Hello, my name is Bob McChesney, Port of Port Angeles Executive Director as of August 2004. I guess you could say I’ve just about got my sea legs now, and am ready to start moving the Port forward. My main focus for the last few of months has been the Port’s newly revised Strategic Plan. As the new E.D. just coming in the door, I enjoyed the opportunity to reflect with the Commissioners, Port Staff and our stakeholders. It was a valuable learning experience for me. While this is not the first time I’ve gone through this type of process, I always come away from it somehow feeling a bit wiser than before. Our work on this Strategic Plan proved to me once again that the most important part of strategic planning is the process itself.
Our Strategic Planning retreat at the Olympic National Resource Center (ONRC) in Forks, WA, was undoubtedly, the best part of the process because it gave Commissioners and Staff a chance to exchange thoughts and ideas about Port business and how to approach new investment opportunities that might be out there. We cleared up policy issues and set a fresh program. After the retreat we got back to the pick-and-shovel work of putting it all together in a document. Though completed, a good Strategic Plan is never really quite finished. It always remains a work in progress.
Does that make it any less important? Of course not. Strategic Planning is a useful process and a meaningful tool that provides us a means to regroup, refocus and reconfirm:
- Regroup our organization to make certain we’re all working out of the same play book;
- Refocus to make sure we’re doing everything we can with what we’ve got; and
- Reconfirm our public enterprise role and where we fit in with the Community.
By definition strategic planning occurs at a “high altitude”. In other words, it’s a method that allows an organization to step back and take in the big picture. From this perspective many details may appear out of focus, but the direction one needs to take is made very clear.
Now that we have consensus on the future direction the Port should take (namely, to grow the Port’s revenue) our Strategic Plan moves us forward in that direction. Our next steps will be implementation that supports these directives.
As I said, a Strategic Plan is never really finished and we’re always interested in finding out how we might improve it as we advance toward our objectives. I encourage you to read our Strategic Plan. After you’ve had a chance to review it, I’d be interested in hearing what you think. In the meantime, thank you for your interest in the Port of Port Angeles.
Sincerely,
Bob McChesney
Port of Port Angeles Executive Director
