Strategic Planning

The purpose of the UUCF Strategic Plan is to aid in accomplishing the mission and vision of the Congregation. The Strategic Plan reflects the thoughts, feelings, ideas, and wants of the members of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax. It is a tool for organizing the present on the basis of projecting the future.

The Plan is the result of a process designed to help the various ministries, committees, and programs of the congregation produce the information needed by the primary decision-making groups of the congregation—the Board, the Coordinating Team (CT), the Council of Lay Ministers (CLM), the various committees, and ultimately, the membership.

The process of developing the plan serves to foster discussion on UUCF priorities and the apportionment of resources (staff time and volunteer time, funding and facilities) toward those priorities. The plan enables the Coordinating Team, the Lay Ministers and the Board to appropriately support existing and emerging programs. It serves as a guide for the Lay Ministers in implementing and evaluating their programs and for making adjustments. Particularly, the plan will enable the Coordinating Team to make periodic decisions about resource allocation and program emphasis and content.

Definitions

The Strategic Plan has layered components. An organization’s mission and vision statements are the beginning point of a strategic plan. Under the governance model UUCF voted to follow, the next step in developing guides for the organization to fulfill its mission and vision are called ends statements, long-term and broad statements of what the institution wishes to become. The Board is responsible for writing these ends statements.

The next tier in a strategic plan includes goals. These are envisioned by congregational leadears at a planning session, further refined by the Coordinating Team for review again by leadership and then by the congregation as a whole. Usually, it will take more than one year to complete a goal, hence the creation of a strategic plan for three to five years. Just as the ends statements must be moving UUCF toward fulfilling its mission and vision, the goals must be moving us toward accomplishing one or more of the ends statements.

The final tier is composed of the many individual programs or action plans, which directly relate to the goals written by the Lay Ministers. These action plans include a description of the actions to be taken in completing the program (e.g., holding four orientation sessions a year), the financial and human costs involved, and an estimate of the demand on UUCF facilities. Each action plan or program must be tied to one or more ends statements, such that all of our programs are tied to reaching our mission and vision.

Keeping the Plan Current

UUCF Strategic Plan documents were updated in in 2007 and 2008. A new plan for 2010 through 2013 is under development. Each year, a report on progress toward goals has been presented to the Board. Each year, the Lay Ministers update the plan, deleting or deferring items that had been bypassed, and removing items that had been accomplished.

View the 2010-2013 Draft Strategic Goals.