# Presentation: 048353

## TIME TO RENEW!EZ/EC/CC COMMUNITY BOARD MINI-TRAINING SESSION

- Adapted from Advanced Systems Corp.
- “Community Empowerment Board Training”
- by Rural Development’s Office of Community Development
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- Washington, DC

**Notes:**
Note. This title may be changed to best suit the focus of your presentation.  “Time to Renew” was originally selected to capture the need of one particular EC board to face serious internal problems, and to renew itself, both in terms of structure and in mission.  

## Welcome

- Introductions
- Theme
- Purpose and Agenda
- Logistics
- Norms

**Notes:**
Introduce facilitator(s) and have participants introduce themselves.
Explain the Theme.  Select the one most appropriate to your training.
Review Purpose: a. Help build a more unified Board/Staff team, b. Impart key info. on Board roles and responsibilities, c. Provide momentum for change
Logistics:  i.e. Where’s the bathroom?
Solicit and list (flipchart) behavior norms for the day, including your expectation that training be interactive.    

## History, Progress and Promise of the Empowerment Program

- Vision
- The Four Key principles of the Empowerment Program (we never get tired of hearing these!)
- Each community is part of the larger whole (what's your community’s part?)
- Future considerations

**Notes:**
Vision:  This slide is primarily designed for use with EZ/EC/REAP boards who can most directly relate to the “Four Key Principles” and allows for the re-statement of both the program’s vision and the community’s vision.  A good challenge question is to ask the board to recite the community’s vision statement from their strategic plan.

Four Key Principles: (1) Economic Opportunity; (2) Sustainable Community Development; (3) Community-Based Partnerships; (4) Strategic Vision for Change

Larger Whole:  Discussion points here include talking about how communities (particularly EZ/EC/REAP communities) are part of a larger “family” of special communities and each community contributes to the success of the overall program.  In addition, discussion is often profitable for boards to talk about their locality’s (ies’) place in the regional, sub-regional, or state community development picture.  This is a good place to bring up connections with outside sources and partners, the effect of regional economies and the factors that contribute to the myth of perceived rural isolation from “mainstream America”.

“Future Considerations” (optional): Allows the trainer to guide the community into thinking about its future in the USDA program and allows the board to think about its role in the community’s future.  Don’t forget to get the strategic plan included in this discussion!

## The Empowerment Staircase

- Empowerment is a process,
- like climbing stairs

**Notes:**
Hand out or have available the “How Empowered is your Community?” brochure which participants may complete on their own. You might explain that Community Development specialists have determined that there is a series of capacity building steps which communities must take to become empowered.  This list of steps has been developed over several years of observing the successful capacity building of EZ/EC communities.    

## First Steps on the Empowerment Staircase

**1. **Building a
- solid** ****foundation**

**5. **Converting vision
- into** ****workplan**

**2. **Building broad
**participation**

**3. **Finding
**partners**

**4. **Creating
- sound** ****strategies**

**Notes:**
Describe the steps:

Step 1.  Building a Solid Foundation: Hope evident – opportunities not problems – vision -enthusiasm.  

Step 2. Building Broad Participation: no single leader – unfamiliar people involved – new views expressed – disagreement as healthy – no “outsiders” –everyone can contribute.

Step 3. Finding Partners: Hope evident – groups come forward w/resources – credit shared.

Step 4. Creating Sound Strategies: Strategies more than projects – Funding turned down because it didn’t fit – projects link with one another.

Step 5. Converting Strategies into Plans: Strategic plan specific and clear – each goal w/several benchmarks – targets changed – citizen can monitor progress – leaders held accountable

## Next Steps in Building Empowerment

**8. **Building **community **
**capacity**** **

**10. **Achieving** ****sustainable**
**development**

**7. **Creating
**successes**

**6. **Finding
**resources**

**9. **Adapting** strategic plans**

**Notes:**
Step 6. Finding Resources:  Multiple funding sources – EZ/EC dollars as seed money – high 	leverage rates – non-dollar resources counted – novel source of funding found

Step 7.  Creating Successes:  Success celebrated publicly – positive reports monthly -  average 	citizen informed – new stories, heroes and champions in the community

