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VVA, like most service organizations these days, is in a period of transition. This is not unusual since change or evolution is natural, and historically VVA has been a catalyst for change within the veterans service community. What is different today is the rapid pace and complexity that these changes have and will continue to have on VVA's ability to be a relevant factor both to ourselves and to society as a whole. The VVA leadership recognized that VVA would need a method or process to address the multitude of opportunities to emerge and to meet the challenges it would encounter in this fast-changing "reality" that is taking us into the 21st century.
In earlier years, VVA utilized a strategic plan that was developed and approved by the national board of directors in 1989. A review indicated that indeed this plan had actually served VVA very well as it focused the entire organization on the issues and concerns that were relevant and important during that time period. Many of VVA's successes and victories can be traced back to the clarity of purpose that the plan brought forth to the entire organization. What the plan lacked was a process that continued its implementation and kept the plan alive as the dynamics of VVA leadership at all levels evolved and changed.
The need to create a comprehensive process or methodology for the development and implementation of a new strategic plan for VVA was recognized by the VVA national president James L. Brazee, Jr., and a Strategic Planning Committee was established for this purpose.
The president appointed VVA national treasurer Jack McManus to chair the new Strategic Planning Committee, and he, in turn, appointed committee members that represented the diverse interests of the various constituencies and organizational levels within VVA. It is important to recognize that the committee was intentionally structured to include representation from large and small chapters, large and small state councils, the VVA staff, VVA associates, non-BOD committee chairs, national BOD members, minority and women veteran members, and elected national officers.
The reasoning behind having such diversity in the committee makeup was ultimately the plan would need to reflect the real differences of interests within the organization at each level. The intent was to be truly representative of our memberships' interests so that the individual members could embrace and own the plan. The committee believes that if the entire organization claims ownership in the Strategic Plan, then the implementation of the various elements of this plan will be more successful at all levels.
Core Values
Advocacy:
We are committed to unrelenting advocacy for fairness in the treatment of veterans so that never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.
Meaningful Achievement:
We want to make a difference, focusing on issues that stand as critical barriers to a fulfilling life for veterans and all Americans.
Integrity:
We tell the truth and take responsibility.
Compassion:
We care about comrades and others in needs.
Camaraderie:
We support each other and feel we're all members of one family.
Vision & Mission Statements
Vision:
We are leading the challenge to do what is right for America and its veterans.
Mission:
Using the shared vision of our membership:
· we aggressively advocate on issues important to veterans;
· provide programs and services that improve the well-being of all veterans and their families;
· and serve our communities.
Goals, Rationales, and Strategies
Membership Goal:
To proactively recruit, retain, and develop an informed and personally effective membership dedicated to VVA's values, mission, and goals.
Membership Rationale:
The operative phrases in the membership goal are: Informed, personally effective, and dedicated membership who embrace VVA's values, mission, and goals. In other words, as we seek to expand our membership, we offer opportunities for increasing personal effectiveness to those who share our values and commitment. The new strategic plan will let prospective members know the kind of organization they are joining. Vigorous pursuit of the goals and strategies by chapters offer many opportunities for the full use of prospective members' talents according to the interests. The strategy calls for an effective external communications program to aid recruitment, combined with training to promote personal and professional development for members through their participation in chapter activities.
Membership Strategy:
Develop and implement a comprehensive master plan, which includes all levels; a targeted effort to recruit members (using professional and personal contact and face-to-face marketing resources); and a program to retain them.
Advocacy Goal:
Identify and prioritize legislative and administrative objectives to focus our energy and resources as an effective catalyst for the retention and improvement of veterans benefits.
Advocacy Rationale:
America has an "unfinished agenda" for public policy and funding of programs affecting veterans. Health care looms large at all levels of government. Other issues range from protecting and improving service-connected compensation benefits and veterans employment preferences to advocating research and/or programs addressing Agent Orange, PTSD, and homelessness as well as specialized programs relating to women, minority, and incarcerated veterans. In an age of government downsizing, veterans benefits across the board are at risk. There is an enormous educational job to be done among Vietnam veterans, public policymakers and the general public.
