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Elected Board Retreats
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Designing Your EventMaking your retreat a meaningful and memorable experience begins with clearly defining the purpose of the retreat. Eventually, you will define the results you are seeking and propose specific activities to lead you towards those results. Since many readers want to see examples, a range of sample documents are available on this site. These documents were selected because the involvement of School of Government staff or faculty made them readily available. There are many good examples from other North Carolina jurisdictions you also may review and assess before adapting them to meet your own particular needs. Often the term "strategic planning" is used to describe a range of different processes. Traditional strategic planning enables organizations to review internal strengths and weaknesses in light of external opportunities and threats. The intent of strategic planning is to describe a preferred vision of the organization's future by setting goals and generating specific strategies for making that vision a reality. Another approach to long term planning is community visioning, which is a broad-based process designed to create a shared vision for the community's future. The goal of community visioning is to align actions of multiple organizations, community leaders, and citizens toward accomplishing shared goals for the future. Click here for a comparison of the two approaches. Once you've decided that a retreat format is the option that best meets your needs, a number of decisions must be made. Who is involved in making these decisions, when they are made, and how much preparation is done beforehand varies by specific circumstances but experience has shown that pre-retreat planning and thought pays off in a more efficient use of participants' time and expertise, smoother and more productive on-site events, and better developed and honed outcomes. A checklist for planning your retreat can provide step-by-step guidance. Conducting Your Retreat A larger version of the image below is available in PDF Format.
Retreating from the normal course of business allows you a more relaxed setting and encourages one to think strategically. This is your chance to consider how and why you do your work as a board. Ideally, participants will have open and frank discussion about critical issues facing their community and their working relationships. Both substance and process are important to getting your work done. A retreat should be a balance of how you work and what you want to accomplish. What can a retreat achieve?1 A well-conceived, well-designed, well-run retreat can achieve the following goals:
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