Tom Vogl
For 111 years, The Mountaineers has been a passionate group of bold explorers welcoming people from all walks of life into a community that shares deep connections to the outdoors. We’re adventurers driven by imagination, challenge, and the spirit of discovery.
We're excited to continue our legacy into the future, and that's why we've launched Vision 2022: our next strategic plan. The goal of Vision 2022 is to define and maximize our areas of greatest impact. Simply put, by disproportionately investing and focusing on a set of top priorities, we'll have the greatest impact in the coming years. The involvement of our volunteers, members, and staff will be critical for the success of Vision 2022.
The Process
We learned a lot during our Progressive Climbing Education (PCE) process last year, and the most important takeaway is that we need to offer opportunities to provide feedback - a lot of them! With Vision 2022, we'll follow a similar engagement process as PCE, and a similar process to development of our 2012 strategic plan. Participation from members of our community is critically important to the success of this strategic plan, and I am committed to offering multiple opportunities to provide feedback.
The work has already begun. We began 'planning to plan' at our Board retreat in November 2016 when we outlined our Core Values, which were finalized earlier this year. We also performed an analysis of our top strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This March, we continued conversations with the Board of Directors and branch leaders, and started creating a steering committee to help guide process.
We spent the last month assembling the steering committee with representation from the Board and the greater Mountaineers community. This summer we will hold our first round of Town Hall meetings and will create a constituents survey to provide opportunities for everyone in our community to provide their input. Look for more information on those items in the next few weeks.
The goal is to have a draft plan ready for review by the Board at our November Board Retreat and a final plan ready for approval at our January 2018 Board meeting. Between now and then, we'll host a series of Town Hall meetings, solicit feedback from our Advisory Council Members, volunteers, branch leaders and donors. We will also execute online surveys to give those unable to attend Town Halls the opportunity to provide feedback. Our Vision 2022 Committee will meet throughout 2017 to provide input and overall guidance for the process.
Follow the process on this draft Vision 2022 process map:
To stay up to date on Vision 2022, follow along on our Vision 2022 blog, follow us on Facebook, and be sure to read your emails from The Mountaineers. We will post opportunities to get involved and provide feedback on the blog, then we'll share those opportunities through social media and email.
The Outcome
Adventure is at the core of who we are as Mountaineers, but for us, it’s adventure with a purpose. That’s because we’re also fierce protectors of the outdoor experience and work to be a powerful voice of conservation and responsible access to our wild places. We are super-powered by volunteers and are committed to supporting and nurturing this incredibly unique resource. We are a community of like-minded humans fighting for a future we can all recognize and enjoy.
Vision 2022 will outline the best ways we can continue to 'adventure with a purpose' to help us nurture the next generation of Mountaineers - who will carry forward our legacy of volunteer-led outdoor education and conservation advocacy. Through this work we are ensuring our impact will be even greater than it is today, 111 years from now, and beyond.
