What Plan, Your Plan… Strategic Priority #5 Communications
Aug 22, 2019
Communication is a Strategic Priority, identified in our 2016-2020 Strategic Plan. Its dictionary definition is “transmitting, a giving or exchanging of information, messages, letter, etc. a means of communicating”. Sounds really simple when written out in plain language, but in fact is an aspect of CPS-ECP life that we seem to struggle with.
The ways of communicating are many and varied, and are employed by all life forms on our planet. Some communicate by sounds like the music of the whales and dolphins, and the songs of the birds. Visible communication has been employed through the ages – smoke signals by the First Nations, semaphore and flag signals by mariners. Telegraphy, Morse code, and the code speakers at time of war – all are methods that have been and are still used to transmit messages between senders and receivers.
Why then does it seem difficult to accomplish, difficult to be sure we are reaching whom we wish to reach, difficult to receive feedback to our enquiries?
One of the answers to these questions may be that we as an organization have not embraced sufficiently the contemporary methods of communication that are available to us. Have we stressed to our Squadrons and Districts, the importance of the various social media forms that are available to us? Have we provided some assistance to those who are not up-to-date and lack firm understanding of these methods?
We have long been aware that any group needs to feel that they ‘know what is going on’, that they feel disrespected when the only time they hear from us is when we are asking for their membership dues. The importance of newsletters whether digital or printed has been documented, and the age-old method of picking up the phone and calling someone is also tried and true. These communicating methods between ourselves must not be undervalued or downplayed.
However, the bigger picture of communicating our messages to the general public is of prime importance. We believe that our National Committees are working hard on this subject and together with the advent of our new IT system, will give us the tools we need to work with this most important of our Strategic Priorities – Communication.
