The strategic plan is the document that will guide the community in implementation, which is the reason for the strategic planning process.
Generally, the Strategic Plan will be composed of the following elements:
- A chronology of the strategic planning process.
- The goals, objectives, and strategies of each critical issues, and the action plans.
- Determination of priorities.
- Implementation Management Plan.
- Background information (Appendices).
In creating the strategic plan, the Commission will be dealing with the real limits of available resources. During Step 5, a large number of objectives (projects) were discussed, including costs of implementation. However, these costs could not be calculated accurately until each project could be related to the totality of the objectives that the Commission was prepared to recommend to the City Council for implementation.
The Commission is now ready to prioritize the objectives of the action plans, according to criteria that evaluate the likelihood of successful implementation.
The Commission meeting at which the task forces present their action plans for discussion and adoption is one of the most important and exciting events of the entire process. Each task force naturally tends to present its action plan as addressing the most important critical issue. The competition and consensus-building dynamics at this meeting are the final test of the Commission’s cohesiveness and commitment.
In prioritizing the objectives, the Commission will consider the feasibility of implementation, which focuses on available resources. These will include budgetary allocations by the city and grants and loans from various ministries of the national government and international donors. Of equal importance will be the financial and human resources committed by the business community, including financial institutions. Sorting this out will not be easy, particularly since great care must be taken in committing resources over which the Commission has no control. Also, timing is difficult, because some resources may not become available until it is clear that they are essential to the success of the program. This is particularly true where private resources are needed to complement public funds.
Having considered the above, understandings will be reached within the Commission, and the strategic plan will be assembled with the knowledge that circumstances may change and revisions will be made during the course of implementation.
The draft strategic plan should be shared with the public before it is adopted by the Commission. Otherwise, it may not represent the “shared vision” of the community.
There are two ways to insure widespread awareness of the plan:
- Publish it in the local newspaper.
- Call a public meeting, sponsored by the Commission and the Mayor, to discuss the plan.
It is important to encourage public comments before the plan is approved by the Commission, presented to the mayor, and sent to the Municipal Council for adoption.
Many financial and human resources required for implementation of the plan will be controlled, directly or indirectly, by local government. This is one of the many reasons that elected and appointed public officials were invited to be members of the Strategic Development Commission and its task forces. It is therefore important that the Mayor ask the Municipal Council to adopt the strategic plan officially and commit their offices to implementing it.
