Our strategic plan will establish a trajectory that will carry CASE through 2021 and beyond. The tactics section in the appendices provides much greater detail in this regard. While the plan involves significant evolution over a five-year roll out period, we are mindful of the need to make immediate progress in some key areas to send a clear signal of our forward motion and to serve as an accelerant to our future plans. With that in mind, we’ve included here a number of objectives that we intend to achieve within the next 12–18 months.

Systemic challenges

While not reflected specifically in our goals and tactics, there are several systemic challenges that we must address in the very near future to bolster our capacity for moving ahead in the directions suggested by our plan:

• We will review and refine our governance structure to better meet the needs of our membership. This will be a central focus for a planned leadership congress in the spring of 2017.
• We will retain an outside independent party to perform a comprehensive audit of our information systems and develop a strategy to improve those systems. Following that audit, we will retain information systems counsel to guide us through those improvements and continuously assess our capabilities. 
• We will launch a business development unit to lead exploration and facilitate delivery of emerging business opportunities. This unit will broaden our capacity to serve and uncover new and innovative streams of revenue as a means of financing other goals of the strategic plan in support of the membership. Some key initiatives under consideration include a data collection/benchmarking project, the establishment of a CASE consulting practice and the collection and publishing of alumni satisfaction benchmarking data.

Short-range goals

• We will launch a new dynamic website that improves CASE’s capacity to be forward-thinking, member-focused and encouraging of a greater sense of affiliation and loyalty. The website will be the beachhead for a more current and strategically oriented content strategy approach to our communications.
• We will create alliances with colleagues, associations and potential partners to establish mutually beneficial relationships, create content and develop new activities and services.

• We will expand graduate trainee and internship opportunities with a specific focus on diversity to build a more robust pipeline for those interested in entering the professions. By 2017, we will increase the number of advancement interns in our U.S. program from 46 currently to 75.
• We will create a mechanism for competitive analysis of professional development opportunities. This will allow CASE to define core, niche and differentiated positioning opportunities.

• We will create a speakers’ bureau comprising volunteers and senior staff in order to respond to media inquiries more effectively and establish higher visibility for CASE as a thought leader in the sector. We will also position the president as a leading spokesperson for the industry.
• We will solicit input from our membership and educational partners to define a comprehensive research strategy. We will seek to secure external funding to support the research agenda and expand our capacity to gather, interpret and share research findings.

• We will build upon the existing strength of the CASE Commissions by testing a regional commission model, beginning with the CASE Europe Annual Conference in 2016. This model will allow us to gain a broader perspective of horizon issues in every region we serve.
• We will launch an e-mentoring network which will harness the experience and skill of our senior volunteers in ways that will directly support and develop professional capacity in all CASE regions, particularly in emerging areas. This network will amplify the impact of our service in every corner of the sector and ensure greater effectiveness of our member institutions.