Leadership Excellence and Culture of Service
Our Vision: Scouting's youth, volunteer leaders, and employees will exemplify leadership excellence and a culture of service to each other and the community.
Hoosier Trails Council Strategic Objectives and Goals
Objective 1: Establish a culture within our council of customer service and program excellence.
Strategies to Achieve the Objective:
1. Strive to enhance customer satisfaction through all levels of our organization; identify matrices to continuously gauge performance.
2. Develop a standard of goal achievement that recognizes our continual efforts to improve our youth-serving programs.
Specific Goals:
1. [January, 2011] The Customer Service Director will provide specific recommendations to improve:
- Camping experiences
- Trading Post experiences
- Service Center administrative support
- Unit/Council communications
2. Create a Trading Post customer service evaluation process that encourages feedback, rewards high standards of achievement, and enables rapid response to shortcomings. [January 2011]
3. Develop strategies that create ownership in the development of council and district objectives, tracking matrices that maintain focus, and a recognition program the honors achievement. [February 2011]
4. Institute daily leader's meetings at Camp Maumee to generate open communication and enabling staff to more quickly address customer service concerns. [June 2011]
5. Create a Scout Service Center customer service evaluation process that will provide insight on the level of service provided through the center. [July 2011]
6. Enhance council website by providing an interactive calendar that allows for on-line registration to events and summer camping, including a customer response survey for users of this feature. [December 2011]
7. Review progress seeking opportunities for continued improvement and set specific goals for the next year of the plan. [Annually]
Objective 2: Improve the council's administrative and governance structures to deliver higher quality programming.
Strategies to Achieve the Objective:
1. Standardize district structures and develop job descriptions that will enable districts to better serve local units.
2. Improve communications among districts.
3. Improve communications between the council and districts.
4. Design a staff organization structure that will best serve the needs of our territory.
5. Provide staff with the training and resources needed to accomplish their jobs.
6. Broaden the pool of volunteers that provide administrative oversight.
7. Promote and implement best practices for corporate governance.
Specific Goals:
1. Institute an environment of continual learning by sending professional staff to an annual staff development course. [Annually]
2. Sharpen the skill set of our support staff by investing in training. [Annually]
3. Enhance the staff's ability to provide meaningful service to the organization by adding the position of Council Program Director. [January 2011]
4. Recruit and empower a Compensation and Benefits Committee for the council. [January 2011]
5. By [February 2011] adopt the Performance Development System (PDS) to gauge staff job performance and recognize success appropriately through compensation and incentives, for all professional and support staff.
6. Complete design of council organization chart, including position descriptions. [March 2011]
7. By [June 2011], address all challenges identified in our recent Administrative Review and take appropriate actions to adhere to these administrative needs, and by [April 2014], request a follow-up review.
8. Complete design of standardized district organization chart, including position descriptions. [June 2011]
9. Enhance the staff's ability to provide meaningful service to the organization by converting the part-time position in the Trading Post to a full-time role. [August 2011]
10. Recruit and empower a Risk Management Committee for the council. [August 2011].
11. Conduct meetings that occur at least quarterly for District Chairmen and independent meetings for District Commissioners, aimed at improving communication and administrative successes stemming from the synergy created. [December 2011]
12. Enhance the staff's ability to provide meaningful service to the organization by adding a unit-serving executive to the organization structure. [March 2012]
13. Benefit from functioning council committees that have district representation and carry out the aims of the planned council organization structure. [December 2012]
14. Enhance the staff's ability to provide meaningful service to the organization by adding a unit-serving executive to the organization structure. [December 2013]
15. Review progress seeking opportunities for continued improvement and set specific goals for the next year of the plan. [Annually]
Objective 3: Enable visionary planning by empowering volunteer leaders.
Strategies to Achieve the Objective:
1. Adopt leadership succession planning at the council, district, and unit levels to ensure continuity and stability of programs.
2. Recruit additional volunteer leaders to spread responsibilities within our council.
3. Develop and provide resources to leadership of all levels within the council that makes involvement easy to commit to.
4. Change the culture of District and Council Nominating Committees into a year-round working group that is proactive in addressing leadership needs.
5. Reconnect with our communities through strategic volunteer leadership recruitments that ensure leadership is reflective of the demographics of our territory.
Specific Goals:
1. Expand the level of support at council and district levels by increasing participation by 10% annually throughout this plan. [Annually]
2. Initiate an annual Board Retreat, beginning [April 2011], to equip and empower volunteer leaders to achieve our objectives.
3. Institute an annual District Operations Workshop by [June 2012] that includes training to enhance the success of volunteer leaders in delivering quality programs and in recruiting additional volunteers.
4. Address succession planning needs by conducting Manpower Conferences that direct future leadership recruitment plans for the council and districts. [February 2012]
5. Review progress seeking opportunities for continued improvement and set specific goals for the next year of the plan. [Annually]
