Abstract
A
To start by reminiscing, back in 2010, we created a strategic plan for 2011–2015. That plan's mission was to unite members of various medical specialties with the Founders' purpose just described. The plan's overarching goal was to ensure that ABM was recognized as the premier physicians' organization in breastfeeding and human lactation worldwide. Each of these six priorities was reviewed annually by ABM's Board of Directors.
1. Deepen ABM's identity as a global organization, with worldwide membership, leadership, activities, and relevance.
2. Maintain—and where possible increase—the number, circulation, usefulness, international relevance, and rigor of ABM protocols, including translation into more languages.
3. Develop a process to certify physicians as breastfeeding medicine experts or specialists.
4. Diversify the Academy's sources of funding and increase total income.
5. Increase membership in the Academy, broaden the diversity of the membership, and reinforce and increase the value of being a member.
6. Ensure more effective governance and management.
As expected, there is general agreement by the Board that we succeeded with the majority, but not all, of these goals and that there is always more to do.
So in early 2015, we convened a new Strategic Planning Committee. Committee members include me as Chair, Yvonne LeFort (global member), Nan Dahlquist (member-at-large), Larry Noble (Executive Committee member), Ann Kellams (Governance Committee Chair), Kira Neel (student member), and Karla Shepard Rubinger (Executive Director).
This seven-person committee met monthly during 2015 to “make a plan to make the plan.” First, we engaged the consulting services of Mr. Tony Proscio, the same academician who worked with us on the previous strategic plan. We charged Tony with gathering extensive, confidential input from a wide range of key stakeholders and constituents and then organizing and presenting the aggregate results as a draft plan for the Board of Directors to then refine and approve. The information gathering stage was both deliberate and thorough, involving a systematic combination of written surveys, phone interviews, and review of key documents.
First, in the summer of 2015, a written survey with open-ended questions was developed and administered to 45 ABM members across a wide range of specialties and countries of origin for representation that was both broad and deep. We included Founders, regular conference attendees, and long-time members for history, perspective, and commitment. We also considered current international representation, clinical specialty, demographic diversity, ABM fellowship, and membership (especially Gold and Lifetime) status, as well as leadership roles: Executive Committee, Board of Directors, Committee Chairs, and Regional Network Coordinators.
Then, in the fall of 2015, Tony conducted ten 1-hour, in-depth phone interviews. He used the preliminary results from the written surveys to cross-reference his questions with key issues.
As a commitment to our global identity, we offered several members whose first language is not English the option of either a written survey or an interview. In the end, every participant completed either a survey or a phone interview but not both. In addition to these data, our consultant also had access to all management and board reports for the past year.
In October of 2015, Tony presented an initial draft of ABM's new 5-year Strategic Plan (2016–2020) to the Board in person. In November, the Strategic Planning Committee completed a detailed review of minor changes based on their written and verbal input. In December, the Board reviewed and refined and then ultimately approved the new strategic plan for 2016–2020.
In the new plan, which went into effect in early 2016, the Founders' original mission for the organization remains unchanged. In this iteration, the overarching goal has been refined: to ensure that ABM is the premier global organization for education of all physicians on breastfeeding and human lactation, and a trusted source of authoritative clinical and scientific information to guide professional and societal practices. And ABM's “value proposition”—meaning what is the value of an ABM membership?—is very explicitly considered.
The new strategic plan is organized into two sections that complement each other. Interestingly, each of the seven priorities aligns very well with one of ABM's seven major committees.
Part 1: Achievements
1. Increase the size, diversity, and engagement of ABM membership (Membership Committee).
2. Streamline the production, translation, and maintenance of clinical protocols, while preserving quality (Protocol Committee).
3. Develop enriched, state-of-the-art tools for internal and external communication (Communications Committee).
4. Pursue a means of certifying physicians as breastfeeding medicine specialists (Education Committee).
Part 2: Conditions and Methods of Operating
1. Deepen and broaden the global identity of ABM (International Committee).
2. Continue building the financial strength of ABM (Finance Committee).
3. Ensure more effective governance and management (Governance Committee).
ABM's new strategic plan is posted on the website (www.bfmed.org, in the “About ABM” section). As a final step before we disband, the Strategic Planning Committee will join forces with the Communications Committee to “make a plan to publicize the plan.”
You will certainly hear more about this important document in future columns and other venues. Now that we know our destination for 2020, I am looking forward to planning the trip together. It is exciting to consider the tremendous positive impact that our organization is going to have on maternal-child health at the global level over the next 5 years.