ELTA Mission Statement

Introduction.

I am including a brief explanation of Mission Statements since many members of the ELTA community may not be familiar with such a management tool. The sentences are extracted from the draft of a book I am trying to write, Marketing for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) so it is a little business oriented but no less valid for that.

In Profiles of Excellence, it is stated that a clear, agreed upon mission statement first among the four primary characteristics of successful non-profit organizations. Specifically, the four primary characteristics include:

1. A clear, agreed-upon mission statement.

2. A strong, competent executive director.

3. A dynamic board of directors.

4. An organization wide commitment to its objectives.

Self evidently, ELTA is not large enough to justify an Executive Director or a Dynamic Board of Directors though these functions will have to be fulfilled in some way by someone or some group of people.

The primary importance of the mission statement is that failure to clearly state and communicate an organization's mission can have harmful consequences, including:

1. Members of the organization can waste time "barking up the wrong tree"

2. The organization may not think broadly enough about different possibilities especially if its mission statement is unclear or overly narrow.

3. The organization may not realize when it has achieved its objectives and it is time to shut up shop.

Finally, the importance of mission statements is summarized quite eloquently by Lewis Caroll through the words of the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, "If you don't know where you're going, it doesn't matter which way you go."

Typically a Mission Statement should include three elements.

1) The Purpose Statement

The purpose statement clearly states what your organization seeks to accomplish: Why does your organization exist? What is the ultimate result of your work? Purpose statements usually include two phrases:

1.      An infinitive that indicates a change in status, such as to increase, to decrease, to prevent, to eliminate.

2.      An identification of the problem or condition to be changed.

An example of a purpose statement is "to eliminate homelessness." In defining purpose, it is essential to focus on outcomes and results rather than methods: How is the world going to be different? What is going to change? Thus, the purpose of a health counselling service would never be simply "to provide counselling services," for that is describing a method rather than a result. Rather, the purpose might be "to improve the quality of life" for its clients.

2) The Business Statement

This statement outlines the "business(es)" (i.e., activities or programs) your organization chooses in order to pursue its purpose. Specifically, you must answer, "What activity are we going to do to accomplish our purpose?" For example, there are many ways to work on the problem of homelessness:

a)      to construct housing for homeless individuals

b)      to educate the public and advocate for public policy changes

c)      to provide job training to homeless individuals.

Each of these are different businesses, but they may be different means of achieving the same purpose. Business statements often include the verb "to provide" or link a purpose statement with the words "by" or "through." For example: "To eliminate homelessness by providing job training to homeless individuals." A cautionary note: If the word "and" is in your purpose or business statement, ask yourselves, "Are we really committed to both ideas connected by the word" and, "or have we simply not been able to accept that one idea is more important?"

3) Values Statement

Values are beliefs, which your organization's members hold in common and endeavour to put into practice. The values guide your organization's members in performing their activities. Specifically, you should ask, "What are the basic beliefs that we share as an organization?"

Marvin Weisbord writes in Productive Workplaces that values come alive only when people are involved in doing important tasks. Ideally, an individual's personal values will align with the spoken and unspoken values of the organization. By developing a written statement of the values of the organization, group members have a chance to contribute to the articulation of these values, as well as to evaluate how well their personal values and motivation match those of the organization.

Examples of values might include: a commitment to excellent services, innovation, diversity, creativity, honesty, integrity, and so on. Values may include beliefs such as: "Eating vegetables is more economically efficient and ecologically responsible than eating beef."

In addition to the three elements discussed above, we need to address the following questions in developing ELTA’s Mission statement:

1.      What is the problem or need your organization is trying to address?

2.      What makes your organization unique?

3.      Who are the beneficiaries of your work?

So, a Mission Statement is an essential tool to make sure that we are ALL in agreement on what we are trying to do and more importantly what we are NOT trying to do.

Below is my first pass at what the Web site should/could be doing.

ELTA Mission Statement

The Mission of the ELTA community is to achieve justice and compensation for the Society’s With-Profits Annuitants and prevent the re-occurrence of failure by the official regulators in the future. We will promote our claims through lobbying the MP’s, the Media, Opinion formers and the various regulatory bodies including the Parliamentary Ombudsman, the Financial Services Authority and the Financial Ombudsman services and last but not least the directors of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. We believe that all pensioners, current and future have the right to expect the highest level of integrity, honesty and openness from all of those persons and organisations, private or governmental, that operate in the provision of financial services.

My initial set of objectives for the ELTA community web site is:

1.      It is dedicated only to the affairs of With-Profits Annuitants of the Society.

2.      Its objective is to work towards obtaining both justice and compensation for the WPAs from the FSA and the Society.

3.      It is dedicated to action and not winging about the Society, the FSA, the FOS or the PO.

4.      It will contain points of contact and reference information.

5.      It will contain letters to and from the Society, other relevant bodies, the FSA, Penrose enquiry, PO, etc., on issues that WPAs submit to the ELTA web site and that ELTA administrators decide are of general interest.

6.      It will reference letters and articles printed in the media.

7.      It will provide an advice, an information service and possible courses of action.

8.      It is NOT a legal service nor is it qualified to give financial or legal advice, which must be sought from professional bodies or organizations.

9.      Members accept that they are wholly and solely responsible for their actions or inactions.

10.  The Mission Statement is subject to change at a later date if conditions themselves change.