OWAA Strategic Plan - 2004-2005

OWAA Vision 

“Developing professional communicators today for a better outdoors tomorrow.”

OWAA Mission

“Improve the professional skills of our members, set the highest ethical and communications standards, encourage public enjoyment and conservation of natural resources, and be mentors for the next generation of professional outdoor communicators.”

OWAA Goals

A. OWAA will continue to enhance services that enable members to make more money.

B. OWAA will maintain its financial stability

C.  OWAA will maintain and enhance its leadership role in defending members’ intellectual property rights, promoting free and vigorous outdoors media.

D. OWAA will develop and implement a membership recruitment and retention plan designed to both increase membership from among traditional audiences and diversify membership.

E. OWAA will aggressively implement a mentoring program for new OWAA members as they join and at conference and will continue to develop mentoring for college students at conferences and through internships.

F. OWAA will review new technologies that could be used to enhance member services and communications, headquarters operations and promotion of OWAA and implement changes approved by the Board of Directors.

OWAA Objectives

Note: All plans required in the action items below will list specific outcomes, benchmarks and timelines, assigned staff or membership (who will do the work), resources needed, potential revenues generated and how success will be measured.

A. OWAA will continue to enhance services that enable members to make more money.

Action Items:

A. 1 Teach marketing skills through OU. Continue to inform members about new markets and market opportunities through Outdoors Unlimited.

Performance measure: Focus editorial in six of 12 issues of Outdoors Unlimited annually on such topics. Possible topics to include:

• Beyond hook and bullet – how to sell stories to publications targeting fraternal organizations, seniors, women, Scouts, tourism (including regional and in-flight magazines) and adventure sports – paddling, backpacking, mountain biking, birding
   

• Tapping non-consumer markets – e.g. Cookbooks for companies – Louisiana cuisine for Lake Charles CVB with text about local attractions
   

• Think odd: Regional specialty companies sometimes need public relations/marketing help. A cookbook featuring the company’s products could fill a double niche.Visitor’s bureaus might pay for design of a guide to area hiking, biking, hunting, or fishing.
   

• Think travel: travel Web sites and magazines as markets – need to find member who works these markets.

A. 2 Develop marketing skills through annual conferences.

Performance measure: At each of the next three annual conferences (2004-2006):

• Devote significant portions of the conference agenda to marketing topics. Specific attention will be given to structuring conference sessions to offer hands-on experience and skill-building workshops rather than lectures. Minimum 20 percent of conference programs focus on such topics and at least three per year should be hands-on.
   

• Structure breakout day to include 10- to 15-minute informational sessions by supporting members that provide story ideas and content. Participation by minimum of five supporting members.
   

• Maintain conference focus on emerging technology--digital cameras, personal digital assistants, computer software & hardware, Internet, cell phones. Minimum two conference programs annually on emerging technology.
   

• Ensure that hands-on technology programs are geared to participants. Offer different levels where appropriate.
   

• Ensure space for most members who want to participate. This sounds obvious, but we turned away many from the digital photo session in Columbia.
   

• Offer nuts-and-bolts sessions on basic photo sales techniques, such as how to take product photos, how to package and track photo sent out with manuscripts. Minimum of one program per conference.

A. 3 Conduct writing seminars nationwide, promote them and charge enough to pay OWAA members to conduct them and make money for OWAA, too. These must be general enough to appeal to writers in other fields besides hunting, fishing and the outdoors. Good writing is universal.

Performance measure: Develop action plan and report to Board by April 2005.

A. 4 Conduct photography workshops – same as above.
Performance measure: Develop action plan and report to Board by April 2005.

A. 5 Identify and build partnerships that open up money-making opportunities for OWAA members. For example contacting producers of major consumer and shows--in and out of outdoor industry--to see if they would be willing to hire OWAA members to speak at their conferences. OWAA can handle the listing and will take a small percentage of any OWAAer who gets work from the listing.

Performance measure: Pursue at least one such partnership annually and report to Board.

A. 6 Provide members information through OU and conference programs about pricing products (newspaper columns, magazine articles, broadcast shows, videos, photos or artworks) to determine whether accepting an assignment is a money-making or losing proposition.

Performance measure: Include in OU not later than June 2005.

 

B. OWAA will maintain its financial stability.

Action Items:

B. 1 Conduct a 10-year financial assessment of OWAA.

Performance measure: Working with Finance Committee, make specific recommendations to the Board by June 2006 concerning but not limited to:

• Increasing non-dues revenues. “Merchandise makes money,” says Jill Easton. She suggested producing an OWAA cookbook, a project that made SEOPA more than $10,000. She also suggested the possibility of raffling off the opportunity to spend a day of “field research” with a big-name writer/photographer/television show host.
   

• Increasing conference profitability
   

• Reducing operating budget dependency on dues
   

• Building OWAA’s endowment fund to $1 million and determining how to use the funds.
   

• Reducing debt.

C. OWAA will maintain and enhance its leadership role in defending members’ intellectual property rights, promoting free and vigorous outdoors media.

Action Items:

C. 1 Continue efforts to combat coercive use of unfavorable contracts and encourage publishers to negotiate reasonable terms.

Performance measure: Continue working with relevant committees and report progress in Outdoors Unlimited quarterly.

D. OWAA will develop and implement a membership recruitment and retention plan designed to both increase membership from among traditional audiences and diversify membership.

Action Items:

D. 1 Survey potential members to learn what OWAA would need to offer to get them to join. Performance measure: Report results by June 2006.

D. 2 Increase attendance at OWAA conferences.

Performance measure: Increase attendance by 5 percent annually for the next five years.

Suggestion: One way of doing this is to offer more on-site story and photo opportunities like the family boat building project at the 2003 conference.)

D. 3 Develop and implement plan for in-depth needs assessment and evaluation of conference, including both attendees and non-attendees.

Performance measure: Deliver plan to Board by June 2005. Conference evaluation form given to all attendees is a useful tool here. Continue to refine this to yield the information we need.)

D. 4 Maintain visibility at trade shows and related venues.

Performance measure: Staff will attend five trade shows, writers conferences, etc. annually to recruit active and supporting members.

D. 5 Develop recruiting plan by June 2004. (Accomplished)

D. 6 Increase representation of broadcast media among active members.

Performance measure: Contact at least 50 prospective members annually via letters and personal contacts.

D. 7 Work with schools of journalism and communications in conference states to encourage student attendance.

Performance measure: Work with one school per conference.

D. 8 Contact deans of journalism and communications about establishing mentorship arrangements. Letter followed up with personal contact or fishing/hunting trip with local OWAA member.

Performance measure: Contact at least 10 deans annually through 2007.

D. 9 Reach out to recruit new supporting members from among non-commercial organizations.

Performance measure: Identify at least 10 organizations by 2005. Contact members in at least two organizations per year through 2010.

D. 10 Obtain membership lists from state and regional outdoor communicator groups and recruit new members from their ranks.

Performance measure: Work with one group per year.

E. OWAA will aggressively implement a mentoring program for new OWAA members as they join and at conference and will continue to develop mentoring for college students at conferences and through internships.

Performance measures: to be set by Mentoring Committee.

F. OWAA will review new technologies that could be used to enhance member services and communications, headquarters operations and promotion of OWAA and implement changes approved by the Board of Directors.

Performance measures: to be developed by Executive Director.