The Participants

WICPA President Ray Petkovsek, Past-President Ted Hart and WICPA CEO Dennis Tomorsky began collaborating early in 2009 to identify individuals to participate in developing the new strategic plan. We determined that the strategic planning task force should include members from various backgrounds. Diversity considerations included gender, geography, age, type and size of employer, employment position and ethnicity. Conversations with strategic planning consultants indicated that the process would be most effective if the number of participants did not exceed 20. It was considered important for participants to have demonstrated interest in the future of the organization through their prior participation in WICPA activities. The WICPA management team was also determined to be critical to the strategic planning process, since the staff will be engaging in the activities to implement the plan. Individuals’ availability also played a role in the composition of the strategic planning task force.

Since the same consultant facilitated the three prior strategic planning retreats, we opted to bring a fresh perspective to the process by retaining a different facilitator to help us develop the new strategic plan. Requests for Proposals were sent to six strategic planning consultants, all of whom were highly recommended by other state CPA societies. After reviewing RFP responses, a decision was made to retain Tom Hood, CPA, executive director of the Maryland Association of CPAs, to facilitate the 2009 strategic planning process. Tom is widely recognized as a thought leader in the CPA profession and he has facilitated strategic planning retreats for many organizations, including several state CPA societies.