When it comes to passionate and powerful advocacy, VVA is clearly a leader in the veterans community, and the situation is ripe for action. More and more Vietnam veterans are being elected at all levels of government. In short, the Vietnam generation is in charge. But there are many challenges: Advocacy goals are not focused sufficiently to establish a clear agenda in order to concentrate efforts to achieve it. Not all VVA members accept a "political" role for the organization; veterans service organizations have competing legislative and administrative agendas; and VVA's own advocacy efforts are often scattered. Thus, there is a need to establish key legislative and administrative priorities in VVA and among veterans service organizations.
Advocacy Strategy:
Identify and prioritize legislative and administrative objectives, consolidate existing VVA advocacy functions and focus our energy and resources to most effectively advocate for the advancement of veterans' concerns.
Direct Services Strategy:
Maintain, expand, and support our network of veteran service representatives nationwide. Publicize direct service information and conduct training on how to build community-based coalitions. Offer the tools necessary; information and training for providing direct services and for building community-based coalitions to meet the needs of veterans and their families.
Direct Services Rationale:
VVA seeks to assure a decent, positive lifestyle for veterans by working at two levels: Actually providing VVA-sponsored services and by building the community's commitment and capacity to provide essential services to veterans and their families.
VVA has a strong base expertise in veterans benefits and provides representation for veterans to receive benefits due them. As our population ages, new concerns ranging from long-term health care to career upheavals and retirement need to be anticipated. While we continue to provide direct services, we need to help members understand the complexity of emerging needs. And we need to train members in how to build community-based coalitions to address these needs.
Direct Services Goal:
Participate in providing direct services needed by veterans and their families.
Community Service Goal:
Enable VVA members to their community and promote positive social change.
Community Service Rationale:
Creating safe and viable communities, whether rural, urban, or suburban, is high on America's agenda. The opportunity to provide meaningful service to his/her community is an important reason for any veteran to become and remain involved in a VVA chapter. VVA has a history of community involvement-chapters have conducted a wide variety of creative, effective programs attacking gang warfare, drug addiction, family strife, homelessness, help to the elderly and disabled, and education on the Vietnam War at various academic levels.
However, these efforts are largely isolated. There is no organized network for communication among community service efforts, no mentoring program, and no designated responsibility at any level of VVA. Therefore, the first step is to document how chapters are serving their communities and to organize a mentoring program among chapters to inspire continued innovation.
Community Service Strategy:
Create a database of current and past community activities and develop and implement a commmunity mentor program, which stimulates community service activities.
Financial Goal:
Continuously expand the financial base to assure adequate resources to support VVA's mission at all operational levels.
Financial Strategy:
Develop and implement a comprehensive Financial/Funding Master Plan that provides a diversified funding base for all operational levels of the organization. The plan would include: A description of the current situation, needs and priorities, existing and potential resources, training needs, opportunities and methods at all levels, restrictions, allocation formulas, and means for monitoring and evaluating achievement of goals.
Financial Rationale:
VVA has tremendous potential for fundraising. Members recognize the need to devote energy to obtaining resources. The VVA name is well established, and we have a record of success. Moreover, many Vietnam veterans who are nearing their peak earning years in successful careers represent an important and largely untapped source for financial support.
On the other hand, we lack a comprehensive approach, relying too heavily on funding from just a few sources. We need a plan based on modern fundraising techniques plus training and technical assistance to enable chapters, state councils, and the national office to participate in a well-coordinated effort. The plan should also describe how resources will be shared to support national, state, and local operations.
Communications Goal:
Create a clear communications system/structure identifying responsibility throughout VVA, effectively using new and existing technology.
