The second year of the pandemic brought more challenges – from the rapid pace of work to carving out enough personal time. But there have also been opportunities and some important wins. The successful rollout of vaccines is one of the greatest. For CASSS, the ability to continue delivering on our knowledge-sharing mission for our members is a win. Collectively and individually, we have learned a lot. The end of the year is an excellent time to reflect on the year’s successes and challenges for insights to carry forward.
In November, the CASSS Board of Directors held their first retreat since 2019 with this goal in mind. The theme of the retreat was Review & Learn. The 2-day meeting was designed as a comprehensive business review and gap analysis to delve into and understand lessons learned from the past couple of years.
For each program and service that CASSS offers, we assessed its relevance to our members, the following criteria:
- Relatedness to CASSS’ mission – that is, how well does this program deliver on Knowledge Sharing, Global Access, and Regulatory Capacity Building?
- Is it meeting attendance and financial expectations?
- Is it an effective use of human capital – both staff and volunteer?
- Does it further our diversity, equity and inclusion goals?
- Is this program available elsewhere?
- Would we start it today?
Overall, we are pleased at the degree to which our programs and services are performing and delivering on our promises to our members. Knowledge sharing is the core of what we do – and remains an area of strength. Our programs are thoughtfully curated by dedicated volunteer committees with strong staff support. They require significant contributions of time and effort, but the results demonstrate they are an effective use of staff and volunteer time. Financially, CASSS has remained stable throughout the pandemic.
Beyond the conferences and forums, we recognized several areas for improvement. Our efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion are in their infancy. We lack a clear pathway for growth and maturation for existing volunteers, as well as sufficient opportunities for new individuals to join. Competition, as reflected in the category, “Available Elsewhere?” is something to monitor.
While not as outwardly visible, our greatest gaps and challenges are in the areas of technology and information management. The board is committed to improving both and has invested resources accordingly – including in the new website and abstract management/speaker portal that were launched last month and coming upgrades to our member database and registration systems. These will bring welcome efficiencies and information, yet the change comes with a learning curve and the stress that brings.
This granular gap analysis and reflection on our successes and challenges laid the foundation for the board to update our strategic plan next Spring. It was the first assessment of its kind for the board and has provided new insights and information for
the “Start, Stop, Keep or Pause” conversations that every healthy organization must have. Stay tuned as the board of directors and staff continue to learn and grow in order to lead CASSS to a successful future.