Thank you to everyone who completed the survey, shared ideas in advance, attended our strategy session, and expressed interest in helping New Leash as we embark on building a Strategic Plan for the future. We are fortunate to have so many talented, passionate, and thoughtful individuals care about our rescue and its mission and as a result our first Strategy Session was a huge success. We want to provide a brief summary of our first formal meeting for what is now officially our 2019 Strategic Planning Group. You can learn more about our session below or skip to the bottom to find out how to get involved in next steps!

Discussion and Planning from our June 1st session focused on addressing feedback from our survey surrounding two core areas, Communications and Volunteer Engagement. Our goal is to implement an operational and volunteer plan offering clear and concise communications, support, and growth.

In order to stay focused we had note takers and moderators help keep us on task but still track the thoughts, needs, questions etc. we were generating! These ideas are preserved in the notes section of slide two* and will be consulted as we move forward.

In the Communications Section we discussed who are target audiences are, what types of communications we should be sharing, and methods we can use for communicating. The ideas generated from this discussion are in the notes of Slide 15.

As we turned to Volunteer Engagement we reviewed the historical “jobs” within New Leash and identified other needed roles. Groups drafted basic job descriptions for each of these roles. We discussed the need for these roles to be supported by committees of volunteers who help do the work of New Leash with the leadership of the volunteer in the specific “job.” Creating committees will help address several of the points brought up in the survey and in the strategy session regarding volunteer engagement. Structuring our volunteers in committees will make the work of operating NLOL manageable and allow more individuals to contribute their time and talents.

Finally we formed four Working Groups that will continue the work of the strategy session and help refine and implement the plans formed at this event. This is where we need you! Please consider joining one of the below working groups.

Volunteer Recruitment - This working group will refine the job descriptions and develop a plan for recruiting volunteers for these positions and their respective committees.
Communication Strategy - This working group will formalize a communications plan to include the ways in which we communicate internally and externally and the expectation of when/how often and what we communicate.
Documentation - This working group will consolidate, organize, and review NLOL’s current documentation. They will also identify additional documentation needed and develop a plan for generating the content.
Fundraiser - We need to raise some money and engage our network! This working group will plan a summer fundraiser!

The communication strategy, job roles, volunteer recruitment plan, and document plan will be presented at our next meeting July 13th 9:00 to 11:00.

We still need you to join in the planning and organizing! Email chicago@nlolchicago.org to join one or more of the working groups and to be added to our 2019 Strategic Planning email list to stay up to date on our progress and meetings. We hope to see you at our next meeting!

*The presentation which guided our discussion can be reviewed here.