Strategic Plan Update: Organizational Audit

FOR RELEASE ON APRIL 21, 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Effective May 31, 2015, ACPA will reach a major milestone in a 10-month project to complete the objectives of the Strategic Plan adopted in 2011.

One of the objectives was to complete an organizational audit to accompany our annual financial audit.

What is an organizational audit?

According to audit.gov.my, organizational audit is defined as an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approached to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes. In other words, organizational audit is referred to as an activity which is created to assist an organization in improving its operations by identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the organization to achieve its objectives.

Upon completion of the audit 0n July 1, 2014, a process for prioritization of Association goals was derived.  We called this process “Project Sieve” out of the idea that we would press every program, process, product and service through the filter of our mission, vision, core values and contribution to needs of our members and profession.  Project Sieve helped identify the major goals for implementation July 2014 to date. 

These projects were designed to:

• Increase dynamic collaboration throughout and outside the organization—leadership, entities, staff and with external partners
• Improve and increase support of our members worldwide including products, publications, professional and career development services
• Clarify who we are today in the market space of higher education (our brand & position)
• Increase the depth of ACPA’s thought leadership, participation, presence & impact in that space and in the field of student affairs
• Create a financial model for a sustainable future in a highly competitive market including personnel allocations, space utilization, general operating costs and overhead
• Create a 21^st century digital infrastructure
• Live into our core values in ways that are measurable by external and internal constituencies, including our commitments to equity & inclusion, intercultural competency, globalization/internationalization and reducing environmental impact and corporate social responsibility (CSR). 

Between July 1, 2014 and May 31, 2015, we have completed:

• Transition of our IT functions to the Cloud
• Replacement of our association management system
• Replacement of our event management system
• Creation of a global video on demand platform
• Evaluating the replacement of CDMS (updates only until after Montreal)
• Increasing our web-meeting capacity to 1000 users for entities
• Incorporating states into the technology platforms for all entities as part of new chapter agreements
• Evaluating the international chapter agreements and ways to improve collaboration and participation (focus on Canada, Caribbean & China)
• Maintaining the net cost of membership while increasing services to members including on-demand, expansion of our mentoring and career path consultation services, grad prep, professional and career development support (myPROfolio), international programming. Adopting CareerEco for virtual
• Increasing awareness and beginning engagement with historically underserved and/or underrepresented individuals, groups and campuses including tribal, HBCU, HSI and community colleges
• Increasing production and dissemination of research and scholarship & supporting the needs of faculty and graduate cohorts
• Increasing strategic partnerships and alliances to advance the mission and vision of ACPA and, when possible, sharing space with them at One Dupont to increase collaboration and reduce our costs
• Increasing engagement with all entities, understand needs and meet those needs
• Increasing ACPA’s brand and messaging in the larger market space of higher education and the field of student learning and development
• Finding ways to support the emerging interest in career development in a consultative/search model and improving our market position in career placement
• Deep analysis of all current professional development offerings, improvements that can be made
• Review and recalibration of our staffing formulas by contracting for some services, reduction in force through attrition and limited furloughs
• Reducing our environmental footprint by reducing demand for physical location space in DC http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Changing-Office-Trends-Hold-Major-Implications-for-Future-Office-Demand/146580

And more…

We have created a simple acronym to encourage employees and volunteers to test what they are doing for validity and sustainability for the Association—L.A.M.P.

• (Thought)Leadership (research/scholarship/publications/professional development and knowledge transfer)
• Amplification of the voices of our members and the competencies and practice of student learning and development integral to the success of students and, therefore, the completion agenda
• Mobilization of members to bring even greater value to the field of student learning and development through rigorous assessment of outcomes
• Partnerships that reflect the evolving 21st century operating landscape for higher education

Our impact on the market space of higher education has never had more potential and we plan to leverage our investments in core areas of research and scholarship through knowledge transfer and sharing of best practices by our Commissions, Senior and Emerging Scholars and practitioners.

We will also expand our focus and support on the next generation of thought leaders through NextGen, the Ambassadors, ACPAGrow, the new Grad Prep Directory and the user base for myPROfolio. 

In closing, while my time at ACPA is less than most, I have developed a personal narrative about ACPA that encourages me and helps me talk about us in many places.  I want to share it with you as I close this memo.   And, I would love to hear how you think about and talk about ACPA.  You inspire me to do my best to ensure that ACPA can do its best.

ACPA—College Student Educators International is a:

Long-tenured, deeply collaborative and caring community of rigorous scholars and practitioners who work in many types of institutions and in many types of roles in student learning and development.  We have a deep commitment to work at the intersections of conflicts and issues that must be resolved for students and professionals to thrive.  When we are less skillful than we want to be, we reset and begin anew.

We are thought leaders with personal and professional investment in mentoring the next generation of professionals.  They will realize the dream of accessibility, accountability and affordability of higher education for the largest number of people in human history.

Our work is central to what the world thinks of as the “completion” agenda. Students who succeed do so because they have a sense of belonging and they are encouraged to learn from every experience they have, to employ critical thinking and apply their resources.

Our work is at the core of how students grow their capacity to navigate differences and find their role within a global citizenry.

Our profession of is not for everyone and it is one of the most satisfying endeavors in the world.  We are willing to do the work that changes us for the better that helps students navigate the differences and challenges and frustrations that are part of growing into global citizens with contributions to make. 

Our work is sometimes very demanding and hard, but our organizational DNA and the commitments of our members confirm that students are at the heart of this Association and they are worth our best efforts, our best thinking and our best selves.