Dear SWAN Board: This is just a quick note to let you know that last week that several SWAN staff and the Strategic Planning Committee of the SWAN board attended a webinar on using the Harwood Institute model for strategic planning. While the webinar itself was somewhat disappointing because it focused more on product than on process, I followed up by email and then phone with one of the presenters and learned more about how they used the Harwood process, and I found it intriguing. I've been interested in Harwood for some time and think there is potential to use it for a focus group process with SWAN directors and other key staff in SWAN libraries. Pioneer Library System in Oklahoma (the library system that delivered the webinar) used a train-the-trainer model where they sent 2 staff to Harwood Institute to be trained and then those 2 staff trained the facilitators for their internal process. I suspect there are a number of directors within SWAN membership who might appreciate becoming "trained trainers" for the SWAN process because then they could apply it to the strategic planning process at their own libraries without having to pay to go to Harwood themselves. Obviously, we will need to discuss this both at the committee and board level before moving forward on anything like this. Nevertheless, Aaron is going to be giving a presentation on the history of the last couple of strategic planning processes at quarterly next week; he and I thought that I might just mention, as President and member of the Strategic Planning Committee, that Harwood is something we're considering using, just to get a read on how the membership feels about Harwood. Would you be okay with my doing this? TO AVOID OPEN MEETINGS ACT VIOLATIONS, PLEASE DO NOT "REPLY ALL" TO THIS EMAIL. Please reply to me individually if you wish to simply give a "yes" response. If you have concerns that this is not a good idea, please send a more detailed individual reply or give me a call on my direct line, (708) 470-7321. Thanks! Jennifer Cottrill, Library Director Pronouns: She/Her/Hers (What's this?)<https://www.thehrcfoundation.org/professional-resources/talking-a… Midlothian Public Library 14701 S. Kenton Avenue Midlothian, IL 60445 (708) 535-2027 jcottrill(a)midlothianlibrary.org www.midlothianlibrary.org<http://www.midlothianlibrary.org> [cid:bb0daefb-f3b1-4af0-ba36-101e929a4754]