National SPJ Strategic Planning Task Force updates its work at EIJ19 session
By Randy Showstack
- What do we desire or expect SPJ to be known for representing across the long-term?
- What are SPJ’s competitive advantages and disadvantages compared with other journalism organizations?
- How can we effectively accelerate SPJ’s evolution without alienating certain member groups?
With SPJ in the midst of creating a strategic plan to guide the society over the next several years, these are some of the guiding questions posed by the Society’s Strategic Planning Task Force.
At EIJ19 in San Antonio, the task force presented a progress report to update members about the strategic planning, discuss results of a recent member survey, and outline next steps in the planning process.
“We’re not talking about a 25-year vision. We’re not talking about a decade-out vision, but we’re talking largely the next 1-3 years. What does that blueprint look like for the short and medium term?” then-task force chair and SPJ at-large board member Victor Hernandez said at the meeting at EIJ19.
Hernandez chaired the task force since its appointment earlier this year and during phase one of its efforts. Following EIJ19, SPJ President-Elect Matt Hall took over as chair. When SPJ’s new executive director is in place, “it’s critical” for that person to be involved with strategic planning as well, said SPJ President Patti Gallagher Newberry. Plans call for the task force to present the draft of a strategic plan to the board in April 2020.
SPJ’s most recent strategic plan was created in 2007 but “was not a document that was largely implemented,” Hernandez said at the meeting. He said that the task force has reviewed that document as well as a May 2019 memo by former SPJ president David Cuillier that provides some thoughts and suggestions about the SPJ strategic planning process.
“The idea of doing a strategic plan can be very, very broad,” task force member April Bethea said at the meeting. “We wanted to make sure that we can focus on things that would help us not only come up with a plan that would be very specific, but something that could get buy-in from members and potential members and just folks in our industry as well.”
The guiding questions, including questions regarding what members value most about SPJ and what types of programs members want the Society to continue, have been important for directing the task force.
Hernandez said that when he thinks about SPJ, he visualizes a Swiss army knife, with dozens of different programs “that cover the gamut.” He said a consideration is whether the number of programs could be whittled down to those that members value the most.
“I think it’s obvious that we’re going to be making some changes, and we’re going to have to make our decisions about maybe what SPJ has done in the past that we should stop doing in the future,” said Bethea, who is also an SPJ Foundation board member and a former DC Pro Chapter board member. “But we want to make sure in making those decisions that we’re not cutting things that our members truly value.”
Bethea said that it’s important to consider how SPJ can evolve without alienating its current and loyal members. “We don’t want to change so much that you feel like you don’t have a home with SPJ anymore,” she said.
The results of a strategic plan member survey presented at the meeting found that 60% of survey respondents expect that SPJ will be known primarily over the next decade for its focus on ethics. This was followed by more than 50% of respondents listing the society’s focus on journalism training and open government. Between 30% and 40% of respondents listed career resources and diversity.
Of the survey’s 550 respondents, representing a 9.9% response rate, females and males responded nearly equally, while two-thirds of respondents were ago 50 or older. Hernandez said the sample size is small but that the response rate is acceptable for an external survey. However, he said that if the survey is repeated a better focus on getting feedback from younger members “is pretty critical.”
Among other survey findings, respondents said that the most impactful areas and programs for SPJ to focus on are advocacy for journalism, the Code of Ethics, industry relevance, media literacy and digital training.
The survey also found that respondents do not support moving headquarters to New York City or Washington, D.C., do not support changing SPJ’s name to the Society for Professional Journalism, and do support increasing SPJ’s lobbying efforts at the local and national levels.
We don’t want to change so much that you feel like you don’t have a home with SPJ anymore.
— April Bethea, task force member
In addition, the survey found that 68% of members are very likely to renew their membership in the upcoming year.
Hernandez said that “even through a relatively rocky year” that has included the search for a new executive director, “there’s still optimism from much of our members that they’re still interested in continuing that relationship. That’s a good thing.”
As the task force continues its efforts toward presenting the draft of a strategic plan to the board in April 2020, the task force plans to hold three online focus groups in October for professional members (Oct. 26), students (Oct. 28), and Post grads (Oct. 30).
Randy Showstack is 2019-2020 president of the SPJ DC Pro Chapter and was a chapter delegate to EIJ19. He is chair of the DC Pro Chapter board’s Committee of the Whole that is looking into the chapter’s collaboration with National SPJ staff and elected leaders and other appointees working on planning EIJ20, to be held Sept. 10-12 in Washington, D.C.