Where to now? Long-term planning for GCV

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." Alice in Wonderland.

The committee has started a process of strategic planning for the club. This is about us actively targeting and creating the sort of future we would like to have and then planning to make that desired future come true.

This is not something we can or should do in isolation from you, the members. So, I want to give you a quick introduction to the process and invite you to start contributing.

Planning with a strategic focus is really about answering a number of key questions about our business. I use the word "business" deliberately because, even though we are a club, we need to think in business terms to ensure that we survive and, better still, thrive. Technically, we are a "not for profit" enterprise which means that we can't distribute profit to our members. However, it does not mean "we can't make a profit", far from it. Without profit, we have no spare capital for either new initiatives or to deal with the inevitable setbacks (e.g. loss of income due to bush fires).

Anyway, some of the key questions we need to clearly answer include:

• What is the purpose of our business? (why do we exist?)
• What is the market that we are prepared to service (our focus) and how will we reach them?
• What do we want to look like in (say) five years time? (our vision)
• What is important to us? (our values?)
• What are the forces which are driving trends in prices, costs, demand, competitive activity in our defined industry segment? (PEEST Analysis)
• What will be our sustainable competitive advantage (what will be the compelling reasons why people commit to us instead of some other endeavor)?
• What resources or skills must we have in order create and sustain this vision?
• What are the key performance indicators and how will we track them?

The committee has started discussing these questions, with an early focus on understanding the driving forces affecting our market, members and competition. Once we have a picture of these forces, we can then start to think about the implications for us. Are these trends a threat to us or might they represent an opportunity too?

We'd like some feedback and input from you on our so-called PEEST analysis document, located in the club wiki at http://www.glidingclub.org.au/wiki/PEEST. No, this is not about reporting the blood alcohol content of members on a Sunday morning. Rather, is focused on two questions:

• What are the Political, Economic, Environmental, Social and Technological trends affecting our market and members?
• What are the implications for us?

Please send any comments or thoughts to committee@glidingclub.org.au or one of the committee members.

We're now defining a draft vision for the future plus answering the other questions, in a series of half-day workshops, usually held on a Sunday morning in Melbourne. If you are interested in participating, drop our President a line (John's details). The next workshop is 9am to 1pm, Sunday 5th August at the Tivoli Club, 291 Dandenong Road, Windsor.

Later in the year, we will hold a form of "town hall meeting" to get your input and feedback so we can come to a definitive view of some of these key issues, a view that the members support.

Our goal is to lay out a five-year plan that we, and succeeding committees, can work towards. Our current solid financial position provides us with some freedom to start improving things and having a long-term plan ensures good decision-making along the way.

John Gwyther