Step 8. Building community capacity: new leaders continuously sought – regular training provided – senior leaders mentoring – multiple organizations share the work – Lessons learned and shared

Step 9. Adapting your Plans:  Meetings held to review progress and plans – ideas borrowed from 	outside – major strategy changed because not good enough

Step 10. Building toward Sustainability: Services self-financing – strategies consistent with vision – natural environment seen as asset – leadership transitions smooth – frequent new participants  

## Where Should Your EZ/EC Put Its Energies?

**Activity**:  Indicate which step(s) along the Empowerment Staircase the Board should focus its energies in the next year or two?

**Notes:**
Instructions:

 Tape or glue (beforehand) each of the 10 Empowerment steps on 3-4 sheets of flip chart.  Place the sheets on the wall.  

 Hand each participant 3 dot stickers.

3) Ask participants to place up to three dots on one or more of the steps where they think the Board should focus its energies and resources during the next year or two.  Give 2-3 minutes only.

4) (After all participants have placed dots). Which step(s) got the most dots?  Is there some consensus?  Briefly review the distribution of dots for trends and analysis.  

## EZ Responsibilities & Social Contract

- Legal stuff -- MOA, grant agreement, forms
- Be true to the plan and vision
- Celebrating, amending, and revising your plan
- Benchmarks are a board's best friend

**Notes:**
Legal Stuff - Sometimes boards need to be reminded that they have a legal mandate for their actions, and legal responsibilities.  It is sometimes illuminating to the board members to be handed a copy of the regulations at 7 CFR 25 (perhaps for the first time!).  If the board is unfamiliar with these “legal” documents, it may be a profitable time to do a brief run-through or even a “read-through” with them.  Allow plenty of time for discussion on technicalities, “what-ifs”, and why things were put into the regs.

Plan/Vision/Revisions - Being true to the Plan and the Vision is a “cheerleading exercise” designed to keep the board on track with its own plan.  It also usually opens up a discussion opportunity with the board to talk about how plans are revised and amended to fit changes that are happening or have already happened in the community since the strategic plan was originally conceived. 

(Note. Benchmarking to be discussed in detail later.) “Benchmarking” may seem almost like a “cheerleading exercise”, but the points to make here are that the benchmarks and the BMS are tools that the board can use to make policy decisions, check progress, develop press releases, share successes, and in general track efforts toward accomplishing the projects suggested by the strategic plan.  Tidbits to share with boards would be some of the unique and innovative uses to which the BMS reports have been put.  For instance, a very useful annual report to the entire community can be constructed by printing out the annual report, attaching a benchmark summary report and a Partners and Resources Report to it and slapping on a cover (perhaps created by a local middle school’s art class.  We have seen BMS reports reprinted in Congressional hearing documents as well as newspapers.  The point being that benchmarks and the BMS (when properly maintained) are the best decision-making tool the board has at its disposal.

## EZ/EC Regs & Boards Post March 25th

**7 CFR Part 25 § 25.404 Validation of designation.**
- 	(a) *Maintaining the principles of the program*
*	**	*Ongoing broad-based participation
- 	(1) *Continuous improvement*
*	**	*Learn from the past and continuously enhance 	performance
- 	(2) *Participation*
*	**	*Continuous broad-based community participation in 	the implementation of the strategic plan,..., including 	board membership in the lead entity and other key 	partnership entities.

**Notes:**
Provide copy of 7 CFR25 Regs. as hand-out or in your Board Binder.  . 

## EZ/EC Regs and Boards (continued)

**7 CFR Part 25 § 25.404 Validation of designation.**
**	**(b) *Administration of the strategic plan*
*	*(3)  *Board Membership*
- Must be representative of the entire community
- Either broad-based election or appointment
- 55% must be elected locally
- At least 1 locally elected board member from each census tract that is representative of low income residents in that tract
- For Tribal Government Organizations the Deputy Administrator can waive the 55% elected criteria if it’s determined, in writing, that an appointed board will be more representative of the community

**Notes:**
Begin Discussion:   What is the intent of these regulations.

## Guidelines on Board Representation

- Broad Based Election
- Locally Acceptable
- Nominations
- Sufficient Notice
- Representative Board
- Conflict of Interest
- Low-Income
- Transparency

## Board Representation and Reconfiguration Discussion

- Are we fully compliant? What steps need to be taken to meet the requirements?
- Beyond strict compliance, is it opportune to make other changes in Board selection, composition, and terms?
- When was the last time we made an  assessment of our internal operations?
- How do we best increase effectiveness and maintain the spirit of the program?

