Introduction
To discuss about how the Florida Fertilizer and Agrichemical Association (FFAA) could strengthen its long-range plan, FFAA contacted the PIE Center about holding a strategic planning workshop. FFAA sought to identify the most important issues facing the association’s members in order to create a plan to address them. The association also wanted to determine how current members view their return on investment in the organization as well as how the members viewed FFAA’s name, logo and overall brand.
The PIE Center conducted a facilitated workshop and focus group session with the FFAA board. The board of an organization is generally representative of the organization’s membership body as well as knowledgeable about the organization’s history and mission, making the board an ideal group for devising a comprehensive strategic plan.
Key findings
Board members were asked to split into five teams and list the biggest needs and priorities FFAA needed to address in the next five years. They eventually reduced the list and identified several key areas:
- Improving the overall image and sustainability of the agricultural industry
- Maintaining political lobbying efforts
- Increasing collaboration with similar organizations
- Lack of resources
- Increasing the visibility of FFAA
- Developing membership services
Although the board was able to condense the needs and priorities of FFAA, members debated the wording and potential redundancy of the current strategic plan’s goals, as well as the intent to be internal or external.
Although the board talked extensively about the perception and awareness of both the agricultural industry and FFAA, members shared little discussion of the association’s logo, brand or name. This might be inferred because the name, logo and brand identity elements are implied within industry and association awareness.
Recommendations
Based on the perceived ambiguity of the goals listed in the strategic plan, the PIE Center recommended that the FFAA board should conduct a full-day strategic planning session. During the meeting, FFAA board members should consider separating the association’s needs and priorities into internal and external categories, which will clarify the purpose of each. The FFAA board should also expand the current strategic plan to incorporate the six needs and priorities identified during the workshop, as well as a specific strategy to accomplish each and benchmarks to measure and evaluate success.
The PIE Center also suggested that FFAA develop and communicate the current membership services to current and potential FFAA members. The association should reevaluate categories of membership to be more inclusive of peripheral individuals who might be interested. The PIE Center also suggested that FFAA consider expanding the available membership services to include opportunities for networking, leadership development, advocacy and philanthropy. Visibility and transparency of membership services could increase overall membership and therefore the revenue of FFAA.
Many agricultural organizations have been working on outreach and educational efforts to help connect with the public. FFAA should collaborate with national and state organizations with parallel efforts. Collaborating and pooling resources with those organizations will distribute more knowledge about industry segments.
