Strategically Planning the Future of ACE

Those of you who were at the 2010 ACE meeting in St. Louis will recall the very productive discussion we had during the Future of ACE lunch session. All of the input that was collected during that session was used by the ACE Board during their  Fall meeting in Tucson, AZ to distill six basic issues which warranted further consideration. For each of these issues the Strategic Planning Committee then added proposed goals, strategies and suggestions for implementation. All of this work is now included in a report which we will review in Denver. There we will seek your feedback before determining implementation steps at this year's Fall Board meeting in Manhattan, KS.

Some of these steps will result in a radical shift in our operations, but we believe these changes are important to the survival of the organization. As a recent NPR story pointed out, associations like ours will have to totally reinvent themselves in order to avoid becoming obsolete.

We encourage you to read this report before coming to Denver. It is the result of the persistent efforts members over the past year by members of the Strategic Planning Committee and promises to reshape ACE in many ways. As committee member Janet Rodekohr aptly put it:

If they implement just half of our suggestions, it will be a new day for ACE. I'm very proud of the work we've accomplished here. It could be a turning point for ACE. Thank you to Jeff and Tom and Steve for your leadership and to the other committee members for some great teamwork!

You can find the report at: http://www.acenetc.org/runtime/ACE_Strategic_Plan_2011.pdf. Please read it carefully.

Robert Casler, ACE President