November 1, 2024

In the late spring of 2024, the CRHNet board came together to develop a new strategic plan for the organization. We want to thank Carly Benson for her superb leadership during this process, where the entire board fully engaged in a series of facilitated activities over a few months. Her experience and guidance were both enlightening and essential for us to get to the result that we did, and we are extremely grateful for Carly’s ongoing contributions to CRHNet. This important “pause and reset” was in response to several factors, including:

  • Significant turnover of executive and board members since our last strategic plan
  • Recognition of the need to rebuild and expand our membership and offer greater, more sustained value for membership;
  • For the first time in many years, we had all priority positions on the board filled;
  • The changing landscape of practice and research to include more work on climate change adaptation and risk reduction and resilience;
  • Ongoing post-pandemic financial and organizational recovery; change in revenue streams with less emphasis on federal funding support ;
  • Need for increased interdisciplinary collaboration;
  • Evolving community of practice, including an increased emphasis on emerging professionals;
  • Desire to be more of a leader in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility;
  • Need to increase collaboration and networking opportunities beyond just an annual symposium; and
  • Increased recognition of disaster and emergency management as a unique discipline.
Using a “balanced scorecard” approach, the CRHNet board was able to define several strategic priorities that include the following objectives (in no particular order):
  1. Update member benefits to better reflect current and future needs and opportunities
  2. Conduct a membership drive with new benefits
  3. Identify and apply to two (2) grants/additional revenue sources to support CRHNet operations, awards, and events as a non-profit
  4. Build relationships with a selection of strategic partners to help promote CRHNet and support member events and knowledge exchange opportunities
  5. Improve our membership communications
  6. Clarify roles and responsibilities for each executive and board position
  7. Confirm new website hosting and improve functionalist to support the new membership benefits
  8. Transition to a new email provider
  9. Improve the accessibility of board meetings and all CRHNet communications and events
  10. Focused mentoring in support of succession planning as a regular part of CRHNet business to ensure better continuity on the executive board
  11. Rebrand the CRHNet logo to reflect new priorities and goals
  12. Secure dedicated external funding support for HazNet (for production, editor, graphic artist costs and contributor stipends)
  13. Reduce financial liabilities and expenditures by 15%
  14. Host or co-host regular knowledge exchange events online and in person for members
  15. Improve the usability of the website
We will be reporting on our progress in a letter to members that will be sent quarterly. In addition, all members are invited to participate in this work, by joining our board or any of our committees that are tasked with executing the related work to meet these objectives. This is an exciting and important time for CRHNet as we work to ensure our sustainability as an organization, our relevancy and value for our members, and our enduring legacy as a leader and champion for the professionalization and recognition of this critical discipline and area of research in Canada.

As always, we welcome your contributions and ideas, and we appreciate your ongoing support.

Best regards,
Jodi Manz-Henezi
President -CRHNet