The Default Strategic Plan
08/17/08
Dear Robert, Steve, and EC Members;
The transition to virtual operations beginning with the establishment of our Internet presence, the beginning of our internal email lists, and the sale of the Wrightwood office precipitated a major transition for the organization that is not yet complete. Robert, you sound a little fatigued and perhaps discouraged. But the situation is far from dire. There are political and administrative complexities that must be dealt with but I firmly believe that these aspects of the task can be accomplished.
I could not do the work I've been doing without a clear strategic plan in mind. Many of the projects in which I'm involved span years and require significant funding. My problem has been the lack of informed Executive Committee involvement in this process. In my reports I have always tried to inform the EC of developmental directions, upcoming undertakings, and so forth, in hopes that an appropriate administrative oversight process would evolve. It hasn't. However, in my thinking, the lack of critical objections combined with the approval of my budget requests constituted tacit approval of this developmental direction so I have proceeded, trying to make sure I keep the EC as informed as possible about intended developments before they are actualized.
The elements contained in our "Purpose, Intent, and Goals" document essentially outline the "default" strategic plan that I've been pursuing for more than ten years.
Here are the three primary elements of the "Purpose, Intent, and Goals" document:
1. Dissemination of the revelation
2. Socialization of the God-knowing believers
3. Administration of all dissemination and socialization efforts
Following is a partial overview of how my "default" strategic plan is attempting to actualize these elements. There may be additional sub-elements that I've not included:
1. Dissemination of the revelation: My primary focus is on dissemination and the exploitation of the Internet as a means of global distribution of the text of The Urantia Book.
Objectives:
a. Provide sufficient resources presented with a sufficient degree of quality to make the Fellowship's web presence the primary online Urantia Book resource.
b. Direct the Fellowship toward an optimized dissemination role vis-a-vis electronic publishing
i. Pursuit of this objective has involved several years of successful behind-the-scenes working with Urantia Foundation (primarily Mo and Seppo) for purposes of being able to e-publish all of their translations. Parallel with this effort was the management of a process of developing software that will make it very easy to integrate all translations as well as to archive master copies and facilitate the revision process.
ii. Try to keep the Fellowship's online presence at the forefront of developing technological resources such as e-book publication, access to Fellowship online resources via wireless devices, etc.
c. Try to keep the Fellowship focused on dissemination of the book itself by:
i. Fostering good working relationships with other Urantian web efforts such as UBRON, Square Circles, TruthBook, etc. For example, UBRON provides a well-used public forum for various Urantia Book related discussions. There is no need for the Fellowship to duplicate these efforts. Square Circles provides resources related to source authors and related matters. Again, this frees the Fellowship from needing to try and provide these resources.
ii. Trying to stimulate the development of secondary organizations such as the Urantia Historical Society which can take on additional segments of the Urantian web presence, more fully freeing the Fellowship to pursue a strictly dissemination effort. As we offload historical documents and archives to the Urantia Historical Society I want to begin trying to stimulate the development of an organization devoted to education, perhaps the Fellowship's most neglected and undeveloped area. This will enable a separate group to deal with study aids and secondary works -- again, freeing up the Fellowship to more fully focus on dissemination of the text itself.
d. Foster the evolution of a network of online revelation workers across organizations so that if any one organization fails, the Urantia Book internet presence can continue to offer services and resources worldwide.
2. Socialization of the God-knowing believers: I would prefer to see this be "Socialization of God-knowing revelation workers."
Objectives:
a. Provide technological support for the outreach efforts of reader-members such as we're now doing for groups like Don Green's university campus project, the Urantia Book Historical Society, the Retreat Network, Operation Reach-Back, etc.
b. Provide communications services so that revelation workers can be informed about outreach activities elsewhere and duplication of effort can be avoided and limited resources can be shared.
c. Provide e-services for foreign language reader groups as we now do with Spanish. This domain of service will likely grow as we bring translations and translation-related services online.
d. Provide services for conference registration and management
3. Administration of all dissemination and socialization efforts: This involves the creation of online administrative tools that are comprehensive, easy to use, and can easily be utilized by anyone, anywhere in the world.
a. Development of a database which forms the foundation of all administrative work
i. Assure the security and backup of all organizational data
ii. Provide data management services for Societies and other secondary groups
iii. Assure the appropriate archiving of organizational records such as meeting minutes
iv. Assure the appropriate archiving and availability of critical documents such as contracts, legal documents, etc.
b. Development of online financial management tools
i. Online contributions
ii. Database integration with all organizational financial software
iii. Automation of financial tasks
1. bank account reconciliations
2. reimbursement procedures
3. management of committee budgets
iv. Automation and development of online retail services
v. Database integration with reports and transactions with other publishers such as Amazon.com
vii. Fund raising support for Societies and other outreach groups by providing credit card transaction processing, financial reports, online spreadsheets related to the Fellowship's primary database, etc.
This is a basic overview of the "default" strategic plan presently being pursued. I've taken it about as far as I can without Executive Committee attention and action. The tasks which I've set forth in various reports and most recently in the overview document I sent out in preparation for our conference call Monday evening are all steps toward the actualization of this plan.
The first next step, then, would be for the Executive Committee to review this plan, modify it, or reject it outright and come up with something else. If it is approved -- even if only part of it is approved -- the foundations of a long-term administrative structure appropriate to its management needs to be designed and put in place.
In addition to the present need for hiring a database administrator, the plan for long-term development should include recognition of the eventual need for a paid administrative director for the organization. Every committee should be understood as eventually needing a full-time paid director. These positions will be inevitable -- but just the beginning -- if we are to foster the growth of an organization which is international in its dissemination effectiveness.
I hope this overview is helpful and constructive. At the very least it should constitute a starting point.
In friendship,
David