As Canada's national general farm organization, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has a great responsibility to defend and promote the agricultural sector. We cannot expect to do this properly without a clear strategy and direction on everything from CFA's governance structure to its advocacy work.
As such, this spring the CFA Board of Directors embarked on developing a five-year strategic plan, setting milestones and corresponding activities, timelines and work plans. The intensive planning sessions resulted in a clear vision for the CFA, its staff and agreed upon priorities. Further work will focus on revenue diversification, improving CFA/member communication, enhancing the effectiveness of current committee structure and rethinking how CFA policy is developed. While ambitious, the key is to ensure that once this exercise is done, it won't simply become another document on a shelf that is referred to occasionally, if at all. The strategic plan must instead remain a useful 'checks and balances' tool to help keep the CFA - your federation - relevant, vibrant and forward thinking. The critical piece in its success is you - our member. We need to realize in a very concrete way that our participation defines the organization. The strength of any organization and especially true of the CFA over its 75+ years of history and accomplishments, is that we cannot afford to work in silos. We all need to be a part of a united CFA vision, direction and lobby to be shared and communicated with government, stakeholders, public and media at the national level.
We are hopeful the strategic plan will help to better focus our limited human and financial resources and further focus the core strength of the organization in meeting our members' needs. Some of the plan's targets include a comprehensive Communications plan by February 2012; a new governance model by December 2011; advocacy strategies around areas like rural policy, the National Food Strategy and Growing Forward 2 and a strategy for new member acquisition and revenue by February 2012.
When complete, the plan should read as a clear set of instructions on how to get from point A to B and finally, enable us to confidently say that the CFA is fully representative of Canadian farmers and is the respected national face of agriculture.
I have been invited to present this new plan to members and their Boards. So far, the uptake has been very positive and the comments very helpful. In the next 6 months, I will continue to visit CFA members, collecting points of view on what the current CFA is and where it needs to be. I look forward to our future talks and hope we can count on your leadership in this long-term project.
CFA Vision Statement: We will be the national voice of Canadian farmers; committed to enabling their success, which will benefit Canada.
By Ron Bonnett, CFA President
As Canada's national general farm organization, the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) has a great responsibility to defend and promote the agricultural sector. We cannot expect to do this properly without a clear strategy and direction on everything from CFA's governance structure to its advocacy work.
As such, this spring the CFA Board of Directors embarked on developing a five-year strategic plan, setting milestones and corresponding activities, timelines and work plans. The intensive planning sessions resulted in a clear vision for the CFA, its staff and agreed upon priorities. Further work will focus on revenue diversification, improving CFA/member communication, enhancing the effectiveness of current committee structure and rethinking how CFA policy is developed. While ambitious, the key is to ensure that once this exercise is done, it won't simply become another document on a shelf that is referred to occasionally, if at all. The strategic plan must instead remain a useful 'checks and balances' tool to help keep the CFA - your federation - relevant, vibrant and forward thinking. The critical piece in its success is you - our member. We need to realize in a very concrete way that our participation defines the organization. The strength of any organization and especially true of the CFA over its 75+ years of history and accomplishments, is that we cannot afford to work in silos. We all need to be a part of a united CFA vision, direction and lobby to be shared and communicated with government, stakeholders, public and media at the national level.
We are hopeful the strategic plan will help to better focus our limited human and financial resources and further focus the core strength of the organization in meeting our members' needs. Some of the plan's targets include a comprehensive Communications plan by February 2012; a new governance model by December 2011; advocacy strategies around areas like rural policy, the National Food Strategy and Growing Forward 2 and a strategy for new member acquisition and revenue by February 2012.
When complete, the plan should read as a clear set of instructions on how to get from point A to B and finally, enable us to confidently say that the CFA is fully representative of Canadian farmers and is the respected national face of agriculture.
I have been invited to present this new plan to members and their Boards. So far, the uptake has been very positive and the comments very helpful. In the next 6 months, I will continue to visit CFA members, collecting points of view on what the current CFA is and where it needs to be. I look forward to our future talks and hope we can count on your leadership in this long-term project.
CFA Vision Statement: We will be the national voice of Canadian farmers; committed to enabling their success, which will benefit Canada.