News Detail

Strategic Planning for a Knowledge-Based Institute

8/1/2000

Associations such as ACI need to have a mission or a statement that clearly voices their core purpose. A strategic plan is a roadmap that provides directions for those who make an association function—the staff, the Board, and the many committee members who are the lifeblood of an association like ACI. In 1905, our charter stated that the purpose of ACI was "…to provide a comradeship in finding the best ways to do concrete work of all kinds and in spreading that knowledge." In 1996, the ACI Board of Direction approved a Strategic Plan that was published in the January 1997 issue of Concrete International. The 1996 Plan included the following mission: "ACI will be a premier developer, disseminator, and integrator of information on the use of concrete."

The purpose of ACI has changed very little since 1905, and it is not likely to change in the future. Clearly, the knowledge that ACI has developed in the past and continues to develop is our greatest asset. Our challenge is to continue to increase our knowledge base and to make it available and useful to our members and customers.

A Board-appointed Strategic Planning Committee developed the 1996 Plan. Subsequently, the Board appointed a Strategic Plan Overview Committee (SPOC) that met in May 1998 to review the Plan and develop revisions for Board consideration. For the past two years, SPOC has been meeting regularly to update the Plan, to review the progress being made in achieving the goals outlined in the Plan, and to develop measures that define success. In November 1999, the Board made the decision to assume the strategic planning activities of the Institute, and at the San Diego convention in March 2000 decided to arrange a two-day retreat during Summer 2000. At that time, SPOC requested that the committee be discharged since it had fulfilled its mission and had established a process for assessing success in meeting strategic goals. I served as chair of SPOC during the year I was first vice president. The members of SPOC were some of the most knowledgeable and dedicated members of ACI. Their service on SPOC helped to lay the groundwork for the Board to assume strategic planning.

The decision by the Board to assume strategic planning seemed appropriate because it has access to a wide array of data and routinely assesses progress in meeting goals. A prime function of the Board is to allocate resources and set priorities. Therefore, it is in the best position to adjust the plan as needed, and to provide support.

The planning retreat was held in Farmington Hills, Mich., near ACI Headquarters, on June 28 and 29, 2000. The result of that meeting is a draft document that will be on the Board agenda for approval in Toronto. Although it will have many of the same elements included in previous plans, it has set some new directions involving our committees and our members. The draft’s core purpose (or mission) remains similar to that of previous plans:

Providing knowledge for the best use of concrete.

The group also developed a set of core values that describe essential, guiding principles of ACI:

• Benefit to society;
• Camaraderie;
• Consensus;
• Credibility; and
• Personal and professional development.

We also identified five broad areas for which specific goals were established:

• Codes, specifications and reports;
• Education and certification;
• Collaboration;
• Enhancement of our role as a knowledge source; and
• Improvement of our value to members.

Areas of specific activity that are addressed in the draft document include:

• Greater international collaboration;
• Greater involvement of international members;
• Development of a broader array of vehicles for disseminating knowledge to members and customers;
• Improved use of the Web for committee activities and for timely delivery of all documents;
• Outreach programs to increase international partnering, to involve more young professionals and segments of the concrete community currently under-represented;
• More emphasis on new and emerging technologies; and
• Articulating and advocating research that will expand the knowledge base.

You will be hearing more about the plan after it is approved. It is intended to stimulate new interactions between committees, shifts in responsibilities and missions of some committees, and new opportunities for addressing key issues facing the concrete community all over the world. It is an exciting time to be President of ACI and I hope that as you learn more about the new strategic plan, you will be as enthusiastic as I about the actions the Board has taken to address the future of ACI.

James O. Jirsa
President
American Concrete Institute

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