Society of North American Goldsmiths

Client: Society of North American Goldsmiths

Stakeholder engagement and strategic planning: This international organization began their formal strategic planning process in the spring and appointed a steering committee of board members plus the executive director to work with the consulting team as process stewards.

To say “thank you” does not begin to express my appreciation for how skillfully you led us through the planning retreat. Everyone is singing your praises. You’ve brought us to a new place, a different way of thinking.

— Executive director Dana Singer

The overall process included the following major tasks:

• Preliminary stakeholder identification and analysis to examine, elaborate upon, and refine the range of SNAG stakeholders
• Stakeholder engagement process design to determine how to best gather input from identified stakeholders for the board’s review
• Stakeholder input, including:
  • Interviews with board members and the executive director
  • Online survey: Posing detailed and primarily open-ended questions about member preferences and the organizations future, this was offered to all SNAG members around the world; 756 (25%) responded; all input was compiled and analyzed to inform the Board’s thinking
  • External stakeholder interviews: As part of SNAG’s overall effort to gather input from a wide range of stakeholders, the board and executive director identified stakeholders by various categories and conducted formal phone interviews
• 2.5-day strategic planning retreat held in the fall that included board members and the executive director, as well as consultants/facilitators Anne Carroll and Sara Peterson; key segments included the following:
  • Team-building: Paired interviews
  • Focus on SNAG’s Future: Hopes and Fears
  • Stakeholder Identification and Analysis
  • Stakeholder Analysis: Identify Needs of KEY Stakeholders
  • Context, Influences, and Governance Issues (including SWOT Analysis)
  • Goals-Strategies-Tactics Mapping
  • Organizational Values
  • Launch/Accountability and Making Meaning for SNAG