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. Adventure is at the core of who we are as Mountaineers, but for us, it’s adventure with a purpose. Vision 2022, our next strategic plan, will outline the best ways we can continue to carry forward our legacy of volunteer-led outdoor education and conservation advocacy and you can get involved.
Our last strategic plan, Vision 2017, set the bar high. It was a bold plan at a time of considerable change for our club, and came at a time when change was necessary to continue our legacy. The plan was built around 6 pillars.
Reading right to left, we intended to grow in three phases. First, we launched youth programs, re-imagined our role in conservation, and focused efforts on building strong community gathering places to serve as gateways to the outdoors. Next, we launched a new website and an e-learning pilot to grow digital content, and we hired a Leadership Development Manager to offer additional support for our volunteer leaders. Finally, we launched a project called Progressive Climbing Education, the first step of a broader initiative to create a trailmap to support our passionate volunteer instructors in providing world-class outdoor education. All of these efforts fell under an overall umbrella goal of growing and revitalizing our community of passionate adventurers.
It worked. In the last 5 years, we saw membership increase 26% and revenue increase 29%. Our courses are filling, and many have waitlists for the first time. Members and volunteers have reported higher levels of satisfaction and our reputation in the broader community has improved.
We still have many opportunities to advance our mission and serve our members and the outdoor community. The current demand to connect people with the outdoors exceeds our ability to provide programs. We are super-powered by volunteers and need to continue efforts to support and nurture this incredibly unique resource. Our Publications are recognized on a global scale, and we need to learn how to better support and leverage that expertise within our courses and online. And public lands are in need of protection and stewardship now more than ever.
Building our next strategic plan
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 plan needs to be bold, pragmatic, and inspiring. It should be aspirational while also outlining achievable actions and resources to implement it effectively. It will be evolutionary, building on the progress of Vision 2017. We will work together to decide on a specific set of priorities - "bets" - to make disproportionate investments to have disproportionate impact. We will use our Core Values, outlined at our November 2016 Board Retreat, as guiding principles for the plan.
The Vision 2022 Committee
We outlined the overall process in our first Vision 2022 blog, and to help guide this process we have created the Vision 2022 Committee, an ad hoc committee of the board assembled to guide this process, provide substance to the vision behind the vision, ask provocative questions, and challenge us to push ourselves further. The committee members are:
Voting Members
- Elaina Jorgenson - Everett branch chair
- Gabe Aeschilman - advisory council member
- Martina Kozar - Mountaineers board member
- Martinique Grigg - former Executive Director
- Matt Sullivan - Past Mountaineers board member
- Mona West – advisory council member, past board member, interim ED
- Sarah Anderson - Mountaineers board member
- Steve McClure - Mountaineers board member and Freedom 9 author
- Stephen Tan - Braided River board member
Ex-Officio/Non-Voting Members
- Bill Ashby - staff, Operations Director at The Mountaineers
- Geoff Lawrence - board, President
- Helen Cherullo - staff, Publisher at Mountaineers Books
- Kristina Ciari - staff, Communications & Membership Director The Mountaineers
- Mary Hsue - staff, Development Director The Mountaineers
- Tom Vogl - staff, CEO The Mountaineers
The committee's main goal is to provide strategic clarity. If we want to make the impact we desire (which is something our entire community will work together to determine), we can't do everything. The committee will work to synthesize feedback with the goal of achieving the tightest fit between actions taken and the desired intended impact.
We hope to develop a plan that will help us say yes to opportunities where we are best suited to deepen our impact, while giving us the tools to say no to things that are outside of scope. If we are successful in this process, all members of our community will understand who we are, what we do, and how we contribute to outdoor recreation, education, and conservation.
To help drive the conversation around strategic clarity, I'd like to encourage you to complete a short pre-read about the framework we're using for the process. We will likely discuss this piece of "homework" at our town hall meetings, and plan to unveil our 80% Intended Impact & Theory of Change draft in an upcoming blog.
Next Steps + Town Hall Feedback Opportunities
We spent the last month assembling the steering committee with representation from the Board and the greater Mountaineers community. This June we will hold our first round of Town Hall meetings, after which we will create a constituents survey to provide opportunities for everyone in our community to provide their input.
Sign up for a Town Hall Meeting:
- June 20: South Sound/Tacoma - RSVP
- June 21: North Sound/Everett - RSVP
- June 22: Central Sound/Seattle - RSVP
We will plan to have food and beverages at each meeting. Please RSVP today to help us plan ahead for attendance.
Big Picture Process Plan
Our goal is to have a draft plan for review by the Board at our November Board Retreat and a final plan ready for approval at our January 2018 Board meeting. 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.
