Strategic Planning and other foundational documents available for review by NAFA members: Feedback requested by Monday, June 29, 2009.

To support NAFA as it enters its second decade, our Executive Board has created a series of new planning and foundational documents for the organization. These are:

• A Five-Year Strategic Plan (2009-2014);
• Vision and Mission Statements; and
• A Code of Ethics.

In light of these new documents, we also have developed proposed revisions to our Constitution and By-laws, which our members adopted in 2001 and 2003, respectively.

At our upcoming biennial conference in Seattle, you will be asked to vote on whether to adopt these key texts. If you are unable to join us there, you may vote in advance via e-mail (we have your contact information and will be in touch).

Before the vote takes place, however, we welcome your feedback on the draft documents posted here. If you have suggestions for improvement, please contact NAFA’s current president, Paula Warrick, at Warrick@american.edu or 202-885-1817. She will pass on your feedback to the appropriate committee (Strategic Planning, Constitution and By-laws, or Ethics). Final copies of all five documents will be posted on the NAFA Website prior to the Seattle meeting and hard copies will be shared at the conference.

The Board has drafted a Background Report So that you can better understand the rationale underlying the ten recommendations in the Strategic Plan. An Action Plan will provide insight into how and in what stages we propose to implement it.

To help you to identify the changes being proposed in the Constitution, we are posting the following:

• A clean copy of the Constitution incorporating revisions;
• A marked-up copy of the original Constitution; and
• A clean copy of the original Constitution approved in 2001.

Revisions to the By-laws can be tracked through:

• A clean copy of the By-laws with proposed amendments;
• A summary of changes being proposed; and
• A clean copy of the original By-laws approved in 2003.

It took two years and multiple planning meetings to finalize these documents. Special thanks are due to:

• The NAFA Board and our past president, Suzanne McCray, for its work on the Strategic Plan;
• The Ethics Committee, co-chaired by Suzanne McCray and Beth Powers, for its work on the Code of Ethics;
• The By-laws review committee, chaired by Joanne Brzinski; and
• The Constitution review committee (which also developed the Mission and Vision Statements), chaired by Scott Henderson.

Your feedback is requested by Monday, June 29, 2009.