The MiALA Strategic Planning Team has been working throughout the year to create MiALA's first strategic plan. In the fall we conducted focus groups with members and non-members and also ran a survey to hear what folks thought should be included. The team has used that information to write this draft.
The Board has approved a draft of this plan at their recent meeting and we would now like to open up this draft to the membership for comment.
We look forward to hearing what you think! The plan will help guide MiALA decision-making for the next 3-5 years. The MiALA Board will be the key accountable party for implementing what is in the plan but the Strategic Planning Team wants to encourage all members to see themselves in the plan and to initiate implementation of different suggested actions through committee and IG participation.
April 11, 2025
The Strategic Planning Team has been in writing mode since our daylong meeting back in November of 2024. After an initial draft was written in parts by different small groups and then revised twice, a subsection of the team did a “deep dive” into the draft and edited for consistency of voice and ensured it accurately reflected the reports generated by the MCLS consultants synthesizing all of the feedback from stakeholders.
This week the draft was taken to the board and the next step will be to open it up for public review.
Here’s what our timeline looks like:
April 14th - 25th - The Strategic Planning Team (SPT) facilitates an open comment period to collect additional MiALA membership feedback
April 17th from 10-11am and April 22nd from 4-5pm - the SPT holds open "Office Hours" for members and especially committee members to ask questions and discuss the plan
April 25th - the SPT meets and discusses comments
April 28-30th, the SPT makes final tweaks to the plan and submits it back to the board for review and final approval
May 1st - Board approval of final strategic plan and SPT attends (you all should have hopefully been added to the invite)
May 19-20 - MiALA Conference, the SPT presents the plan during a breakout session and Mies talks about the plan at the Membership Meeting. Team celebration TBD
Post-conference, conclusion of SPT work and MiALA Board takes on the responsibility of activating the plan including timelines, charges to different committees and working groups, developing review cycle and annual affirmation of plan strategic goal areas and actions.
We appreciate the membership’s engagement with this process! And look forward to celebrating a new strategic plan soon!
November 22, 2024 Strategic Planning Update from retreat
The MiALA Strategic Planning Team appreciates the rich feedback they've received from members through the stakeholder conversations and survey. The Team came together for a visioning retreat on November 22 to discuss this feedback and help inform a new draft vision statement and key strategic priorities. Look for additional opportunities to provide input into a draft plan in February.
October 7, 2024 Strategic Planning Survey
The Michigan Academic Library Association (MiALA) is continuing our Strategic Planning work with a survey for members and non-members. In addition to recent engagement sessions, this survey will help MiALA hear from a wide audience and better understand how we’re currently meeting the needs of Michigan’s academic library students, staff and faculty and how we might serve our community moving forward. Your feedback will be used to inform our strategic planning process.
Those who complete the survey can enter a drawing for one of four $50 gift cards.
Your participation is invaluable and will help to shape the future of MiALA, and we look forward to sharing what we learn, and the completed strategic plan with you in the coming months.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Julie Garrison (julie.garrison@wmich.edu) or Denise Leyton (dmleyton@umich.edu). We look forward to hearing from you and we hope you can join us!
September 27, 2024 Strategic Planning Update from October Newsletter
The Strategic Planning team wanted to provide a short timeline update on our progress.
From September 19 – September 18 MCLS held four different 90 minutes focus groups with the following levels of participation:
Session 1: 9
Session 2: 12
Session 3: 24
Session 4: 7
While those sessions have been held we’ve been working on finalizing a member survey to allow everyone to provide input into the process. We’re hoping the survey will go out in early October. So please keep an eye out on the listserv for survey link. If you don’t see the email please check your junk mail folder as some listserv messages get filtered. Thanks for your involvement in helping us to set our strategic direction!
August 29, 2024 Strategic Planning Focus Groups
As a valued stakeholder in the Michigan Academic Library Association (MiALA), we invite you to a virtual conversation about our future. This is a chance for us to better understand how people value and utilize the resources of MiALA, as well as how we might serve our community moving forward. Your feedback will be used to inform our strategic planning process. Your participation is invaluable and will help to shape the future of MiALA, and we look forward to sharing what we learn, and the completed strategic plan with you.
Each 90-minute conversation will be facilitated by Jan Davidson and Jenny Kobiela-Mondor, consultants with our partners in strategic planning, Midwest Collaborative for Library Services.
For your participation, you will receive a 25 dollar gift card in appreciation of your time and contribution to our planning process.
There are four opportunities to add your voice to the strategic planning process. Please register now!
If you have any questions, please reach out to Julie Garrison (julie.garrison@wmich.edu) or Denise Leyton (dmleyton@umich.edu). We look forward to hearing from you and we hope you can join us!