Re: 2014 AIS Convention

[Robert Pries <robertpries@embarqmail.com>]

I understand not everyone has a philosophical bent for self examination. I am sure there are board members that do not have a clear view of where the organization should be in even 5 years let alone 10 or 20.  About  3 or 4 years ago Roy Epperson  and I discussed the need for a strategic planning committee. Roy was immediately for the idea and pointed out that he had chaired many such committees at the university and yes they were very valuable. The usual process is to create a mission statement and then develop your goals as they flowed from the implications of that statement. Unfortunately we were never able to agree on a single sentence that could sum up the organization. But that did not hold us back. We all agreed that the Statement of Purpose in the bylaws was very good, and we worked from there. Ironically when filling out the forms for our 501C3 Jill had to create a mission statement. So I guess we have one whether the board has ever seen it or not. 
Despite the usual process the Strategic planning committee developed the ideas around e-membership. The PR committee created surveys to learn the thoughts of our membership and Voila. We have a change in bylaws and a whole new playing field. As we  have progressed towards a wider society including electronics I suggested that John Jones and Andi Rivarola be added to the strategic planning committee and it was done. 
Andibs questions in his post below points out we still have a great deal of work to do. At the moment I do not feel there is any consensus on where we would like/expect to be in the next 5 years let alone 10 or 20. We have not studied our Statement of Purpose to see where it should lead us. At the last board meeting I explained that I believe our potential membership in five years could be 20,000 members but that is assuming we do a lot more right then we are doing presently. Without long term plans, the logistics and strategies are difficult to create.


----- Original Message -----
From: "andi rivarola" <andinsky@gmail.com>
To: aisdiscuss@aisboard.org
Sent: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 9:54:48 PM
Subject: Re: [AISdiscuss] 2014 AIS Convention

I wanted to let you know that I am a Convention Planner. I've been doing
this job for a non-profit for the last 13 years.

The scope of what I do is much larger and different than AIS's: 4,000 -
5,000 attendance; 1000 volunteers; close to a million-dollar budget; and a
worldwide registration; location always the same. By the way, as the budget
administrator my job is to secure a surplus at the end of every event,
although the goal is not money. We hold simultaneous translations into
German, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese as needed every so many years.

When this topic came up here in the AIS Board I decided to observe the
discussion before I shared my thoughts.

Obviously, there are pros and cons to everything, but at the moment it
seems that financial considerations are the most important issues related
to the AIS Convention. At this time it doesn't seem feasible to go from an
all-volunteer convention  to one incorporating at least one paid position.

There's no doubt that there are deep feelings associated with this
discussion, but to me the solution lies within the limits of any goal
setting exercise. To know what needs to be done we first must find out what
we want.

Here are some questions that come to mind:

1- What are the AIS goals for next 10-20-30 years?
2- What is the vision for becoming point #1
3- Most of us won't be here in 20-30 years, how do we see AIS evolving?
4- What are financial, PR, Marketing, Outreach goals in order to achieve
point # 1?
5- Volunteers are a very important part of any non-profit organization, and
if numbers are dwindling, and if it seems that it will continue to be so
what will the organization do?
6- Re: Conventions: what would be best for AIS, local clubs and regions?.
7- Be open to new ideas that meet your needs to achieve #1
8- Example: one large National Convention every two or three years, and a
"AIS-sponsored" local or regional convention every year. Explore all
possibilities.
9- What type of financial support would AIS receive in order to survive and
achieve point #1, and how will that happen?
10- Why does AIS hold an annual Convention? What is the main purpose or
goal?
11- Would a paid convention planner achieve the main convention goal, and
would it be more successful?

It is important for the Board to know where the organization is heading in
order to implement changes.

Hope this helps.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Andi Rivarola
AIS Social Media Manager
AIS Board Member

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