The Board of Directors is Completing a Strategic Plan for the MaKay Centre for Seniors in Goderich

by Bob Montgomery

The Board of Directors for the McKay Centre for Seniors in Goderich is looking for input from their members, the surrounding community and other stakeholders as they prepare a master plan for the Centre.

We R Strategic Consultant Maureen Cole says they've already had several discussions on the mission, vision and values. Now they're putting out surveys and conducting focus groups to determine what the community wants, how much they're willing to help them and how involved surrounding communities want to be. She says that will be done during the month of February and that will give them an idea of what will work for Goderich and the surrounding communities. Cole says their goal is to have a strategic plan draft ready to present to the board by the end of March.

Cole says the surveys will ask the members what existing programs they like, what else they would like to see and how much they would be willing to pay for new programs. Cole says they're also going to send surveys out to community groups like the Alzheimer's Society and other groups, or people, who use the Centre to provide education sessions and they’ll ask them how things are going and what could be done better. Cole says they'll also ask if some of those things could be done in another location, because they're running out of space at the McKay Centre. They'll also host focus groups for people to come in and have smaller conversations about what they feel the McKay Centre is doing well, what could be improved and how do they get there, so that in five years it's where they want it to be.

Cole says they'll launch the survey on their website, on their Facebook page and through email on February 1st. The focus groups will be held on February 7th and February 21st and she'll have that analysis for the end of February so the board will be able to look at that in March. The board has its annual meeting in June. That's when they will officially approve the Strategic Plan. Cole adds, there will also be an action plan to go with the Strategic Plan to make sure the Strategic Plan doesn't just sit on a shelf.

More information about the Strategic Plan can be found at the Mackay Centre for Seniors website.