December 2007

Executive's Report by WSBA Executive Director Paula Littlewood and WSBA Governor Salvador A. Mungia

Into the Future: New Clarity and Focus for the WSBA's Path

Establishing a new mission statement and formulating guiding principles

Every three years or so, the Board of Governors sets out the long-range plan for the WSBA for the coming years. This year, the Long Range Planning Committee (LRPC) performed a more systemic review of the WSBA's goals and proposed a revised way of looking at who WSBA is, why it exists, and therefore where it should be spending its resources and energy. The Committee this year was chaired by Governor Sal Mungia (Sixth District), who will continue as the chair of the newly named Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) in FY 2008. Outlined below are the recommendations of the LRPC adopted by the Board at its September meeting.

New Mission Statement for the WSBA

The newly adopted mission statement serves as a strong foundation for how the public should perceive the Bar, and how we, as the Bar, should perceive ourselves. In attempting to formulate strategic goals for the upcoming planning period, the Committee first began its work by examining the Bar's mission statement as that statement provides, or at least should provide, an encapsulation of why the WSBA exists as an organization.

One item the Committee felt was lacking from the current mission statement is that one of the core reasons the WSBA exists is to ensure the integrity of the legal profession. The WSBA mission was:

The mission of the Washington State Bar Association is to promote justice and serve its members and the public.

As recommended by the LRPC, the Board adopted the following new mission statement for the WSBA:

The Washington State Bar Association's mission is to serve the public and the members of the Bar, ensure the integrity of the legal profession, and to champion justice.

The Committee believed that the order of the various items in the mission statement also says something about the organization. Accordingly, service to the public has been moved to the beginning of the mission statement in order to remind all of us as to where the WSBA's priorities should lie and will also make a strong statement to the public as to why the WSBA exists. Finally, the Committee wanted a stronger message regarding the WSBA's role as it pertains to justice issues — thus, the change from promoting justice to indeed championing justice.

New Guiding Principles Adopted

In going through the task of formulating strategic goals for the upcoming three-year period, the Committee came up with a list of items that all on the Committee agreed go to the core mission of what the WSBA is about. These are values that the WSBA has held, is currently holding, and will always hold in the future. The Committee determined that these items were not strategic goals, but instead were principles that should always guide the WSBA. Accordingly, these principles were adopted by the Board as just that — guiding principles and not strategic goals. They are as follows:

The WSBA will operate a well-managed association that supports its members, and advances and promotes:
• Access to the justice system;
• Diversity, equality, and cultural understanding throughout the legal community;
• A fair and impartial judiciary;
• The public's understanding of the rule of law and its confidence in the legal system; and
• The ethics, civility, professionalism, and competency of the Bar.

Strategic Goals for the Next Three Years

After agreeing to a set of Guiding Principles, the Committee next held a brainstorming session listing items that it thought the WSBA should do during the next three years. In order to help narrow a lengthy list of proposed strategic goals, the Committee developed the following criteria that strategic goals should meet:

1. The goal should be something that the WSBA either has not been doing or something that the WSBA has been doing but that the resources devoted to that activity should be dramatically increased to take that activity to a much higher level.
2. The goal should be achievable and measurable.
3. The goal should be a goal in and of itself and not a means to another goal.

Given that set of criteria, the list was easier to hone. For example, while the Committee members all agreed that access to the civil justice system is an important activity to which the WSBA should devote its resources, this is something that the WSBA already does — in fact, it is embodied in the Guiding Principles as something to which the WSBA will always devote resources. In contrast, the following three activities are activities that the WSBA has not engaged in, or, if it has engaged in, should be taken to a much more intense level:

1. The WSBA engaging in a systematic review of all its programming.
2. The WSBA strengthening its connection with its membership.
3. The WSBA Board of Governors improving its relationship with the WSBA staff.

The Board agreed with the Committee's recommendation and adopted these three goals. Thus, in the next three years, the WSBA will:

• Devote resources to institute a systematic review of all WSBA programs on a regular basis to ensure that the WSBA is obtaining an effective return on its investment of resources.
• Enhance outreach to members. While the WSBA has made efforts to connect with members in the past, adoption of this goal shows the WSBA's commitment to taking this communication to a higher level, to foster a greater connection among members and the organization.
• A strong strategic partnership between staff and the Board is always critical. Accordingly, during the next three-year period, the WSBA will focus on enhancing the Board's relations with the WSBA staff.

The Committee's work this past year was significant and has set a strong foundation for our organization going forward. As always, we welcome your thoughts with regard to any of these issues. If you have thoughts about how best to implement them, please pass them along! 

Paula Littlewood is the WSBA executive director and can be reached at paulal@wsba.org. Sal Mungia serves on the WSBA Board of Governors representing the Sixth District.