The document summarizes the results of a strategic planning exercise conducted by IAMFA over multiple years. It outlines the process, which included brainstorming strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats by members. Priorities in each area were then identified. Actions implemented by the board to address priorities included redesigning the website, developing a marketing plan, membership benefits and succession planning policies.

1. October 2010 to Present

2. Executive Summary
In 2010 IAMFA began a Strategic Planning Exercise during
the IAMFA Annual Conference in San Francisco. In the
first session, IAMFA members met at tables of
approximately eight, and each table was assigned to
brainstorm one of four topics: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Threats, and Opportunities for Improvement. A scribe
from each table took notes, and presented each table’s
findings to the entire group.
A year later at IAMFA’s Conference in Auckland, eight
tables of IAMFA delegates selected what they believed to
be the top five most important responses in each of the
four categories. In this presentation file, you will find a
summary of responses from those first two sessions,
along with the number of votes (8 being the maximum)
received for each of the responses in the four categories.

3. Executive Summary (continued)
As a final step in the Strategic Planning Exercise, IAMFA’s
Board of Directors has implemented actions to address
the priorities identified during the exercise. These
Include:
• Redesigned website with “Members Only” page,
translation feature, and site maintained by IAMFA
• Developed and implemented Marketing Plan
• Developed membership benefits for website and
LinkedIn promotions
• Developed Nominating Committee policy for
succession planning
• Developed Job Descriptions for board positions
• Bundled Papyrus ads with conference sponsorship
levels
Please read on if you wish to see more details.

4. 1) Brainstorming (2010 – deYoung Museum in SF)
a) Strengths (13)
b) Weaknesses (43)
c) Threats (20)
d) Opportunities for Improvement (31)
2) Prioritizing Responses in each Category (2011 –
Voyager Museum in Auckland)
3) Implementing Actions to Strengthen the
Organization (November 2011 to Present)

5.  Publishing of benchmarking data - 8
 Conferences are critical to vitality - 7
 Papyrus - 6 (Bundling ads as part of
sponsorship levels)
 IAMFA’s vehicles for knowledge sharing - 5
 Conferences
 Benchmarking survey reports
 Papyrus
 Diversity of group - 4

6.  Regional meetings for outreach to non-members
- 3
 Ability of group to document strengths,
experience, knowledge, and standards - 2
 Inclusion of engineers and other technical experts
in all professional disciplines - 2
 Involvement with other prestigious institutions -
2
 Board structure – very effective - 2 (Editor is a
now a separate board position)
 As a group, we promote making museums more
sustainable - 2

7.  Website is out of date, poor presentation of
members, updates of activities - 4 (website was
redesigned)
 Lack of participation of smaller
museums/institutions - 3 (Keith M looking at a
way to simplify benchmarking survey and reduce
cost for small orgs.)
 No permanent staff, all volunteers - 3
 Could do better job sharing technical information
- still very general, want more detailed
information - 3

8.  Replication – developing leadership succession
planning - 2 (Board developed a Nominating
Committee Policy for selecting board candidates)
 Need better assessment of what can we do better
- 2
 IAMFA is not good at publicizing organization and
producing articles, publicizing best practices,
“IAMFA recommends this…” - 2 (Board
developed & implemented 2012 Marketing Plan)
 Limited mechanisms for sharing - 2 (Encourage
participation in LinkedIn Group; only about half of
IAMFA members have joined the LinkedIn Group.
Implementing Members Only section of website)

9.  Economic Conditions may prevent members from
attending Annual Conferences - 8
 Lack of process to educate upper management
that Facilities Management is a “core business” -
4 (Suggestion: Circulate your copy of Papyrus to
upper management with a distribution list)
 Management may not see the value in attending
the annual conference - 4 ( We have developed
job descriptions for board positions, and have
highlighted the responsibility of the VP Regional
Affairs to help identify presentations for
conferences; Schedule for Conference is published
in Papyrus)

10.  Member organizations may not know the value of
attending the conference - 3
 Reductions in operating budgets - 3
 Lack of Profile of the profession to outside
organizations - 2
 If we don’t grow, there are no new ideas or
organizational strengths - 1 (Introduced
Promotions, Marketing Plan)

11.  Marketing package; web site not user friendly;
conference focuses on the site. - 3 (Developed
and implemented Marketing plan, redesigned
website)
 Add value by sharing some best practices - 3
(encourage members to author articles for
improvements they implemented at their facility,
need more examples for the Benchmarking page
of the website)
 Searchable database of issues - 2 (Developed
index of technical and historical articles in
Papyrus and on IAMFA Website)

12.  Setting guidelines and recommendations for
temperature and humidity for example; guidelines
are more discernible than standards as we are not
an official authority - 2 (Encourage
articles/participation by conservation
professionals)
 Greater focus on marketing/branding; what is our
brand/icon; improve the brand recognition. - 2
(Developed and Implemented 2012 Marketing
Plan)
 Use the benchmarking report as an outreach tool
- 2

13.  Elevation of profession (Do we need a direct
approach to highest executive level for
recognition?) - 2 (Circulate your copy of
Papyrus?)
 Educate others from our extensive knowledge
base: - 2 (Promote new website, and index of
technical articles)
 Socially responsible-take info from conference
and implement - 2
 Accreditation - 2

14.  Partner with Outside Expertise - Associate
Members; assist with web - 2 (The board can
now update the website without using a
contractor)
 Regional meetings – quarterly meetings at a local
level; Conference calls - 1
 Get some academic individuals to write articles for
the Papyrus magazine or other technical/trade
journals - 1 (The number of articles by
conservation scientists, sponsors and subscribing
members are increasing. We announce deadlines
to the LinkedIn Group.
 Take better advantage of web/IT technology - 1
(Website was redesigned with Yola)

15.  Willingness to share information but a
rudimentary way to share (Yahoo Forum) an
opportunity to improve (Linked In?) - 1 (Continue
to encourage IAMFA members to join the LinkedIn
group, and use it. It has been a goal of IAMFA for
many years to develop a way for members to
communicate with one another between
conferences. The Group is also an effective way
to promote IAMFA. Group members can invite
others to join)
 Add a training component (to CEUs (US), CPDs
(UK), France?) to increase value to members and
their organizations - 1 (Attendance at IAMFA
Conferences qualifies for CEUs)