencies, for example, former and current campers, parents, current and past staff, community members, and even people who may assist in the funding of the projects to be planned.

Involve others who will look objectively at your needs. Those directly involved can often be too close to a subject to see it clearly. Outsiders often bring a fresh look to the table and will also assist to tempering your enthusiasm with reality.

Even more important is bringing talent that will make the process go more quickly. Lawyers, insurance agents, accountants, or engineers may bring different resources to the plan. People in the community will also know the reality of various plans going through other processes such as zoning that will be important.

Be sure to select committee members who will stay involved from start to end. Too much of the plan is going to take time to implement and you want active participants. Along the same line, you need to look at the time commitment necessary based upon the plan to be produced. Honestly tell your volunteers how much time will be involved.

Deciding the Group's Goal

What type of plan do you want to produce? Are you updating a current plan or producing a new plan? Review the issues at hand and look at what you are trying to accomplish. Give your group a very specific charge to accomplish. Leaving the goal too open makes the process that much harder. For example:

* Are you planning for a loan?

* Is the plan for a long-range fund-raising process?

* Are you preparing the business for sale or expansion?

* Are you interested in serving a different population?

* Is this the first draft of a general long-range plan?

Defining what the planning group is to accomplish will allow you the chance to set specific goals to reach within the time frame the plan is to be completed. Define the who and the what upfront. This alone may take a few meetings among the key individuals in order to decide the starting point. The closer you are at the start to your key direction, the closer you will be to your results at the end. In addition, there is nothing more frustrating than to give people a task that once started has to be changed and changed again due to a lack of direction or leadership.

What the Plan Should Include

Now comes the time to decide what information you need to include in your plan. People have different needs, and even donors will differ with regard to what they want to know. The final printed plan should be done to provide a reader with the information they are looking for. There are a few helpful hints to assist in achieving this.

Your written plan should have eight to twelve sections, including:

* the mission of the plan and/or organization