The MiGCSA is often best looked at as a new start up business for me, we started in 2008 and have seen many bumps in the road. But since this is a new business there is just not a lot of history to compare ourselves to.
Right now we are in a position of growth of both membership and financial. At some point we will hit a ceiling of some sort, or at least a leveling off. The key for the MiGCSA is to continue to improve and adapt to the needs of our members. The easiest way to do this is to listen very carefully to what they want and to see what they do, then in the simplest of terms do that.
What is the future of the MiGCSA? I have a few ideas, but I would really love to hear what you think. Are we doing all we can for our members? No, I hope we can never say that, if we do then there is no room for improvement and that leads to stagnation. We need to be a nimble group and business constantly adapting to the environment, member needs and support. This is easy to say and much harder to do. The gains we have made in our first 5 1/2 years were primarily the low hanging fruit, the gains in the next 5 1/2 will be substantially more difficult but can also be the most dynamic.
What does a GCSAA Affiliated Chapter look like in the future, again I have some ideas but I do know this for sure: it does not look like the one we have now. That does not mean we are doing anything wrong now per say although I am sure there are a few things. It means that we need to manage for what is coming not for what we did, do not simply keep doing what you do well because it worked yesterday. If you look at your life or business how many things that you did 5, 10, 15 years ago apply to today? If you say most of it I would caution you to take a very hard and honest look at some new ideas. Ask Kodak if what has worked in the past is good enough, once one of the largest companies in the world, now gone because they did not adapt soon enough or look at what is next while business was good.
The best time to plan for the future is when things are good, whether it be profits or members or course conditions. It is markedly harder when those things are not good to try to implement new ideas and techniques. Make mistakes they are the kindling for innovation. If you are mistake free you are not trying enough new ideas, learn from them and grow from them. As always please let us know where you think we can improve even if it does not end up working at least we know we tried. Thank you all for your support of the MiGCSA.
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