**Notes:**
Provide facilitated discussion on the above questions.  

## Empowerment CommunityBoard Type

- Empowerment CommunityBoard Type

- An Empowerment Community Board is a type of Executive Management Team providing:
- Leadership
- Direction
- Oversight
- Advice
- Motivation

## COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT BOARD

- The Board members are to be the organization’s **leaders**, providing it with **oversight** and **advise** concerning mission- related efforts.  They are responsible for creating and updating the organization’s Strategic Plan, giving all members of the organization a sense of **direction**.  Also to keep the organization **motivated**.

## Empowerment CommunityBoard Type

- Empowerment CommunityBoard Type

- An Empowerment Community Board is like an Executive Management Team:
- Purpose: to provide coordinated leadership to the organization
- Contribution: oversight and advice
- Dangers: that it shirk its responsibilities or not be used
- Advantages: builds common purpose and consensus within the organization

## EZ/EC Board As Hybrid

- Different from Corporate Board
- Different from common Volunteer Boards
- Key Role played by Committees
- Limited Staff size
- Board members: One head -- Two hats

**Notes:**
Key message is that most EZ/ECs create a hybrid Board which balances the traditional governance functions of a Corporate Board with the more hands on style of Volunteer Boards.  However, the  best Board model suited for your community is the one that you devise, the one that works. Remember, you can always change it if it doesn’t work well.    

## Committees: Vital to the Mission

- EZ/EC Community-Based Mission & Philosophy
- Job too big for Board and Staff
- Committee Make-up:
- Geography (sub-Zone) or Sector representative
- Ad-Hoc or Standing
- EZ/EC Created or Pre-existing partner
- Board-led, staff-led or citizen-led
- Empower – Communicate - Monitor

**Notes:**
Key message is that outreach Committees and partnerships are necessary for an effective EZ/EC program, but the committees may come in all sizes and shapes.    

## Ten Responsibilities of Non-Profit Boards

**1.****	****Determine the Organization’s Mission and Purpose**
**2.****	****Select the Chief Executive**
**3.****	****Support the Chief Executive and Assess His/Her Performance**
**4.****	****Ensure Effective Organizational Planning**
**5.****	****Ensure Adequate Resources**
**6.****	****Manage Resources Effectively**
**7.****	****Determine, Monitor, and Strengthen the Organization’s Programs and Services**
**8.****	****Enhance the Organization’s Public Standing**
**9.****	****Ensure Legal and Ethical Integrity and Maintain Accountability**
**10.Recruit and Orient New Board Members and Assess Board Performance**
- - Richard T. Ingram, Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges

**Notes:**
Provide Ten-Responsibilities as hand-out or in your Board Binder.  

## Define Reasons for Being

- As your organization’s Strategic Planners, you must spell out its purpose (why it was formed)
- You must also create a formal statement of the organization’s Mission (what are its responsibilities)
- You should also organize these responsibilities in descending priority

**Notes:**
Take questions and discuss each of the 10 responsibilities.  See pages 58-64 in “Empowerment Training Facilitators Guide” 

## Select a Manager

- As Board Members, you are your organization’s leaders
- One exercise of leadership is to define the characteristics you want in a manager of day-to-day operations
- Another leadership function is to select the candidate who is best qualified to carry out your agenda

## Support and Assess the Manager

- The Manager and his/her Staff are your organization’s “troops in the trenches”
- As leaders, you must provide adequate support and guidance to these troops
- As mentors and coaches, you must evaluate the performance of the Manager and Staff and provide them with feedback

