On February 26, 2005, 23 members of San Francisco for Democracy (SF4D) met to develop a strategic plan that could guide us in our action, especially the work of our committees, over the next year.

Our volunteer facilitator, Liz Pallatto, explained the difference between strategy and tactics, and the importance of not confusing the two. Strategy focuses on the major goals of an organization, what it wants to accomplish, how it realizes its basic principles and ideals. Tactics are the activities and actions an organization undertakes to achieve its strategic goals. Liz noted that it takes a certain discipline for activist groups like SF4D to focus on strategy, but made a serious and largely successful effort to keep us focused on strategy: major goals, not short-term details.

An important part of strategic thinking is to be aware of the kind of organization we are, and several SF4D members offered some important clarification on this point:

• We are a political action organization, not a single-issue advocacy group.
• We are more interested in getting results than in getting credit for those results.
• We want to work for a common ground among progressives in San Francisco.
• We are not interested in fighting "turf wars" with other organizations.
• Our website in a clearinghouse for information on progressive political action.
• We do not restrict our membership to Democrats.
• We are independent of Democracy for America and California for Democracy even though we may work closely with them

Other important features of SF4D include the distinction between meetups, committee meetings, general membership meetings, and Dean Corps.

A strategic plan is meaningless without a commitment of time and work from members; there is no point in stating our goals unless individuals can commit to working for them. The strategic plan encompasses vision plus action.

After a lively discussion how to determine the most important issues (local, state, and national) the group developed a list of its priority issues (in order of support):

• Electoral reform / clean government
• Civic education
• Social Security
• Investment in children and young people
• National foreign and security policy consistent with our values

There were several other key issues identified that we will continue to educate and activate our members on, but these top five will be a focus up until the 2006 election period. Click here to go to the Strategic Issues Discussion Area forum.

Following the issues discussion, the meeting broke into two smaller groups for the next step, action planning. We worked systematically to begin setting specific, measurable goals.

Implementing the strategic plan is an ongoing task. Each of the SF4D committees will develop a plan for its own area of action. With the strategic plan in place, we will have a coherent set of goals and a clear sense of the direction we will be taking.

Many thanks to all the members who participated in this process.