On an annual basis operational plans for the forthcoming fiscal year  will be established to create measurable tasks to be achieved in that  fiscal year within the context of the Strategic Plan. The planning  process takes place prior to the beginning of the fiscal year.

Also noted below is the process whereby progress against plans is  reported on periodically with a final reporting out at year-end.

Process/Timeline

February (prior to fiscal year)

• Call for ideas that should /could be pursued the following  fiscal year (current president). Reminder that submissions should be made within the context of the Strategic Plan. Call made to all of the  executive, and liaison East and West (Liaison East and West could  gather thoughts from chapters).

March/April (prior to fiscal year)

• Operational Planning meetings (chaired by the  vice-president, with members including, president, past president and  perhaps “incoming” vice-president.) Output would be prioritized  operational plans – stated in the context of the Strategic Plan - for  the upcoming fiscal year. Plans would describe who is accountable, a  related timeframe and what is expected (along with performance  measures) for each initiative.

May (Public Sector Management Workshop - PSMW)

• Current president formally table operational plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

June to May

• Implement plans. (responsible individual) 
• Responsible individual would report on progress – ongoing and more formally at the end of the year. 
• Discuss progress against plan at each executive and/or chapter meeting.

June to November

• Formulate final report on accomplishments against plan by responsible individual.

November (PD Week)

• Table report on accomplishments for past fiscal year (current president).

Ongoing Operational Planning Committee

Note that the operational planning process for a given year would  span three fiscal years. For this reason, and given that the natural  term of an FMI president (and other positions) is one year, it would be  appropriate to have vice-president, president and past president (on an  ongoing basis) constitute the operational planning committee. (maybe 2nd vice president as well).On an annual basis, the only change to the  committee would be one of the 3 or 4 members (Past President being  replaced).

Longer-range Perspective on Operational Plans

In order to ensure that there is some longer-range thinking in the planning process, the annual plan should have two sections.

• The first would be specific plans for the upcoming year (as discussed above).
           
• The  second part would span the next two years and would be less  tangible/specific than the first part. That is, each incoming president  could articulate their individual perspectives on both 1) their term in  the upcoming year and 2) their more long-range vision for the FMI. No  future president would be bound by the 2 nd and 3 rd years in a given  plan, but they would have the benefit of the thinking of past  presidents.