## Perform Planning

- To qualify for designation as an Empowerment Community, you had to create a Strategic Plan
- Your planning responsibility requires you now to develop a Tactical or Implementation Plan
- You need to revisit your Strategic and Tactical Plans *periodically* to update and revise them as needed

## Acquire & Leverage Resources

- In addition to your Title XX grants, you need to acquire other, continuing resources
- You need to form alliances or partnerships with other organizations to leverage both your resources
- You need to guide your community in the necessary activity of fundraising

## Oversee Resource Utilization

- As leaders, you need to resist the temptation of micro-managing your organization
- You should review and make decisions on proposed resource allocations
- You should review and evaluate resource utilization

## Oversee Organizational Activities

- As leaders, you don’t design and sponsor your organization’s programs and services
- Instead, you assess, advise, and facilitate your organization’s actions in support of its programs and services
- One of your important responsibilities as leaders is to “grow people” in your community

## Maintain Public Relations

- You can not assume that your organization will continue to have the respect of the community
- As leaders, you have a responsibility to inform them continually of your problems, your efforts to solve them, and your accomplishments
- As leaders, you have a responsibility to motivate your community to take responsibility for its own fate

## Govern Morally

- As leaders, you must ensure that your organization avoids any actions that are illegal or unethical
- As leaders, you must be concerned that your organization does not even give the appearance of illegal or unethical behavior
- As evaluators of proposals, you must be impartial and not give preferential treatment to any individual or organization

## Recruit Fresh Blood

- As leaders concerned with the continued well-being of your organization, you must be constantly looking for new candidates for the Board
- As new Board Members take their place, you must be sure that they are given formal orientation into the purpose and functioning of the Board
- As leaders, you must set the example of assessing and evaluating the performance of the Board

## Leadership

**Notes:**
See Leadership Chapter #1 in “Empowerment Training Facilitators Guide”

## Activities of a Leader

**Experiment and take risks**
**Envision the future**
**Enlist others to follow**
**Search for opportunities for change and improvement**
**Foster collaboration**
**Empower followers**
**Lead by doing**
**Build commitment to action**
**Recognize contributions**
**Celebrate accomplishments**
- Kouzes and Posner, _The Leadership Challenge_ (1987)

## Activities of a Manager

- Structure the job
- Select staff
- Improve competencies
- Correct incorrect behavior
- Motivate staff
- Delegate responsibility and authority
- Support your staff’s activities
- Clay Carr, _The New Manager’s Survival Manual_ (1989)

## Board – Executive Director  Relationship

- “No single relationship in the organization is as important as that between the board and its chief executive officer.”
- John Carver, Boards that Make a Difference

**Notes:**

Among Non-profit Boards: Board govern, Exec. Dir. Manages
To work, each party must understand its own and the others responsibilities.
Clear expectations for the board and directors need to be established and maintained.
Board’s decision-making structure lies in its group structure.
Through Board committees the Board assists management through policy formation, planning and implementation.
6. Board and Director use strategic plans supplemented by progress reports to
    organize meetings.  

## Activities of an Executive Director

- Execute policies of the Board
- Maintain fiscal accountability
- Foster environment for communication & success
- Ensure compliance with Federal & State laws
- Participate in fund-raising efforts
- Promote the corporation thru public relations, marketing and advocacy
- Work with others to improve programs
- Provide planning structure & recommendations
- Provide leadership for policy development
- Supervise and evaluate day-to-day operations

## Leadership Questions

- Who do you think of as leaders?
- What was his/her chief leadership characteristic?
- Who do you think of as managers?
- What was his/her chief manager characteristic?
- What are the differences between a leader and a manager?
- Can the same person/group be a leader and a manager simultaneously?

## Leader/Manager in an Empowerment Community

- Leader/Manager in an Empowerment Community

- The role of leader is played by the Board
- The role of manager is played by the Executive Director
- If the Board must play both roles, it must be very aware at any moment which role it is playing

## Activity IHow Do You Rate as a Leader?

- Activity IHow Do You Rate as a Leader?

