Strategic Plan

1. Promote the Council/Commission-Manager Plan as the premier plan for city and county management by supporting and defending this plan through education of the public, other governments, the media and other interested parties.
2. Provide for a strong organization that encourages professional development, exchange of experiences and cooperation among members.
3. Promote diversity within the Association and the profession providing opportunities for all individuals.
4. Provide quality programs to educate members, build awareness, foster professionaldevelopment and ensure competency through Florida.
5. Provide services, support and information to assist members in their professional development and in the execution of their professional manager roles.
6. Provide support for individuals desiring to be a local government manager.
7. Provide support for students seeking degrees in public administration who desire to enter the profession.
8. Support colleagues who are in transition, through information, networking and all means possible.
9. Promote and model ethical behavior for city and county managers as expressed in the ICMA Code of Ethics.
10. Recognize elected officials and local governments that support the purposes of the FCCMA, support the Council/Commission-Manager Plan and develop innovative technologies.
11. Embrace and encourage the growth of the profession of local government managers.
12. Promote local government management as a profession and enhance the public awareness of the professionalism of FCCMA’s members.
13. Serve as responsible financial stewards of the resources entrusted to the Association by its members and provide services in a cost effective and affordable manner to our constituents.
14. Be aware of and inform members of critical issues affecting local governments throughout Florida.

Objective A: Review the fiscal policies of FCCMA to ensure long-term sustainability.

1. Review services offered by FCCMA to determine their long-term needs and sustainability.
2. Disseminate information contained in the audit.
3. Review annually results of ICMA and other member services surveys to determine the appropriate services to be offered by FCCMA.

Objective B: Review the FCCMA’s dues structure and conference costs to ensure affordability and sustainability.

1. Review the financial impacts of changes in any proposed dues structure and membership to ensure that FCCMA remains financially viable.
2. Ensure that dues and conference costs remain affordable.
3. Consider the impact and feasibility of paying all or a portion of Board of Directors’ travel costs for FCCMA board meetings. 

  Objective C: Make FCCMA relevant on a regular basis. 

1.  Ensure effective communication and outreach with members.
2. Examine successor to Ken Small’s daily “CMs”, should this service stop.
3. Review funding for communication tools.
4. Consider outreach to university public administration classes to introduce FCCMA.

Objective D: Provide leadership development for future Board members in a manner that ensures opportunities for diversity on the Board of Directors are maintained and enhanced.

1. Offer opportunities for new talent on the Board of Directors.
2. Produce and make available an informational guide that describes how to be an active, contributing member of FCCMA and what is involved to get on the Board of Directors.
3. Evaluate creating an Affiliate and/or Student Board seat to represent this portion of the FCCMA membership.

Objective E: Analyze online resources to determine which are appropriate for FCCMA. 

1. Create an online directory, similar to ICMA’s “Who’s Who.”
2. Look at how online resources are maintained and which costs are involved.
3. Review and update information on the website to see if it is effective.
4. Develop a three-year strategic use of technology plan.

 Objective F: Review the role and effectiveness of Range Riders. 

1. Determine how many Range Riders are most effective in assisting city and county managers.
2. Ensure that a strategy is implemented that Range Riders with new and varied experience are available to FCCMA members.

Objective A: Increase membership in the Association to sustain long-term viability of the Association. 

1. Establish annual member growth and retention targets (e.g. 10% growth and 98% retention).
2. Develop annual recruitment plan for new members, including specific protocols for staff and Board members
3. Develop recruitment plan for non-traditional members (special districts and the like) and establish recruitment targets.
4. Develop recruitment strategies to increase membership by district and geographic areas.
   a. Review geographic areas that have limited representation in FCCMA and develop strategies to encourage membership.
   b. Review districts to determine if there are certain cities/counties within the district that have little or no participation in FCCMA and develop strategies to achieve certain penetration rates and membership levels by districts.
5. Continue to develop recruitment strategies for future managers (e.g. college students and department directors maybe as a tie to the Center for Florida Local Government Excellence).
6. Develop an FCCMA membership-mentor program and assign new members upon joining the Association.  (Different from coaching mentor.)
7. Consider development of alternative membership fee levels.  For example:
   a. Review the implications of modifications to dues structure as it pertains to membership.
   b. Consideration of a membership structure that provides for membership in FCCMA as well as a district or county chapter with FCCMA serving as a membership secretary.
8. Require district membership meetings for networking ideas and fellowship at least once each year in each distict..

Objective B: Recruit and retain quality local government professional managers and ensure that the Association is representative of Florida’s diversity.

1. Continue CFLGE Coaching and Mentoring program(s) to enhance the professionalism of local government managers and to aid in the recruitment and retention of quality managers.
2. Develop new programs to recruit and retain quality professional managers.  For example:
   a. Resume bank
   b. Manager Contract Bank
   c. Internship Program
   d. Job fair and other out-of-state outreach efforts
   e. Salary and benefit comparability
   f. Executive Development Fellowship
3. Continue outreach efforts to promote diversity within the membership and   encourage participation on the Board, committees and other activities of the Association.
4. Encourage/require more personal interaction between the Board and Membership, particularly through Districts and with MITs.
   a. Publish the annual Board meeting calendar in the electronic newsletter to encourage membership participation.
5. Continue to partner with ICMA and other associations (e.g. NACA) to expand state membership.

 Objective C: Identify and implement services desired by members to ensure continued value of membership dollars and achieve desired participation levels.

