EBU STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
As discussed in the Chairs’ meeting of 2nd September, the EBU Strategy comes in multiple parts, and we need contributions from people with a variety of expertise to develop it fully. The key steps are
(a) To learn what we can from the current county consultation about the Mission and priorities
(b) To understand the issues that each component of the strategy must tackle (its scope)
(c) To collect as many ideas for how to proceed as we can find
(d) To select and document the best way forward.
The first step is already underway, and the intent is to use September to tackle the next two steps, and for the final step to take place during October.
The strategy components, while being tackled separately, are not independent; it is important that they are consistent and support each other. They are all equally important. The current breakdown (which could change if the issues we capture and the inter-relatedness reveals the need) is as follows
- Player Recruitment and Development Strategy, this is catering primarily for those who are potential players, but also providing support for the development of existing bridge players.
- Competitions Strategy, delivering opportunities for players to enjoy playing the game in a variety of different formats and at all skill levels.
- Representative Events Strategy, managing opportunities for players to represent England in competitions with other nations.
- Membership & Communications Strategy, which explains how we engage with the bridge playing population, and grow the EBU membership appropriately over time.
- Financial & Commercial Strategy, which explains how we raise funds for the organisation and manage the organisation’s activities within that budget, proving good value for money for our members.
- Technology Strategy, which explains how we support the technology on which we rely today, and how in the future we will use technology to enhance the bridge playing experience of our members and the efficiency of the organisation.
For each component there is, in the forum below, a discussion thread in which all stakeholders are invited to contribute
(a) Questions about scope – such as “does this component cover X”.
(b) Issues on which the strategy needs to give direction – such as “must decide how much of Y we do”.
(c) Ideas which the strategy could adopt to address the issues identified.
Please contribute and encourage relevant others to do so also. Anyone with access issues on the forum can send their input by email to patrick@gcba.org.uk
Comments
Membership and Communications are rather distinct. The membership strategy should incorporate elements of (5) which is about providing good value for members - since it is no good promoting a service if the service is not worth promoting. The communications part seems to belong as much with (1) which is about marketing bridge in the broadest sense.
Why have we split membership from player recruitment? That strikes me as potentially very unhelpful.
Tim