- 1.	On your own, fill out the Leadership Questionnaire.
- 2.	Identify areas where you need improvement.
- 3.	Devise a plan for becoming a better leader.
- 4.	Make a commitment to carry out your plan.

**Notes:**
Distribute Leadership Questionnaire from pages 14-15 of “Empowerment Training Facilitators Guide”

## Teaming – Board and Staff

**Notes:**
See Chapter #2 on Teaming in “Empowerment Training Facilitators Guide”

## Teaming Atmosphere

- What kind of atmosphere or environment is necessary for a group to act as a team?
- Individualistic?
- Competitive?
- Cooperative?

## Individualistic Atmosphere

- Encourages each person to go his/her own way
- No guarantee that all individuals will reliably march in the same direction
- Individuals usually invest personal feelings in their own thoughts, beliefs, and values

## Competitive Atmosphere

- Pits groups members against one another
- Competition is a “game” in which one side wins and the other loses
- Competitors find it difficult to admit that the ideas of others can be true, good, or valuable

## Cooperative Atmosphere

- Group members work for the good of the whole, rather than for their own good
- They are convinced that working together is better than working alone
- They are willing to do whatever needs to be done to get the job done

## Teaming Beliefs

- “The best way to solve this problem is by all working together”
- “Each of us has his/her own set of talents to contribute”
- “Our success as a team depends on the quality of our communications with one another”
- “To meet our responsibilities and make good decisions, we all need to be well-informed and we need to hear from every member”

## Team Decision-Making

- Team members will implement decisions made through consensus, which is reached by:
- Discussing
- Bargaining
- Compromising or collaborating
- Voting

## Decision-Making Tools

- Problem Identification
- Brainstorming
- Multi-voting

**Notes:**
Note. Descriptions of these tools on pages 24-27 in Empowerment Training Participant Guide.   

After this slide distribute the “Do you Know your Community Quiz”.  Request that it be completed before the next session.

## Who is Your Community?

- Results from Community Quiz

**Notes:**
Review with participants the correct answers to the Community Quiz distributed earlier.  Each participant should have their own copies.  

This provides an opportunity to discuss both what the Board knows and doesn’t know about the community.  

## Why Involve the Community?

- Community problems can be solved by the community or by outside “experts”
- Usually the community can not afford “experts”
- As often as a community allows someone else to solve its problems, it strengthens its doubt in its own ability to satisfy its own needs

**Notes:**
See Chapter #7 (pages 96-112) from Empowerment Training Facilitators Guide, 

## The Principle of Community-Based Partnerships

- One of the four principles of the Empowerment Community Program is that of Community-Based Partnerships
- Involving participation of all segments of the community
- Working together to build and implement a plan for bettering their community
- Developing problem-solving abilities to enable self-sufficiency

## Required Paradigm Shift

- To be successful, leaders must adopt a collaborative approach
- Representative participation (“grassroots volunteers”)
- Committee consciousness (“a meaningful slot for all”)
- Collaborative atmosphere (“a solution best for all”)
- Consensus building (“a chance to be heard”)

## Representative Participation

- Representatives of all civic groups
- Representatives of all concerned citizens
- All age groups (beyond children)
- Both genders
- All ethnic groups
- All income levels

## Collaborative Atmosphere

- Involvement must be early and broad
- Give adequate notice of public involvement project
- Ensure time for community to review and discuss
- Ensure that participants have a clear, realistic understanding of the goals of the project
- Give real (not “make-work”) tasks and show appreciation for efforts expended
- Provide public access to technical information
- Use collaborative decision-making process

## Implementing Decisions

- Present proposed plan to decision makers for ratification
- Have committee present plan to decision makers
- Obtain formal approval for any suggested changes agreed to
- Monitor implementation
- Evaluate project
- Produce “Lessons Learned”

## EC Status Report 

- How is the EC community doing?
- How is the Board performing?
- Where are the challenges?

**Notes:**
This is the lead-in to the “Pre-Training Assessment Questionnaire”. 

“Pre-Training Questionnaire” can be adapted to individual Community needs.  Distribute and collect completed questionnaires prior to the Board Training.  

Note. Results are reported here, but answers can be very helpful to show where emphasis is needed in training.

