Strategic Planning & Implementation Committee Charter

Purpose:
The Strategic Planning and Implementation Committee (Committee) leads and coordinates the Board’s activities necessary to develop, update, and measure development and success of the Strategic Plan (e.g., goals), along with  helping the Board provide any necessary governance-level oversight and inquiry for the organization’s performance against this plan.  This Committee will require communication and alignment among the Board, Advisory Committees and, where applicable, the Portfolio Review Committee (PRC), and DIA staff.

Duties and Responsibilities:
1) Engage the whole Board when necessary in revising the Board’s policies on mission, vision, values, membership definitions, and broad strategic areas of emphasis.
2) Analyze relevant changes in the internal (strengths & weaknesses) and external environment (opportunities or threats) and educate all Board members on such.
3) Identify emerging generative opportunities and strategic issues, reporting such to the full Board to determine what discussions are needed at future Board meetings.
4) Organize periodic generative and strategic thinking discussions at ongoing Board meetings and longer strategic planning retreats.
5) Define metrics (high level Key Performance Indicators [KPIs] and/or Specific Performance Indicators [SPIs]) to measure the organization’s success per the milestone goals of the strategic plan, for whole Board approval.
6) Analyze, at a high level, collected metrics or recommendations for improvements and report significant findings to the Board through a “dashboard” mechanism (the committee is not supposed to analyze collected metrics on a detailed operational level – this is the responsibility of Operations [Staff]).
7) Determine what strategies, if any, the Board should be assisting in implementing; and, if outside the boundaries of any other committee, design ways for Board members to fulfill this responsibility.
8) Ensure that the Board itself honors the organization’s mission, vision, and values in its decision-making process and results.

The Committee should work closely with the DIA Executive Director, and when it deems it appropriate association volunteers, subject matter experts, consultants, and strategic planning advisors.

Authority: 
This body operates as a standing Committee of the Board. It has the authority to ask the Operations for the performance data and metrics it deems necessary.  If such data are not available, it may charge Operations to furnish such data pending input from the latter as to the feasibility to collect them.  For certain processes considered key to success, the Committee may request, with Board approval, process mappings, reviews, and recommendations for improvement to be made by Operations.  The Committee does not assume the Board’s governance accountability.  Neither does it play a role in any day-to-day operational management issues, not even if related to metrics.

Subject to Board approval, the committee will have access to external professionals to render advice and counsel when necessary.

Membership: 
The Committee is chaired by the President-Elect.  DIA Board members and DIA staff are specified as Committee members as part of the Board Committee structure by the DIA President.  The President, Immediate Past President, Regional Advisory Council (RAC) Chairs and Provisional Regional Advisory Chairs are also included as Committee members.

Meetings:
The Committee shall meet as many times as necessary to accomplish its objectives and will conduct face-to-face meetings or teleconferences as appropriate to fulfill its obligations.  The Chair will assign and ensure that there will be an accurate recording of minutes of each meeting that are available to the Board of Directors.  A majority of member attendance whether face to face or by teleconference for these meetings will constitute a quorum.

Suggested timeline to accomplish committee duties:
1) February/March – to review prior year performance against strategic goals
2) May/June – to begin developing the Strategic Plan update
3) August/September – to finalize the Strategic Plan update
4) November/December – to assess the alignment between strategic goals and operational objectives