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Getting Started: Developing a Draft Plan

After brainstorming for the components that likely will affect the operations of your MRC unit, it can be useful to organize them into a draft plan.

Some of the possible planning elements are described below. These serve as a guide to developing your key issues.

Components of a Draft Plan

The following items are the components of a draft plan:

• Mission statement (supporting identified community risks/needs)
• Objectives (supporting mission)
• Action plan (supporting objectives)
• Organizational chart (supporting planned activities)
• Budget (supporting planned activities and organizational structure)
• Potential response partners
• Other organizations supporting the MRC
• Advocacy issues (including liability protection for volunteers, integrating MRC volunteers into existing systems, credential verification procedures, etc.)

Mission Statement

Effective organizations have a concise statement about the purpose or mission of a particular organization or group. This statement can help focus the decisions that develop in support of the mission. Some also include a vision statement as a way to maintain the effort’s focus. Regardless, a mission statement should be linked to the risks or needs identified in your initial assessment.

A mission statement should be a one- to two-sentence statement of your unit’s purpose and values. It should answer the following questions:

• Who are you?
• What do you do?
• Why does it matter?

Objectives

Conceivably, there are numerous ways to fulfill a mission. You will decide what you think is preferable or realistic to accomplish. Some use goals interchangeably with objectives. Regardless, you want to identify key outcomes that will substantially support your MRC unit’s mission. Ultimately, these will be your measures of success.

Action Plan

The action plan outlines how you will achieve your objectives. Depending on the ambition of the objectives, your action plan may extend many years into the future.

Some people find it helpful to establish short-term objectives that can be reached in a year, while others find it helpful to establish long-term objectives as a way to maintain an ongoing effort. You may want to include both.

For example, a first-year operation plan may include some of the issues previously described, such as how to:

1. Coordinate with external partners
2. Recruit and train volunteers
3. Utilize volunteers to include public health promotion
4. Establish a communication system for use with volunteers and response partners
5. Address other organizational development needs and issues (e.g., data tracking systems, policies and procedures, scope of operations, criteria for mobilizing and demobilizing, verification of volunteer credentials, fundraising, etc.)

Organizational Chart

Consider the type of organizational structure necessary to support these activities. Include other resources or partnering organizations in your chart to keep the larger system in mind. Update the chart to reflect how your unit functions in practice, in addition to how it should operate in theory. A thorough and up-to-date organizational chart can play an important role in ongoing planning activities.

Unit Budget

Determine what your MRC unit will cost and which resources you will need to support your organization and your planned activities. Your budget should include needed and available resources, including funds, specialty expertise, in-kind donations of supplies or services, strategic community partnerships, and other diverse support streams. If you cannot determine how to access the necessary resources, you may have to modify your plan. Conversely, you can challenge your community to develop these resources. Verify that you have sought assistance from all potential resources before quitting. Knowing your budget will allow you to justify your unit’s solicitations for support and to know how to use resources most effectively.

Potential Response Partners

1. Maintain an ongoing list of potential resource partners.
    
2. Track names and contact information for all response partners and other key community-based organizations, including any possible sponsoring organizations and your local Citizen Corps council, if applicable.
    
3. Note the specific activities relevant to each partner, with other pertinent information to help ensure detailed planning as you progress. This information also will be useful when soliciting support for resources. In particular, potential funding sources often want to know that an effort is well connected to other resources in its larger community.

Other Organizations Supporting Your Medical Reserve Corps

In addition to having response partners with whom your MRC unit will likely work closely, there are other organizations—including government offices and private-sector businesses—that will support your MRC’s activities and presence in the community.

Advocacy Issues

Challenging issues will affect your MRC and its volunteers. Some of these will be addressed in a more public forum. Many communities are addressing legal liability and disability protections for their MRC volunteers. You may need to educate potential response partners about how your volunteers can be integrated into their existing systems. You also may need to promote more efficient credential verification procedures. These issues may not be resolved in a timely manner, but it helps to consider them and to address them as you proceed.

Remember—your planning process may begin in a less structured way, but the goal is to develop a formal document that other parties will support. As you develop your MRC, you also may have your response partners contribute to your planning process. Eventually, they may include your MRC plan in their own plans.

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Last Updated on 8/15/2006