Steve Meier
What is Strategic Planning
 Determines
 Where an organization is going over the next year or
more,
 How it's going to get there
 How it'll know if it got there or not.
 Focus is on the entire organization
Contrast with Business Planning
 Focus is usually on a
 Product
 Service
 Program.
Evaluation
What is the Purpose or Mission of
the Lodge
• What is the overall purpose of the plan or what is the
plan supposed to achieve?
• Need to understand the purpose of your lodge
• What do you want your lodge to be
• What do you want your lodge to do
• May have multiple answers
• May have conflicting opinions
• Should include the mission statement or purpose
of the organization.
Evaluate Forces Inside and
Outside of the Lodge
 What driving forces or major influences might effect
the lodge
 Location
 Competition from other organizations or establishments
 Federal, state and local laws or ordinances
 Tax code
 Grand Lodge Statutes
 Others
Assessment
 SWOT Analysis
 Strengths of the lodge
 Weaknesses of the lodge
 Opportunities
 Threats to the lodge
 Each needs to be evaluated

During this analysis, planners also can use a variety of
assessments, or methods to "measure" the health of
systems.
Establish Goals
 Goals are based on the analysis and lodges mission
 Goals build on strengths of the lodge and membership
 Do you know your membership’s strengths
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Marketing
Accounting
Management
Food Prep
Computer skills
 Review Applications
 Survey the members for skill sets and interests
Other Aspects of Goals
 Take advantage of opportunities provided by your
lodge
 What opportunities can you take advantage of
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Golf course
Building Size
 Building up weaknesses of the lodge
 Marketing to build up membership
 Lack of volunteers
 Ward off threats to the lodge
 IRS, cost of food items by other establishments
Establish Strategies to Reach Goals
 Depends on
 Cost
 Practicality
 Efficiency
Establish Objectives to
Achieving Goals
 Objectives must be:
 Timely
 Indicative of progress toward goals
 Measurable
Associate Responsibilities and
Time Lines With Each Objective
 Assigned responsibilities include:
 Who does what
 When is it to be accomplished.
 Alternatives (not consequences) if something is not
accomplished.
 Generally, deadlines are set for meeting each
responsibility.
Write it Down and Communicate
the plan to the Membership
 If it is not written down it does not exist.
 Information is organized,
 Written into a document
 Distributed to the organizers and membership
 Post on the wall in large font
Why
 Members do not know what is happening
 Members and organizers may not understand who is doing
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what
Members and organizers do not know or forget what they
are to do
Organizers often forget that others don't know what the
organizers know.
As plans change, it's difficult to remember who is supposed
to be doing what
Key stakeholders ( Grand Lodge, County Commissioners,
customers, grant funders may request copies
Acknowledge Completion and
Celebrate Success
 Is often ignored
 Can eventually undermine the success of many of your
future planning efforts.
 Can create apathy, skepticism, or cynicism
 Plan addressed some problem, you solved it
 Acknowledge your success.
 Let others know it was successful
Involve the Right People in
Planning Process
 Critical to exchange feedback to function effectively
 Get input from stakeholders
 Everyone who is responsible for any part of the plan,
Representatives from groups who will be effected by the
plan.
 Individuals who are responsible to review and authorize
the plan.

May be within the lodge, or Grand Lodge
Goals and Objectives Should Be
SMARTER
 Specific:
 Measurable:
 Acceptable:
 Realistic:
 Time frame:
 Extending:
 Rewarding:
Program Planning
• Five Steps
• Assessment
• Capacity
• Planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation
Assessment
 Assess needs and assets.
 Assess readiness for some change
 Identify the most pressing need that needs changed
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Capacity
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Start with your core group.
What skills and resources are available
What skills and resources do you need
Assess membership readiness
 Do we need this
 Publicize the issue and encourage participation.
 Use targeted participation
 People usually step up when asked directly
Planning
 Assemble a planning team.
 Create an overall plan for the effort.
 Present the plan to the leadership and membership
and gather support.
 Who does what is important here
Implementation of the Plan
 Stick to your plan for the implementation process.
 May evaluate to see if changes are needed
 Continue to pay attention to resources.
 Keep the community informed.
Evaluation
 Evaluate the process.
 Evaluate the impact of the program.
 Evaluate the outcomes.
 Use the evaluation results to adjust the program to be
more effective.
Conclusions
 Use planning in your lodges
 What do you want your lodge to do – the Objective
 When do you want to have the objective accomplished
 How will you accomplish the objective
 Who will accomplish it
 How do you know if it is accomplished
Planning
 Can be used as a guide for the entire lodge
 Can be used to
 Increase membership
 Involve membership
 Prioritize and direct resources
 Increase participation in some program
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Americanism, Drug Prevention, Hoop Shoot, Food Caravan
NOTE: Planning
 Takes time to do
 Takes energy
 Takes people to do the planning
What Do You Need To Do Next
 Identify the problems you may have in your lodge
 Identify what you may want to do
 Implement the process
With No Planning
 You continue to have the same problems
 The problems are broadly defined (if you know what
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they are)
Solutions are trial and error
No immediate or long term strategies for a problem
No changes occur except discussion
New officers have the same problem you had 5 years
ago.
Questions