Annual Planning

Annual planning is important to make sure you think about everything you want to accomplish as a Chapter for the year and then to return to it regularly. This can also be used as a great tool during leadership transitions.

Thinking about Planning

When planning for the year, think about what you want to do as a Chapter. Some things to consider are: What are the needs of your members? What can you do to meet those needs? How is your Chapter’s leadership team set up to achieve your goals? What is your leadership team interested in doing? What is your budget and how does your funding support your goals? What is your mix of programs and does it meet the needs of your members?

Creating and Tracking Your Plan

Try to plan both a sequence of events and the associated budget to match them. This gives a better sense of a whole year’s worth of programming and if the overall plan makes sense. You can also better see if your spacing of programs makes sense and if there are any potential gaps in your programs and budget. You should periodically revisit your Annual Plan, especially after leadership transitions, to make sure your Chapter is on track.

Annual Plan Template

The Annual Plan, which we ask new Chapters to complete, can be used by every Chapter to help Chapter leaders set goals and outline a strategy to achieve them. Here you can download an Annual Plan template for students or professionals to help in your planning process.

Planning for Transitions

Part of planning your year is planning to transition leadership. This means thinking ahead to who can take over for the positions in your leadership team. Thinking about this early, talking to people, building a pipeline, and clearly communicating about the process will ensure that it goes smoothly.

Here is a sample transition timeline for your reference (using the example of a Spring leadership transition)