Progress Report toward Strategic Plans 2022

Lynn Boorady, President (2022)

In January 2022 a focus group was developed to refine the direction of the strategic plan which included council members and invited graduate students, all levels of the professorship, a mix of research areas, backgrounds, experience and length of membership to ensure we would hear a variety of viewpoints.  From this we developed our Core Values Statement and our Mission Statement, and our Envisioned Mission Statement.

Once this research was concluded, responses were compiled by Tecker and priorities were determined based on responses. These were reviewed by Council and we each voted and gave our opinions to each response based on our background knowledge of the questions, priorities, goals and envisioning what ITAA could be. Tecker put all of this information together and created an outline of how to move forward as an organization to meet the goals and visions of our membership.

I then led the envisioning and initial implementation based on the mission statements and the recommended actions which surfaced through the surveys.

Based on the recommendations from the strategic plan (which was approved on May 13, 2022) and in order to achieve the goals, we first looked to the organizational chart to determine where these goals might be achieved. Then we prioritized our actions. We developed new committees, a new structure and additional responsibilities. This led to the restructuring of the VP Planning to VP Professional Development under which two new committees emerged – Regional Workshops and Digital Programming Committees The goal of this movement was to create streams of added value to our members through the addition of online programs such as industry talks, classroom videos and professional development.

VP Education: Philosophical Mission moved from under VP Planning. We added a “standards” committee to the Graduate Education Committee as they do more than just review, they help determine the quality of graduate education through ITAA support. The student best paper award was
separated out from the Graduate education committee to separate the standards from the review.

VP Publications:  removed the ITAA Newsletter and the Social Media Marketing committees and added in Digital Marketing and Communication which includes social media marketing but they have added responsibilities such as Review website policies; set guidelines for updates or additions.

VP Operations becomes VP of Awards:  removed Membership committee – for now. We are going to work on our membership categories and come back with an update. Removed Public Relations committee as much of their work was outdated. International relations committee been divided into the International Scholar Award [under VP awards] and the International Bazaar committee under the Cultural and Industry Learning tours [under VP of Professional Development. Student Best Paper –Moved from under VP Education to VP of Awards to align with awards

President Elect: Now helps support the Legacy Group (formerly under Counselor). External Relations in now under President-elect – formerly under VP of Planning. We need a major presence to represent ITAA to Industry. International relations is combined with External relations and moved to under the President Elect.

President: New charge: Strategic Plan Implementation. Responsible for setting goals each year and develop/update timeline to move forward on strategic plan initiatives.

Counselor: By-Laws review – formerly under the VP of Planning. All changes to Bylaws must be voted on by the membership after being approved by Council. Proper checks and balances are in place.  Nominating Committee remains the same.

Treasurer: is the chair of the Finance committee and this remains the same.

Secretary: duties remain the same.

All of these changes were vetted through Council and Council voted and approved on September 30, 2022. A vote went out to membership first to update the by-laws on how to change the VP titles or the structure of the organization. Next, a vote of the membership went out and changes were approved in December 2022.

Meeting our goals and developing strategies:
Strategies are how ITAA’s resources will be spent to achieve the goals and related objectives. Strategies have been prioritized by the timing, sequence and window of opportunity using the following categories for prioritization:
     Critical: work on this strategy must be completed in the coming year.
     Immediate: work on this strategy must occur in the coming year.
     Intermediate: work on this strategy should occur later in the coming year.
     Later: work on this strategy can wait until the subsequent year if necessary.