IPRA Today - Award Nomination Deadline is October 11th!

What a great time to be involved with IPRA!

Visit the conference website for more information and register today; the early registration deadline is Friday, November 22. Dues renewal also begins this week. Dues rates in 2014 will remain the same with 15 month membership options for brand new members and a $15 discount for members who renew by December 15. Two free i-Pad minis will be raffled off to members who renew online (it will go to the members registered regardless of who registers them), and now this year we are also adding a $10 discount for members outside of the Chicago-Metro region, for those who have the main administrative office outside of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and Will counties.

Plus, the IPRA board recently approved our new five-year strategic plan. This was a process that started last fall, utilizing a national expert, Ann Atkinson, to work with us to develop a "revolutionary" plan that will respect our history while moving us purposefully into a new position. As part of this process, we completed 14 focus groups all over the state. Every IPRA member was invited to participate in the process. The results were used to create a draft plan. After careful thought, revisions, and the addition of several complementary proposals that bring it all together, the board approved the package September 26. This plan will be a five-year plan, beginning January 1, 2014, going through 2018.

Our new mission is to provide and promote exceptional standards of education, networking, and resources for all professionals in the Illinois park, recreation, and conservation communities.

Our new purpose is to improve individual lives, strategically mobilize current and future stakeholders and serve as the unbiased resource for parks, recreation, and conservation.

Our new vision is, "IPRA leads the nation in providing premier education, networking, and resources for professionals in parks, recreation, and conservation."

What We Believe: a) inclusiveness of diverse stakeholder groups, b) intentionally improve all lives, c) fiscal responsibility, accountability and transparency in all of our activities, and d) creating a forum for uniting the diverse IPRA Community around common ideas and future trends.

Our plan will include these key areas:

Strategic partnerships/alliances: We will expand our reach into specific target markets, growing our membership base, conference attendees, and partnerships.
Brand identity (reputation): We will develop IPRA as a resource for our members and the public to show the value of parks and recreation.
Research and advocacy: We will create Communities of Interest (COIs), which are online communities with a start date and an end date that are focused on a key question or issue. Of note, it is NOT our intent to mirror IAPD’s advocacy efforts, only to advocate from a very broad perspective, educating the public about the values of parks and recreation.
Knowledge management: We will develop new ways that we can gather and distribute information to our members, including through networking.
Finances: We will diversify our revenue streams so we are less dependent on any one area of funding, protecting our financial base.

Our communication plan to ensure that all members have received communication about the plan will start with this newsletter article, and include presentations at IPRA’s quarterly open house and networking events, presenting the information separately to the IPRA Past Chairs/Presidents, Foundation Board members, Membership Council and Section Boards, and finally a member-wide event in December. We will then complete a statewide tour presenting the information regionally throughout the state.

As part of our positioning, the new governance model is that board will meet four times annually instead of six, meeting in each of the regions of the state. In each region, the board meeting will be tied to a local event whenever possible to allow board members to participate in local park and recreation activities. At each board meeting, local IPRA leaders and leaders of affiliate groups will be invited to join the IPRA board for networking opportunities in each region. IPRA’s board will be in the Chicago Metro region in February, the southern region in March, the Central region in August (with Park District and Conservation Day at the State Fair), and the northwest region in November.

Additionally, as part of our new plan, we have added a full-time position to our team and an outsource contractor. Alicia Welstein joins our team as our new administrative assistant and Dave Whorton will be on contract with us as our sponsorship manager to help us develop our sponsorship opportunities.

Our new plan included several components: mission, vision, purpose, belief statements, strategic plan, and framework of the plan, 2014 work plan, staffing/space plan, governance model, volunteer career path, bylaws revisions, and a communication plan for the new strategic plan, dues proposal, and a schedule for board meetings next year. This fall we will also develop a budget for 2014 based on the 2014 work plan. While there are many pieces that fit together that will move us forward to our new vision, they are the result of more than nine months of research, careful consideration, membership feedback gathering from 14 focus groups, analysis of trends, and financial planning. The board thoroughly reviewed several drafts of the documents before approving the package. None of it was taken lightly or without careful thought for our history, our members, or the character and the people we represent. I would invite you to join us for one of our local presentations on the plan. All members will have an opportunity to attend at least one local event to learn more about it.

-Debbie Trueblood, CAE

536 East Avenue, LaGrange, IL 60525 | Phone: 708-588-2280 | Fax : 708-354-0535