Keeping our priorities in order

Strategic goals stay on course with only slight corrections

• Strategic goals teams updates

It's always nice to know if you are on the right track. At our October meeting, the Board of Directors affirmed that the Association's strategic plan is heading in the right direction.

During a half-day review and planning session Oct. 25, the Board decided that the five strategic goals we adopted three years ago are still relevant and on point. Most importantly, the Board decided that staff is successfully interpreting and implementing the vision represented by the goals.

Phillip Boyle of Leading and Governing Associates led the Board of Directors through the strategy session. Boyle facilitated the multi-year strategic planning and visioning process that eventually produced the original five strategic goals in 2005, so he is very familiar with the Board's objectives.

District 3 Director Joe Wiggins (left) of Jones County and Tax & Finance Steering Committee Co-Chair Fred McClure of Davidson County engage in a strategic goals exercise during the Oct. 24-25 NCACC Board of Directors meeting. (Photo by Todd McGee)

We were divided into five groups – one representing each goal. Each group was asked to assess whether the goal was still needed, to review the actions taken by staff to achieve this goal, and to devise new strategies for accomplishing the goal.

A couple of the groups decided that their goal's language needed minor tweaking, but all groups felt good about the implementation plan devised by Executive Director David F. Thompson. Each group also identified new ways that the Association can achieve these goals.

When the Board of Directors first authorized the long-range planning and visioning project in 2002, the goal was to define ways for this Association to remain relevant in the services we provide for our 100 member counties. As we prepare to kick off our second century of existence, it is indeed nice to know that we are on the right track.

Learning to lead

One of the most important educational programs the Association sponsors is the Essentials of County Government program, which is offered every two years in the winter following the county commissioner elections.

The School of Government at UNC-Chapel Hill partners with Association staff to devise an intensive three-day training session that covers almost everything county commissioners need to know. (For more information, click here).

The session is geared toward newly elected county commissioners, but serves as a valuable refresher course for even the most seasoned county commissioners.

Prior to this year's schools, the School of Government will hold a separate LeaderShop on growth and its corresponding impact on local infrastructure needs (for more information, click here).

This one-day workshop is offered through the Local Elected Leaders Academy, a program of continuous education and training for North Carolina's local elected officials that is part of the Association's strategic goals implementation plan. I strongly urge all commissioners – new and veteran – to attend both the LeaderShop and Essentials of County Government.