Communications Rationale:
Effective, two-way communication inside VVA and with various publics is critical to our success. VVA wants to be the authoritative voice and clearinghouse for information on topics of interest to veterans. The information age is producing increasingly accessible technology for inter-personal communication through the Internet and for mass media. VVA may not be taking full advantage of these channels. Some of the technology has not reached every chapter or member. Most important, responsibility for conveying information and providing feedback has not been established throughout VVA. Hence, the need to create a clear strategy for communicating with external audiences and to establish a system and structure that defines responsibility at all levels for our internal communications.
Communications Strategy:
Establish effective communication channels and assign responsibility at all levels. Make effective use of new and existing technology to assure accurate information exchange within these channels and encourage use and feedback between all levels.
Organizational Effectiveness Goal:
Continuously improve the ability of VVA at all levels to service a growing membership.
Organizational Effectiveness Rationale:
Assuring a positive future for VVA requires an ongoing effort to continuously improve the effectiveness of the organization itself. Success depends on: a) commitment to VVA's values and vision, b) cooperation in the pursuit of clear goals and strategies c) agreement on roles-who gets to do what d) constant, accurate feedback from VVA's members and external audiences to anticipate needs and to measure accomplishment and e) effective leadership. Making this happen is not a one-shot project. It is an ongoing process, requiring constant attention and resources. Equipping VVA's leaders for continuous improvement of the organization begins by helping them to explore implications of the strategic plan through planning with their constituencies. Feedback from these discussions about VVA's directions and ways to implement the plan at national, state, and local levels will provide the basis for designing a systematic, continuous improvement process to keep VVA strong. There must also be an ongoing, periodic review of VVA's organizational and committee structure to make VVA's operations as efficient and effective as possible and to ensure that VVA's structure changes appropriately as the organization j evolves. Additionally, VVA's resource allocation must be constantly geared to making the best possible use of limited fiscal and staff resources. Doing so will necessitate prioritizing national convention and board resolutions and directives so that VVA's priorities will be determined by a deliberate process and not by reactions to emerging and changing events.
Organizational Effectiveness Strategy:
Develop and implement a process to address the purposes, roles, and responsibilities of each organizational element within VVA and define the means for the leadership of element within VVA and define the means for the leadership of each organizational elements to measure and reward accomplishments.
Implementation Roles
Role of the Board:
Approve the strategic plan; act as spokesperson for VVA's vision, values, and strategic directions; provide policy; and prioritize resources for plan implementation.
Role of Committees:
Review strategic plan; adjust agendas/objectives to support the strategies; develop work plans to measure achievement of objectives.
Role of State Council:
Review the strategic plan; develop objectives for state-level activities; provide technical advice and support to chapters.
Role of Chapters:
Review national and state strategies and objectives; decide how they are able to support them; implement appropriate activities.
Role of Conference of State Council President:
Act as advisory and leadership development resource amongst state council presidents, providing knowledge, evaluation, and feedback on the various objectives and activities implemented to fulfill the plans' goals and strategies from VVA's chapters and state councils.
Role of National Staff:
Internally - develop and implement objectives in support of the strategic plan, report to the board on implementation.
Externally - provide resources, training, and technical support to state councils and chapters to support their strategic planning and evaluation processes.
Methodology
VVA's Strategic Plan provides a roadmap for building a positive future for our organization. The strategic plan spells out the core values we share, affirms our fundamental purposes through our mission statement, and establishes a framework of goals and strategies to focus our energies and resources. The plan presents a simple and necessarily concise framework for subsequent planning and actions that must take place at all levels.
To assist the committee, we engaged Mr. Dwight Fee, a well-respected expert in strategic planning and organizational development to act as the facilitator for the planning process and to keep the committee focused.
The committee utilized the illustrated planning model as a guide through this Strategic Planning process. In addition, the Strategic Plan from 1989 was utilized from the perspective of "lessons learned," building upon the fine work of that earlier plan.
