Fall 2024 Strategic Planning for Biodiversity Collections Course

iDigBio is pleased to announce an 8-week "Strategic Planning for Biodiversity Collections” online course! This course is for accepted applicants only! For more information and to apply, please visit https://www.idigbio.org/content/registration-open-spring-2024-strategic-planning-herbaria-course. Applications close on September 13, 2024!

The goal of the course is for the students to produce a short (5–10 pages) strategic plan for their collection. Each plan will address vision, mission, values, stakeholders, strategies, goals, objectives, evaluation, and sustainability, among other things.

• Week 1 focuses on Stakeholders, Mission, Vision, and Core Values in addition to introducing participants to the course;
• Week 2 focuses on Strategies, Goals, Objectives, and Value Proposition;
• Week 3 focuses on Environmental Scan (SWOT/TOWS analysis);
• Week 4 focuses on Sustainability (addressing the SWOT/TOWS analysis);
• Week 5 focuses on Evaluation, including Logic Models, Metrics, Benchmarks, and Milestones;
• Week 6 focuses on bringing everything together into a cohesive Strategic Plan and adding Executive Summary and Acknowledgements;
• Week 7 focuses on peer discussion and feedback in an effort to streamline the draft strategic plans; in addition, Week 7 introduces elements of design and formatting as well as the concept of a 1-page strategic plan, which is easy to communicate; and
• Week 8 focuses on how to continually improve, communicate, and implement the Strategic Plan and introduces the concept of an “elevator pitch”.