Director Derek Sandison and Deputy Director Kirk Robinson
To keep moving forward, you need to know where you’re going and how you’ll get there, whether with a map or using GPS navigation tools. The “roadmap” analogy is often used for strategic planning – setting a path to the future. WSDA has that now.
We’re pleased to officially announce our agency’s Strategic Plan 2016-2021. You can find
our plan posted on our website.
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Training farm workers
on pesticide use. |
The previous agency strategic plan was dated 2009-2011. For various reasons, WSDA had not done focused planning since then. The current leadership team made planning a priority and made it an agency-wide initiative. The process offered valuable opportunities for conversation between our employees, among teams and programs and across the organization.
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| Inspecting corn bins. |
Our Strategic Plan centers on shared, agency-wide priorities, emphasizing good government, strategic partnerships and constructive working relationships. We identified four priority goals that every WSDA program can share. Each program developed individual action plans that build
on our common ground. This creates a solid organizational foundation and encourages integrated efforts, understanding and efficiencies.
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| Livestock inspections. |
Having an official strategic plan also creates discipline to better plan budget requests and be accountable to the public and our stakeholders. That’s why it’s included as a foundation for our 2015-2017 budget request submitted to the Governor through the Office of Financial Management.
This
Strategic Plan sets the department’s direction and path for the next few years. We will periodically re-visit and update our plan as circumstances and the environment change.
I hope you will read it to better understand who we are, what we do and how we’re working to support the future of Washington agriculture and the agricultural community.