Further, the committee conducted a survey of VVA members and leaders-from chapter and state council presidents to the BOD, the national officers, and staff. The survey asked them to identify trends in society likely to affect VVA and its members. It also asked them to suggest how VVA may need to change.
The utilization of this survey data assured the committee that the "voice of the membership" was also fully recognized and incorporated into the planning process.
The committee also examined the strengths and limitations of VVA, seeking to match our strengths to the emerging opportunities in the world around us.
Strategic Plan provides a roadmap for building a positive future for our organization. The strategic plan spells out the core values we share, affirms our fundamental purposes through our mission statement, and establishes a framework of goals and strategies to focus our energies and resources. The plan presents a simple and necessarily concise framework for subsequent planning and actions that must take place at all levels.
To assist the committee, we engaged Mr. Dwight Fee, a well-respected expert in strategic planning and organizational development to act as the facilitator for the planning process and to keep the committee focused.
The committee utilized the illustrated planning model as a guide through this Strategic Planning process. In addition, the Strategic Plan from 1989 was utilized from the perspective of "lessons learned," building upon the fine work of that earlier plan.
Further, the committee conducted a survey of VVA members and leaders-from chapter and state council presidents to the BOD, the national officers, and staff. The survey asked them to identify trends in society likely to affect VVA and its members. It also asked them to suggest how VVA may need to change.
The utilization of this survey data assured the committee that the "voice of the membership" was also fully recognized and incorporated into the planning process.
The committee also examined the strengths and limitations of VVA, seeking to match our strengths to the emerging opportunities in the world around us.
This exhaustive examination not only informed our planning, it also yielded some important implications for the way we operate.
The single most important conclusion is that merely producing a strategic plan will not be sufficient to move VVA successfully into the 21st century. What is required is a planning and evaluation process that cascades through all levels of the organization to align our energies to implement the plan. Without such a process, supported by members skilled in facilitation, meaningful implementation is highly unlikely.
A second overarching conclusion is that implementing our roadmap for the future depends on empowering people at all levels through strong leadership, clear responsibility and authority, sufficient resources, and above all, a new level of cooperation among all elements of the organization.
Like every organization these days, VVA is in transition. To grow and remain relevant, we must change in order to respond to changes occurring around us. The new global economy, the march of technology, and the maturing of our membership are just a few of the forces already impacting us. Not only do we need to change, we need to change fast just to stay up.
The core values expressed in the plan are those things that our members believe are why they joined VVA and what needs to be here for them to remain committed to VVA. The committee utilized these core values to guide its decision-making during the planning process and are important to be considered when implementing the plan.
The vision statement is how we want the organization to be viewed by our members, our staff, and the public at any ideal point in the future.
The mission statement: simply addresses how and what we do as an organization based upon rethinking our basic purposes.
The goals define areas from our mission statement where we can achieve specific results.
The rationale is a summary analysis of the forces likely to effect the achievement success of the stated goal.
The strategy for each goal defines in a broad sense what should be accomplished to attain specific achievements.
Objectives and workplans committees at all levels, including chapters and state councils and the national staff, are asked to establish objectives and work plans for each goal and strategy, including measurable outcomes. This will require the committee and national staff to rethink their work and shift their resources and energy to align their work with the Strategic Plan.
Chapters and state councils should undertake an assessment of their respective entity to determine how they can best align their objectives and activities to best support this Strategic Plan.
The roles identify the responsibilities that each entity within the organization could be expected to perform for the successful implementation of the Strategic Plan.
Follow-up a continuing effort will be undertaken by leaders of VVA to: Communicate the values, mission, goals, and strategies throughout VVA; support committees, national staff, state councils, and chapters in their efforts to achieve the goals; and measure and recognize achievement.
The Proposed Strategic / Operational Planning Model
* The model is constructed from the bottom up.
* After the plans are completed, one can easily check the consistency of current activities with agreements made in preceding blocks.
