Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2001 — OHA's strategic planning process works [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA's strategic planning process works

Donald Cataluna

Trustee, Kaua'i and Ni'ihau

Why Plan? This single provocative question put by Annelle Amaral, OHA's strategic planning facilitator, prompted the following responses from OHA Trustees attending the first of five strategic planning workshops on Feb. 5, 2001. Planning: • secures the future • provides a road map • sets priorities • allocates resources • establishes measurements and benchmarks • includes beneficiary ideas • coordinates activities The aforementioned responses to the question "Why plan?" evoked more questions. • Where are we now? • Where do we want to be? • How will we get there? • Who must do what? • How will we assess the work? And finally, two more questions critical to the success of the strategic planning process surfaced. In the area of planning: • What is the role of the Board of Trustees, regarding policy and operations? • What is the role of management, regarding policy and operations? With responses to the question "Why plan?" serving as a guide, Trustees in four successive workshops over a seven-week period applied information that responded to their unanswered questions. Then, Trustees created a new Vision

Statement, Ho'oulu Lāhui Aloha, blending the king's motto with the word aloha, to represent the gentle spirit and guidance of the queen. In the week following, Trustees created a new Mission Statement: "To mālama Hawai'i's people and environmental resources, and OHA's assets toward ensuring the perpetuation of the culture, the enhancement of lifestyle and the protection of entitlements of Native Hawaiians, while enabling the building of a strong and healthy Hawaiian people and nation, recognized nationally and internationalIy." Trustees thus completed the first phase of the planning process, identifying 16 priorities and authorizing the continuing strategic planning process with oversight by myself, Trustee Waihe'e, administrative and program staff, and community volunteers Julian Ako of Kamehameha Schools and Myron Pinky Thompson, former Bishop Estate trustee. From April 17 to June 30, 15 statewide community meetings with beneficiaries were held on the islands of Hawai'i, Kaua'i, Lāna'i, Maui, Moloka'i and O'ahu. OHA's Vision and Mission Statements and Trustees' priorities were reviewed and discussed. The meetings produced 284 beneficiary priorities for the Core Group to consider. Now totaling 300 in all, the priorities were clustered by the Core Group

into eight distinct areas: advocacy, culture, eeonomie development, education, environment and

resource management, nationhood, policy and social services. On July 25, 50 individuals from the community who were asked to lend their expertise to our efforts gathered at the State Capitol and

enthusiastically agreed to undertake the third phase of OHA's Strategic Planning process: Review of the Priorities and Identification of Working Strategies. And while these folks were busily engaged in completing their tasks, a Values and Principles Working Group consisting of administrative and trustee staff members was formed to develop a statement of Values and Principles to guide the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, its elected Trustees, its employees and volunteers in attaining OHA's Vision and Mission, and in fulfilling its Trust responsibilities. Reports and recommendations were presented to the Board of Trustees by the Core Group in a Strategic Planning briefing Oct. 17. The development of goals, measurable objectives, strategies and action plans constitutes the next important phase of the planning process. It will require intensive staff work and Board of Trustees' oversight and approval - all of % whieh is expected to be finalized by December 31, 2001, and taken back to the community for review and comment in January 2002. Upon completion of this major pieee of work, Trustees will have set the course for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for the next five years. ■

" Mālama Hawai'i's people and environmental resources, and OHA's assets toward ensuring the perpetuation of the culture, the enhaneement of lifestyle and the protection of entitlements of Native Hawaiians, while enabling the building of a strong and healthy Hawaiian people * and nation, recognized nationally and internationally." — OHA Mission Statement