1. Biennially compare operations to other professional manager associations to determine if there are new or different services to be offered.
2. Continue outreach efforts to new managers and assistants, ensuring awareness of the programs available through the Association.
3. Implement an online membership directory.
4. Conduct and review surveys to determine member services desired and viability of implementing those desired services.  Some examples:
   a. More training opportunities
   b. Legislative impacts/updates
   c. List-serves for asking questions
   d. Performance measurement benchmarks/budget help sheet
   e. Clearing house/Blog for topical items
   f. Opportunities for research and pilot projects
   g. Member-in-Transition benefits
   h. Resource list of attorneys able and willing to provide legal services to Members
5. Encourage involvement by small municipalities and counties by:
   a. Providing financial assistance, if needed, to promote participation in FCCMA events
   b. Active Recruitment
   c. Support additional tech-based FCCMA events
   d. Regionalized events
6. Continue FCCMA Coaching and Mentoring programs.
7. Review Membership service options and see if they meet the diverse needs of the membership and implement programs to meet respective needs.
   a. Large governments versus small governments
   b. City versus county issues
   c. Geographic and/or district needs

Objective D: Improve communications and identify resource information on innovative government practices.

1. Identify resource material and create white papers on areas of interest to local government managers to include:
   a. Financial management principles for varying economic realities
   b. Innovative practices to help avoid lowering the quality of services provided by local government
   c. Review city/urban planning implications such as sprawl and land use review for the generation of appropriate economic growth.
2. Develop online learning programs
3. Develop online research capabilities
4. Continue the ongoing efforts to improve the electronic newsletter
5. Continue to develop opportunities to employ innovative technology to enhance communications with members.  Such as the following:
   a. Development of List Serve/Blogs
   b. Online Research
   c. Online Membership Directory
   d. Webinars
   e. Integration with social networking sites
   f. Mobile device compatibility
   g. User-friendly search function
   h. Content management system staff can maintain
6. Develop and promote Speaker’s Bureau for presentations to the Florida League of Cities, Florida Association of Counties, National Leagues of Cities and other related agencies.

Objective A: Provide quality continuing education programming which is relevant and appealing throughout the life cycle of a manager’s career.

1. Provide training through CFLGE and/or IOG to provide established CEU credits for Credentialed Managers regularly throughout the year.
2. Develop district training designed to address the issues of that particular region to allow for valuable networking opportunities, but to minimize travel costs associated with training. 
3. Provide information as to training opportunities offered by ICMA and other organizations that meet the training needs of Credentialed Managers.
4. Explore partnerships with other professional organizations to develop training that meets CEU requirements for complementary professional certifications such as the American Institute of Certified Planners, Government Finance Officers Association, engineering licensure, Professional Transportation Planner, etc.
5. Work with CFLGE and IOGs to provide ethics training on a regional basis.
6. Develop mentoring program to support assigning a mentor to each assigned member of the Credentialed Manager program (may include requirement to take the ICMA Applied Knowledge Assessment).
7. Implement a progressive Emerging Leaders Development Program.
8. Continue to review, evolve and enhance the FCCMA Coaching program to include opportunities for development of district-level coaching events and program.
9. Focus on developing web-based training opportunities.
10. Actively promote district training events throughout the state.
11. Create a “Hot Topic” blog that will allow members to share ideas regarding “real time” issues.

Objective B: Develop programs that inspire and encourage growth in the profession

1. Collaborate with other professional organizations that typically attract department-specific members to offer joint meetings, training, education, etc.
2. Encourage managers to offer opportunities within their organizations to gain exposure to the profession.
3. Provide opportunities for local government staff within departments to participate in FCCMA programs, events, training.
4. Expand marketing of education, training, programs, events to other professional organizations and to a greater depth within local governments
5. Encourage non-credentialed managers to become credentialed and provide support through the process.
6. Continue “So You Want To Be” sessions at the annual conference and at other times if possible.  Disseminate attendee lists to all members to encourage continuing dialogue.

Objective A: Increase public awareness of local government ethics

1. Continue public education and public relations efforts highlighting expectations and examples of ethics in government.
2. Educate members how to properly incorporate citizen input into public decision making (i.e. surveys, focus groups, etc.).

Objective B: Expand ethics education initiatives and programming for FCCMA members.

1. Continue to update and enhance the ethics session on the FCCMA website.
2. Provide education regarding the development and implementation of ethical assessments.
3. Work with the Florida Commission on Ethics to develop an ethics hotline.
4. Develop an ethical education partnership with the Florida League of Cities (FLC) and the Florida Association of Counties (FAC), including the development and distribution of educational materials.
5. Assist members with development of ethics education for their organizations’ employees.

Objective A: Maintain and improve the Association’s relationships with the State’s universities (public and private) and other educational institutions.

1. Work with universities to have at least one member on the Advisory/Alumni Board of each MPA program in the state.
2. Work with CFLGE to develop a standardized presentation for collegiate job fairs and classroom visits.
3. Provide a module through which a local government can work with an educational institution to develop and support an internship (CFLGE).
4. Develop a speakers’ bureau organized by FCCMA District to respond to opportunities to participate in collegiate job fairs and for classroom visits at the high school and college level.
5. Strongly market FCCMA programs to educational institutions and students.
6. Develop performance targets for collaboration with educational institutions.
7. Work with CFLGE to enhance and strengthen relationships with IOGs at Florida universities.