Vision,
Mission - and a new Look for CASLPA in 2004
CASLPA wants to ensure that you, our member, have a "high
performance" association working on your behalf. High performance
associations share a number of key characteristics that include:
- Shared vision and mission by all of the stakeholders
- Strategy is performance based and clearly defined to help
the Board and members identify what needs to be done to turn
the vision and mission into action
- Goals are challenging
- All participants are empowered to do their tasks, and teamwork
is effective.
- Best practices are used to ensure member and employee satisfaction,
accountability, and quality.
- Performance measurement is emphasized using key performance
indicators
The 2002 CASLPA Membership survey was an important first step
in embarking on the journey to achieving high performance goals.
Shared mission and vision statements are another critical characteristic
to consider.
CASLPA currently has a mission statement that guides and directs
the activities of the Board. Hand in hand with the mission statement
is the vision statement. A vision statement needs to convey
the goals and values of the Association. The vision outlines
what is possible and what the association aspires to, while
the mission deals with the behaviour of the organization and
the present situation. A vision should answer questions such
as: What are the association's core values, what is CASLPA's
reason for being, how can it make a difference, and what activities
are worth undertaking? An organization's vision must transcend
the current leadership.
Recognizing this gap, the CASLPA Board worked on the development
of a new vision for CASLPA - and revisited our current mission
statement. This was an important exercise, as defining the vision
and mission in conjunction with strategic planning activities
will improve CASLPA's focus. Our new vision statement is:
Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists collaboratively
working to maximize the communication potential of all Canadians.
A mission provides direction for an organization and is the
basis for all planning. It is the starting point for all and
needs to be realistic. The mission usually defines the purpose
of the organization, recognizes the stakeholders, indicates
their needs, and implies the image that the organization wants
to project.
CASLPA's mission statement, "to support the professional
needs and development of speech-language pathologists and audiologists
and, through this support, champion the interests of those who
require the services of these professionals", is realistic,
but had not been revisited for a number of years. The Board
reviewed and revised our mission statement. Our new Mission
statement is:
To champion and support the professional needs of Speech-Language
Pathologists and Audiologists, to facilitate the growth and
development of our members thereby maximizing the communication
potential of Canadians.
As we celebrate 40 years as a professional association, the
timeliness of introducing a vision statement and re-working
our mission statement was ideal. As we "launch" ourselves
into the next decade towards our 50th Anniversary, the timing
was also right to refresh and revitalize our "look".
The front page of this issue of Communiqué details the
history of our logo and "brand image", and the rationale
for this change.
We have seen tremendous growth and change in the past 40 years,
and I anticipate the next forty to be astounding!