## Pre-Training Questionnaire

**1. Our Board works as a team because all the members have shared goals, works together, and all derive some benefit from their membership on the Board**
**2. All of our Board members are committed to  **
**3. During Board meetings, our members encourage each other to express his/her opinions on each topic under discussion.**
**4. Our Board is concerned about keeping all our stakeholders informed of Board activities and decisions.**
**5. Our Board members do whatever they can to contribute to our organization’s success.**
**6. Every Board member is sensitive to actual or possible conflicts of interest.**
**7 Our Board tries to maintain appropriate lines of communication with our organization’s support staff.**

## Questionnaire Contd.

**8. Members of our Board trust and respect one another.**
**9. Each Board member is committed to enhancing the public image of our organization in the community.**
**10. Every Board member is continually on the lookout for individuals who can be recruited to serve as future Board members.**
**11. Our Board always follows its policies on Board size, composition, nominations, and elections.**
**12. Our Board has published a policies and procedures manual.**
**13. Our Board has developed a formal orientation program that it gives to new members when they come on board.**
**14. Our Board has effective and open lines of communication among its members and with the Exec. Dir.**
**15. Our Board seeks to ensure diversity in its membership.**
**16. Our Board conducts periodic assessments of its operations.**

## Questionnaire Contd.

**16. Our Board conducts periodic assessments of its operations.**
**17. Our Board provides opportunities for informal interactions between Board members and the Executive Director’s staff.**
**18. The roles and responsibilities of the Executive Director are clearly understood by all Board members.**
**19. What, in your opinion, are the most significant *****accomplishments***** of the Enterprise Community (EC)? **
**20. What, in your opinion, are the most significant *****challenges***** facing the EC?**
**21. What are the *****Board’s main strengths*****? **
**22. What are the *****Board’s main weaknesses*****?**
**23.  What one *****result***** would you most want to achieve at the upcoming Training? **
**24.  Any *****additional Comments***** **

## The Communityat Work

**Notes:**
This begins the section of the Training which focuses on specific tasks and activities the EZ/EC and Board must commit to in order to function properly.   The section ends with an external evaluation on how well the EZ/EC in functioning.

## Communications Make the Board

- Internal
- External (Where’s your Communications Committee?)
- Intramural (micromanagement/policy direction)

**Notes:**
Good boards talk to each other inside and outside board meetings.  Board members who do not speak to each other over a period of months need intervention and counseling from the Chair or need to step down from the Board.  However, do not confuse disagreement with not communicating!
Early in the EZ process the Office of Community Development was called upon by the Kentucky Highlands EZ to resolve a “board dispute”.  The message from the EZ was that their board had been “tearing itself apart” at meetings and that no business was being conducted at board meetings as a result.  This was having repercussions on staff time and morale and negatively impacting on the implementation of benchmarks and the strategic plan.  Clearly, OCD thought, positive intervention was called for. Being the responsive federal agency that it is, OCD put together a “jump team” of two staffers and a “conflict resolution specialist” borrowed for the occasion from the Forest Service.  The team flew to Kentucky and spent three days listening to board members, to sub-zone board members, and attending special board meetings called to discuss the situation.  At the end of the whirlwind visit, the team met with the EZ board to discuss findings and recommendations.  The Forest Service conflict resolution specialist led the discussion.  His bottom line was that yes, there was disagreement among the board, but that was not necessarily a “bad thing”.  He said that the main problem did not stem from conflict and that his skills were totally unnecessary to the given situation.  He said, “This board does not need a conflict resolution specialist, this board needs a meetings manager!”  All of the controversy, the bad feelings, and most of the disagreements thought to be dangerous conflict stemmed from the fact that the board had no rules for how they conducted business at their meetings, that meetings ran on for hours and sometimes it wasn’t even clear which agenda item was being discussed!  The specialist recommended a simple solution as a starting point for bringing productivity back to meetings – appoint a meetings manager whose sole job at each board meeting would be to keep people on task, on track, and on time.  Radically simple!
A board’s main job – the one which determines the success or failure of the board and the plan – is communication.  In almost every circumstance where “problems” have been found with community process, board behavior, project selection, plan implementation, or public participation, the main culprit has been a failure of the board to communicate to its various publics.  The Kentucky example speaks to the internal audience of the board amongst themselves.  Another place to focus board communications attention are with External audiences (tract residents, in particular, media, stakeholders, congressional and state legislative representatives and their staffs, current partners, and potential partners).  Don’t forget also to address the special Intramural communications needs that exist between the board and its professional staff who run the daily business of the EC, EZ, or REAP.  

