February 2024 - Director's Corner
Of all our accomplishments over the last year, I am the most proud of our new 5-yr Strategic Plan. In just 10 pages, we lay out our history, how the fisheries and oceanscape are changing and what we can do about it, the necessary partnerships and levers, and a roadmap for how to get there.
Looking back to this time last year, when we first got underway, I was both intimidated and excited. I knew this was our most important inner work - to examine the current landscape and then redefine the organization's mission, vision, and theory of change, as well as prioritize what initiatives would most likely bring about the change we wish to see. While keeping up with ongoing program activities, we also had to build in sufficient time and the right process to gather input from our board, advisors, staff, and colleagues.
The result is a new mission statement, a clearly articulated vision, a simple yet powerful theory of change, and a set of 10-yr impact goals and 5-yr initiatives that I hope you will be excited about. The impact goals are crafted to be ambitious, lofty, and aspirational targets. The strategy involves making incremental yet significant strides toward these objectives over the next several years.
We are committed to play our part. But what will make it truly possible is this community, working together to shift local markets, policy, government investment, and individual and collective action to ensure that Monterey Bay is home to a thriving fishing community engaged in sustainable fisheries, supported by local consumers, with ‘food from the sea’ a cornerstone of our local food system.
Big, complex, and important processes require the right support. We are grateful to the Community Foundation of Monterey County for a small grant that enabled us to enlist the expertise of strategic planning maestra, Di Strachan, who guided us on the 6-month exploration leading to the document you see. Many thanks also to Nicole Sarto, for her excellent organizational skills and to Zina Oliver for the beautiful graphic design. Lastly, a BIG thank you to members of our board who gave several hours of their time, and to our staff for being the ones ready and willing to carry this out.
Okay, let’s do this!
Melissa