Strategic Plan Update

With input from many of you, your customers, and your advisory councils, IPS and its agencies have set strategic plans for 2010-2015. The agency plans are the foundation for the IPS plan, which in turn supports the outreach and economic development initiatives in the university's updated five-year plan.

I encourage you to review the agency and IPS plans, all of which are posted in their entirety on the IPS Intranet's Strategic Planning page, http://intranet.ips.tennessee.edu/default.asp?id=38 . The general agency plans, without SWOT analysis or development background information, also are available on the "About Us" page of each agency's Web site.

Your daily activities and work plans drive the success of the goals and initiatives in the plans. Now is a good time to check your progress toward your performance goals and discuss with your supervisor how your annual goals tie into the strategic plans. We will highlight this real progress in The Exchange quarterly. (See page 3 of the July Exchange for an example, (http://www.ips.tennessee.edu/?id=32 ).

Also, there are several teams setting goals for cross-agency efforts on internal and programmatic issues. Last month, the environmental/safety, economic development, communications, and resource generation teams presented their plans to the IPS leadership team. Those plans and presentations are available on the IPS Intranet's Strategic Planning page as well. Each agency has representatives on these teams, so please talk with them about the progress being made and offer your assistance in meeting the goals they've established.

As you'll see when you read through the plans, IPS has much to offer our customers and the public. I appreciate all you do each day to not just help the university reach its goals, but more importantly, to help the people of Tennessee.