## Strategic Planning 

- Strategic Planning

## Why Strategic Planning?

- Organizations engage in Strategic Planning to:
- Assess the environment in which they must operate
- Recognize their strengths and weaknesses
- Sketch its long-term dream (vision)
- Define it reasons for existing (mission)
- Map a course for it to follow for the next 1-2 years
- Identify landmarks to gauge attainment of its objectives

## The Components of Strategic Planning

- Audience
- External Factors
- Internal Factors
- Vision Statement
- Mission Statement
- Goals
- Objectives
- Performance Measures

## Performance Measures

- Criteria (benchmarks) your organization will use to determine whether it is successful in attaining its Objectives
- Outputs that your organization plans to produce
- Outcomes (changed situations) your organization plans to bring about
- Specific improvements in the quality of your organization’s services

## Benchmark Management System

- A tool to monitor progress in implementing EZ/EC strategic plans

## What is BMS?

- Monitors strategic plan activities
- Measures outputs and outcomes against baselines and targets
- Tracks resource use
- Provides an on-line workplan management tool for communities
- Incorporates on-line review and approval of changes to goals and budgets

## What communities can do with it

- Manage strategic plan goals and actions
- Manage workplans, timetables, resources
- Print reports for community meetings
- Develop record of outputs and outcomes
- Make comparisons with other communities
- Establish basis for program evaluation
- Submit proposed changes for approval

## What National Office Can Do

- Monitor progress nationally
- Electronic notification of changes to system
- Identify communities with common goals and activities
- Get national totals on resource usage
- Obtain national data on outputs and outcomes

## How Does it Work in Communities?

- Requires only Internet access, Web browser, password for access
- Communities enter data:
- Goals
- Activities
- Project descriptions and timetables
- Budgets and revenue sources
- Baselines, targets and performance indicators
- USDA State Offices notified of changes by e-mail

## Results!

- Easy-to-use local workplan management system
- Uniform national data collected
- Accountability enforcement system
- Basis for program evaluations
- Strategic plan investment opportunities can be identified
- Provides results data for GPRA

## EZ/EC Progress - An External Assessment

- The Positives
- The Negatives
- Need for more tangible results
- Common progress indicators:
- Funds leveraged compared with other EZ/ECs
- Number, quality and range of projects implemented
- Visibility to the Public

**Notes:**
Slide may be edited to customize RD/OCD assessment of the Community’s relative success.  List key indicators and describe how well this community is progressing.   Discuss whether your assessment conforms to the Board’s?  

## Specific Challenges -- As We See It

- Board Compliance
- Permanent Staff
- Board Participation on Benchmark Activities
- Outreach to under-represented sectors
- Board as a Team

**Notes:**
This slide presents an external critique of the EZ/EC from the RD Coordinator.  

Important.  Edit this slide to list the key challenges faced by the given Board.  Describe the evidence you have gathered to support your critique. 

## It’s Your Community 

- Do you agree these are serious or urgent challenges?  If not these, what should the Board focus on?
- What will you do to tackle these challenges?
- What steps can be taken before your next Board Meeting?
- Who will do them?

**Notes:**
Discuss next steps with Board.  If needed break out into smaller groups to discuss and report back.  

## The EC/USDA Partnership

- You are not alone!
- RD State Office
- Office of Community Development
- Other EZ/ECs
- Web Resources
- Others?

## The Wrap-up

- Q and A
- Closing Comments
- Training Evaluation Form

**Notes:**
This is fairly flexible time to use as you see fit.

##  TIME TO RENEW – TIME TO ACT!