The SCNA board has finalized its 10-year Strategic Plan, which will give the current board and future boards a way to make decisions beyond what might be momentarily expedient, or feel currently urgent.
“The plan centers around three of SCNA’s core values – community, stewardship and environmental sustainability, with four ‘headline goals’ that give us guidance on where we should be expending our efforts,” says SCNA President Eric Johnson. “Much of the discussion centered on what the headline goals should be.”
The board settled on four goals:
- Maintain financial sustainability;
- Be a community hub;
- Provide a forum for neighborhood interests;
- Deliver relevant programs.
Future boards and staff will be able to evaluate proposed programs and expenditures clearly. Does this fit in with the goals of our plan?
The board purposely kept the plan short and sweet, in outline form with specific line items and dates. There’s not much point in a plan if it’s full of gobbledy-gook, and even less if there’s no accountability.
This document is the culmination of more than a year’s work, multiple meetings in addition to regular board meetings, and a commitment from the board and SCNA staff to make it happen.
It’s going to be an evolving document, with revisions and updates on a regular basis to make sure the items continue to be relevant for the Sierra 2 Center and the neighborhood.
Committee chairpersons emphasize different aspects of the plan, from maintaining the Sierra 2 building as a historic but functional structure to involving the Curtis Park neighborhood in advocacy, volunteering and cultural activities.
Andrew Booth, who chairs the Facilities Committee, stressed the need to secure a long-term building lease to provide planning stability in the future. With such stability, Booth says, Sierra 2
“can be a hub for fun social events, philanthropic endeavors and political and community activist efforts. The Sierra 2 building is a physical symbol of the neighborhood, something we are fortunate to have in Curtis Park.”
Kat Haro, chair of the Development Committee, believes the plan will responsibly shape the future functional, financial and philosophical initiatives of SCNA and Sierra 2.
“We are at a turning point in our growth as an organization, from the events we run, to how we fund programs, to our general focus as an organization,” she says.
For John Matthews, chair of the Neighborhood Concerns Committee, a top priority is building a volunteer network.
“By joining our volunteer group, neighbors can give back to the community in a variety of ways, from assisting in events like Wine Tasting or the Egg Hunt, to spreading mulch around the park’s trees in the spring,” Matthews says.“Working together can cultivate and reinforce a great sense of neighborhood pride.”
Vice President Bruce Pierini emphasizes the need to develop a regular SCNA evaluation process whereby the board considers Sierra 2 room utilization, possible changes to the permanent tenant mix and in-room upgrades to improve user experiences and generate revenue.
“Secondly, a community hub needs an ever-expanding ‘brain,’ … a vital means of communications across the neighborhood and beyond,”
which Pierini identifies as including the Viewpoint and the Sierra2. org website. The full plan is posted on the SCNA website.