* Thus, the strategic plan serves to keep the organization on course: in pursuit of its mission-consistent with realities in the environment- and aligned with the core values of its members.
Workplans - Action plans of individuals responsible for achieving the objectives.
Objectives - Major results needed to implement the strategy in certain time.
Roles - Who gets to do what to align resources and people with the plan.
Strategies -The grand design for achieving each goal.
Goals - Four of five "chunks" of the mission (area for achievement).
Mission - The "match" between the core values and the realities of the environment
determines the core business of the organization.
SWOT Analysis - Organization's strengths and weaknesses, plus anticipated opportunities and threats in the environment.
Core Values - Specific aspirations members hold for the organization.
Opportunity: Friday I was informed by the Institute of Medicine, Agent Orange Committee (part of the National Academy of Sciences) that C-123 veterans have been scheduled for a brief afternoon presentation to the Committee to discuss C-123 Agent Orange contamination.
Request: We need a volunteer speaker!
Seburn says the acquisition would complete the museum’s collection of the three military cargo planes that Fairchild produced.The C-123 was used heavily during the Vietnam War to transport troops and supplies.It was also used for aerial spraying of herbicides, including Agent Orange.The federal government says the risk of exposure to Agent Orange residue is extremely low.(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
We'd both awakened early this Christmas morning. As we waited for grandbabies to wake up and come to cuddle, our conversation under the warm covers drifted to the theme of the Christmas Eve services we attended here in snowy Denver. That pastor's metaphor addressed having to be led, each of us, many times in our lives - and how we all depend on unseen others, and God, to carry burdens when we are heavy laden.
I don't believe I have ever served with an officer who would make battle against us as have the VA officials who sat around the conference table twice this year. I know I have never served with officers and NCOs who would learn of such a health hazard as our exposure yet somehow not to notify the crews involved or accept an order to hide the information from them. "Hell, NO" would have been the response from anyone I've ever known. Not the kind of American officer or American NCO that this Nation trusts us to be and hopes we will be faced with hard decisions.
A Request of VA and USAF leadership: Don't laugh because of our airplane - it is what you ordered us to fly. We've all flown many other planes, but somehow, like Medal of Honor holder Joe Jackson, we remain "C-123 guys" just like the C-123 will forever remain "the Agent Orange airplane." We flew the plane we were tasked to fly because AF leaders we trusted said that old bird, and our skills aboard it, were vital to the nation's defense. We certainly proved it during REFORGER exercises! Guys like Gail French proved it bringing in Tail #707 in flames, earning the DFC the hard way. Guys like Charlie Brown who came back from Hanoi proved it by putting on a flight suit again and quietly served with us. We earned the Airborne's Iron Mike award! The Army truly loved us, and after all the Army was JOB ONE as our primary customer in wartime. Of course, it would have been very nice if the C-123 had been engineered with some sort of commode and at least a Mr. Coffee! Maybe even an autopilot? Alas.
Early last year, LtCol Paul Bailey submitted our formal FOIA (Freedom of Information Act request) to the Veterans Administration, seeking information about how VA officials managed their participation in two meetings with C-123 veterans hosted by Senator Burr's staff in Washington DC. Our request to the Air Force for their materials had been granted earlier. It is our fear that the VA participants approached the question of C-123 dioxin contamination with a mindset of denial, rather than even-handed scientific concern. In went our FOIA as we hoped to learn about how we were treated at the meetings.
Result? $5000 in pushback from the VA as they denied the perfectly valid appeal! To prevent us getting information about ourselves. $5000 to make sure we'd never get it! $5000 to make sure veterans would never learn that VA officials approached our concerns about Agent Orange exposure with a determination not to uncover the truth, but instead to construct any argument necessary to prevent our access to VA medical care and benefits. Our concerns for this FOIA focused on uncovering all the information located by the VA, how they interpreted it, what instructions they gave their officials and whether those instructions were neutral or whether those instructions were to
