Ranjana B. fleshes out the Vision, Mission & Values.
Forty IFUW members took up the survival challenge during a four-day strategic planning process in Geneva.
The outcomes from Thursday morning underlined the urgency with which the organization needs to change in order to be effective.
It came clear that IFUW needs to focus its PURPOSE and activities and that its members are its biggest asset. It is also a fact, that membership is declining while the number of potential members is increasing. Many graduate women have never heard of IFUW and even existing members are unaware of the work that is happening within the organisation. There is therefore an urgent need to increase external VISIBILITY and to improve internal COMMUNICATION. Also, not surprisingly, IFUW activities are compromised by a lack of FUNDING.
One of the six IFUW Vision Trees
“Life must be understood backwards. ..But it must be lived forwards…” (Kierkegaard)
To start planning for the Strategic Plan, Thursday afternoon, was spent brainstorming and drawing Vision Trees.
Vision = the world as you would like it to be (being ambitious)
Mission = the role of your organization in realizing your vision
Values = principles on which IFUW works; principles for interaction with others
We produced six different Vision Trees. Tell us about yours. What would be your vision, mission and principles for IFUW?
(Nina Joyce and Rae Duff)
The actions that are taken to demonstrate the mission of the group that you work with must be seen as relevant to the people with whom you are working and carried out in such a way that it is easy for them to be publicised. e.g. We had a very successful project to publicise a referendum on our electoral system which drew in a number of people who had never heard of us and appreciated the action we took to provide this education and of course it received good coverage in the local newspaper.
I am talking at a local level and to put all this in an international strategy is much more challenging.