I’d like to make the OCW/OER community aware of two important upcoming opportunities to participate in shaping the future direction of the OCW Consortium. The Consortium develops and maintains two key planning documents, a strategic plan and a business plan. New strategic and business plans are due to be drafted in the coming months, and I am happy to invite the community to share in the development of these documents.

The strategic plan is designed to represent the consensus of the community on the strategic direction and priorities of the organization, and is submitted to the Board of Directors every other year by the Consortium president. The business plan is submitted to the Board of Directors every year by the Executive Director, and represents the Executive Director’s plan in the coming year to use the resources of the Consortium to achieve the goals identified in the strategic plan. You can access the current versions of these documents on this page under the “OCWC planning documents” link.

FY2011 Business Plan

The business plan for fiscal year 2011 (based on the FY10-11 strategic plan) is due to be submitted to the board of directors for the upcoming global meeting in Hanoi, May 5-7. As part of the drafting process, OCWC Executive Director Mary Lou Forward will be hosting an e-mail based discussion of the current business plan (FY10) in order to gather community input for the drafting of the FY11 plan. The e-mail list for the discussion is businessplan at ocwconsortium dot org and the dates for the discussion are March 15-April 16. Mary Lou will send out an invitation e-mail to the community with further details and instructions as to how to register for the mailing list. The draft of the FY11 business plan will be made available prior to the Hanoi meeting for final community input.

FY2012-2013 Strategic Plan

The most recent strategic plan, covering the fiscal years 2010 and 2011, was developed primarily though and organizational effectiveness planning process in late 2008 and early 2009, supported by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation. While the process included surveys and interviews of community members, the timing of the process did not allow for wide community discussion. I am pleased that for the next iteration, we will have much more time for community input.

The final draft is due to be submitted to the Board of Directors at the January 2011 board meeting, but the first steps of the process are to gather community input through an e-mail-based discussion I will host from April 5-April 30 and through an open session at the Hanoi meeting to gather input in person. The mailing list for this discussion is strategicplan at ocwconsortium dot org, and I will send out an invitation message with more details and how to register for the list as well.

Please Participate

These two drafting processes are the key direction-setting exercises for the Consortium and are your chance to have a voice in the future direction of the organization. Please take this opportunity to provide you input.