It was a fascinating experience to observe your way of capturing large and visionary ideas and develop a plan of action that accounts for granular items within larger themes. And you did it so well with a diverse group that is dedicated to the mission of APBA. A job well done!
Rebecca Womack, Board of Directors
Association of Professional Behavior Analysts
From In-person to Virtual
In 2016, the APBA, under leadership of board president Dr. Nic Weatherly and APBA Executive Director Dr. Gina Green, decided to create the first comprehensive strategic plan for the Association.
In the summer of 2016, they engaged me because of my experience with other ABA organizations, including the BACB and CalABA.
APBA Founder and First President, Dr. Jim Johnston, joined the board for a two-day retreat in Chicago.
In 2018, Dr. Green invited me to present a three-hour strategic planning workshop at the 2018 annual convention.
The Challenge
In 2019, the APBA board reengaged with me for a full strategy update.
This time, scheduling and financial consideration did not allow for in-person retreats. At the same time, the thought of having half-day Zoom sessions wasn’t very appealing.
My Approach
We addressed this challenge by conducting virtual planning sessions (this was several months before COVID-19).
The key was to break the planning process into manageable chunks of several two-hour Zoom meetings.
In addition, we worked with a smaller subset of the full board to accommodate the virtual nature of the process.
The Result
The virtual planning process worked well for two reasons.
First, most board members participated in the original planning sessions and were familiar with my process.
Second, breaking the in-person format into bite-size chunks of around two hours kept the meetings engaging.
In a post-planning survey, participants indicated high satisfaction with the process. They also noted that having a smaller subset of the full board participate did not diminish the scope of ideas that were discussed during the sessions.
Great experience – as always!
Dr. Nic Weatherly, Past President
Association of Professional Behavior Analysts
