You are invited to a three hour strategic planning session and it sounds like fun. Actually I felt honored to be invited to the Women’s Chamber Planning Session as I had resigned the Presidency upon diagnosis in June of 2016 and so the courtesy shown to invite me back into the fold was very appreciated.
It was a well facilitated meeting with a lot of input from the eighteen women who attended some or all of it. And thought we tried to do the standard SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis it soon became evident that the room was filled with problem solvers who wanted very much to discuss tactics and fix things rather than sit back and think about strategic direction. This is one of the complications of having a true working board of professional women.
We were finally steered toward honoring the existence of some of the current committees of the group and thinking about adding new ones. Work will continue on the committee tasks and the group will try to reconvene in March for a progress update.
Personally I could have held my tongue a little more. It just felt so good to be out and I am one of the older members with the most history to share. If it counts I did chastise myself on the way home (with no one around) for maybe participating just a little too much. I will do better in the next meeting – I hope.