CLEARING THE CLUTTER: First Set the Priorities

Despite the fact that financial resources are getting tighter and associations are expected to do more with less, one of the most difficult things to do is to kill a committee or program. As soon as one is threatened the alumni association of the project program or activity comes out of the woodwork and campaigns for the activity that hasn’t done anything but use money or staff time for a decade without any discernable results.

All too often it is the pet project or legacy of a past chief elected officer. Its defenders can show by tortured reasoning how it has some remote link to the strategic plan. Most strategic plans are so general that nothing is excluded in the first place, but that is another article.

Board members will agree that priorities must be set as long as their favorites are not excluded.

Fortunately, there are several basic tools that can help an organization set priorities by forcing choices to be made.

List all projects, programs and activities with their allocation of resources ­ money, staff time, and volunteer time. Vote:

1. On each item on a 1 to 5 scale where 1=are you crazy? and 5= it is the core of our purpose. Or ,

2. Give each person 100 points to spread around however they wish. Or,

3. Give each individual or group of 2 or 3 persons some peel off dots to spread around as votes. (The options are posted on newsprint around the room.) Or,

4. Use some other technique but be sure that it forces choices to be made.

Re-sort the items into priority order and start assigning resources. When you run out of a resource, draw a line. You will probably notice that there are some items below the line that are net generators of resources: mostly activities that soak the supplier community, trade shows, advertising, sponsorships. Move them above the line and continue to assign resources until they run out. Anything remaining below the line is killed.

To do this effectively you need prior consent to the process and a willingness to be bound by the outcome, a program-based budget process that includes the value of staff time on projects, programs and activities, and a rule that new activities that require resources are not approved until and unless the resource impact is assessed and dealt with.

-Henry Ernstthal, CAE

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