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CHF Canada Workshop 1

A planning session for your co-op

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Planning your Co-op’s future

Facilitated by Tracy Geddes

CHF Canada AGM 2017

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• Introduce yourself

• Where are you from?

• Tell us if your co-operative currently holds an

annual planning session



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Agenda 1. Objectives

2. What is Planning?

3. Barriers to planning

4. Why Plan?

5. Types of Planning:

a) Strategic planning

b) Operational planning

c) Work planning

6. The Role of the Board & Staff

7. The Planning Process

8. Swot analysis as a tool

9. Developing a strategic plan

10. Wrap up and evaluation

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Objectives

At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

Understand the importance of planning

Understand the types of planning necessary

Develop the tools to carry out a planning session

in your co-op



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What is Planning? Planning…

• is a dynamic & interactive process

• identifies priorities

• allows the co-op to set realistic goals

• is an on-going process (not a task)

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Barriers to Planning

1. Lack of time

2. Lack of planning experience

3. Lack of knowledge of the benefits of planning

4. Lack of buy-in to the planning process

5. No resources to assist with planning

6. Other?



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Why Plan? Planning…

• Identifies needs and outcomes

• Enhances democratic functioning

• Improves operations

• Looks at new ideas

• Gives a clearer idea of the future of the co-op

• Helps to ensure that resources are available

• Builds Community by facilitating involvement and creativity

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Bridging the gap…

Many co-op boards do not hold annual

planning sessions.

How can we bridge this gap?

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Types of planning

1. Strategic planning (longer term: 3 – 5 years) - concerned with guiding the co-op beyond the year; identify emerging issues; develop an agreed to vision for the future

2. Operational planning (shorter term: 1 year) – concerned with ongoing operational activities: setting key goals for the year

3. Work planning (shorter term: 1 year) – concerned with how each work unit will help achieve the key goals for the year



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1. Strategic planning

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1. Strategic planning

• to identify emerging issues (Mission)

• to develop an agreed on vision for the

future (Goals/desired outcomes)

• to guide the organization

(strategies/measure and targets/results)



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1. Strategic Planning

Necessary conditions before a co-op should

undertake strategic planning

• Stability

• Capacity

• Commitment of members

• Availability of expertise

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1. Strategic Planning

Elements of a Strategic Plan

• The mission statement

• The issues the co-op is concerned

about

• The long-term goals for the co-op



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2. Operational Planning

• concerned with ongoing activities

• provides a structure for day-to-day

management

Healthy

Co-op

planning

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2. Operational Planning

Tool Kit:

• Board of Directors Calendar

• Preventative Maintenance Calendar

• Financial Calendar

• Annual Goals & Priorities

• Work plan

• Replacement Reserve Plan



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3. Work Planning

The Role of Staff

• To assist the board in developing a framework for

planning

• To provide the board with the tools for planning -

financial calendar, board calendar, etc.

• To develop an annual work plan (based on the co-op’s

goals)

• To draft a replacement reserve plan (based on the co-

op’s technical audit or building condition survey and/or

CMHC property inspection reports)

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3. Work Planning

The Role of the Board

• To help the co-op reach its goals

• To promote and encourage planning

• To allocate resources for planning

• To organize the planning process

• To ensure implementation of the plans

• To review, evaluate and update the plans



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Board of Directors Calendar

What to Include

Board & GMM dates for the year

Board / Committee

Training dates

Federations Meetings

Information Sessions

Spring / Fall clean up days, Garage

sale days, holidays

Neighbourhood events

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Preventative Maintenance Calendar

Fire / Safety – alarm systems, smoke

detectors Heating Systems

Roofing/Eaves/ Downspouts

Sewer System

Exterior caulking/Painting

Kitchen/bathroom - caulking

Landscaping



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Financial Calendar

Audit Annual Income

Verification

Budget General

Members’ Meeting

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Operational Planning

List capital items, remaining

life span

List major repairs needed

Identify priorities for replacement

Health/Safety, Structural,

Urgent, Lifecycle

Obtain approximate

costs

Set timeline for replacement



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Annual Goals & Priorities

• Brainstorming Session

• Identify Goals

• Board sets Priorities & Approves Plans

• Present to the Members for approval

• Implement the Plan

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Replacement Reserve

Planning

Technical Audit/Building Condition Survey/CMHC

Property Inspection

• Develop a Replacement Reserve Plan

• Present to Board/Members for approval

• Implement the Plan

• Review and update plan periodically



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Prepare to plan

Environmental Scan

External Impacts

• Political?

• Economic?

• Community?

Internal Impacts

• Member selection?

• Finances?

• Maintenance?

• Community?

• Sector involvement?

• Changing demographics?

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Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats • Strengths – are positive attributes internal to the organisation or

situation that are within your control.

• Weaknesses – are also internal factors within your control that may

impede your ability to meet your objectives.

• Opportunities – are external factors that the organisation or project

should (or could) develop.

• Threats – are external factors beyond your control that could place

the project or organisation at risk.

Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the business and are

controllable.

Opportunities and threats are uncontrollable external forces that act

upon the situation.



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Effective SWOT Analysis Here are tips for a perfect SWOT analysis:

• use a SWOT analysis to distinguish between

where you are now and where you wish to be,

• be realistic about your strengths and

weaknesses,

• be specific ― only include key points and

issues,

• relate strengths and weaknesses to critical

success factors,

• always aim to state strengths and weaknesses in

competitive terms,

• rank points in order of importance, and

• finally, keep it brief ― never more than a page.



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Group activity – swot

information gathering

• brainstorm each category and capture the

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

pertinent to your co-op, or project.

• don’t spend too much time capturing this

information and don’t over analyse. As with all

brainstorming exercises the aim is to capture ideas

pertinent to the current business situation.

• Finally, highlight the most important issues and then rank them in order of importance

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Making sense of it all

• Summarize the key findings from the SWOT exercise

• Discuss ideas on how you can

• build on strengths

• resolve weaknesses

• exploit opportunities

• avoid or manage threats

• Use the ideas to draft a list of

possible priorities



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Developing a Strategic Plan • The next stage of the analysis is to take the highest

ranking strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and answer the following questions:

• How do you use your strengths to take advantage of opportunities?

• How do you overcome weaknesses preventing you from taking advantage of opportunities?

• How can your strengths reduce the probability of threats?

• What can you do about your weaknesses to make the threats less likely?

• As you answer these questions you will begin to understand the external forces you contend with and how to tackle them. Use your understanding of the implications to develop a plan of action.

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Setting Goals

• Get agreement on selection criteria for choosing the

goals

• Dot-mocracy

• cost, impact, feasibility (BCA, Replacement reserve

study)

• Too many goals

• makes achievement more difficult

• dilutes the focus

• leads to frustration and overwork

https://www.leadershipthoughts.com/project-opportunity/

https://www.leadershipthoughts.com/create-team-vision-smart-objectives/



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A few good goals... SMART

S Specific

• What exactly will we do?

M Measurable

• How will we know if we have reached our goal?

A Attainable

• Can we really do this? Is it possible?

R Relevant

• Is this really part of our role as a co-op?

• Does it matter to our members?

T Time bound

• Can we set a target date?

• Can we meet a deadline?

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Putting your SMART goals into

words...

Activity/action/task

• include who will do it

Resources required

• expertise, supplies, money, time, people

Timeline/deadline



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How to make planning work

• Time & energy commitment

• Preparation

• Process is simple, flexible, understood and

agreed upon

• Expectations are clear

• Capacity to plan (proactive)

• Facilitation & guidance (expertise)

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Getting workshop materials

www.chfcanada.coop/workshopmaterials https://eventmobi.com/2017agm

CHF Canada Website AGM Conference App

http://www.chfcanada.coop/workshopmaterials

https://eventmobi.com/2016agm



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Time for Evaluation Evaluations on Conference App

https://eventmobi.com/2017agm/

Paper copies also available in the workshop room!

https://eventmobi.com/2017agm/



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Your evaluations, please!

planning your co-op’s future - home - chf canada canada workshop 1 a planning session for your...

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