Help the SfAA Develop New Mission Statement(s)

Michael Paolisso
Carla Guerrón Montero
David Himmelgreen
 

Explicit and visible mission statement(s) unify and guide organizations and the collective work of their members. The SfAA statements on its mission, vision, values and objectives were last updated in 1989. At our annual meeting in Cincinnati last March, the SfAA Board prioritized the need to update our mission and related statements on vision, value and/or goals. A working group was established, which consists of the three of us; two to three additional members will soon be added. We will be seeking SfAA member input and comments during the next year as we prepare new statements for board review and membership vote. Our goal is to have new statements ready for review and vote by the end of 2024.  

One of our first tasks is to collect and review mission, vision and value/objective statements from other organizations. SfAA board members and officers have provided examples of such statements, but our work would also benefit from input from a broader range of SfAA colleagues.  Please share with us examples of mission statements from organizations that you work with or know. We are particularly interested in statements from other social science and applied organizations. You can email any of us with the name of the organization and ideally a link to their mission statement(s). We will review these statements for topics covered, presentation styles, formats, etc., and prepare a working document to summarize our thoughts on what makes clear and effective statements on mission, values and vision/goals. We will host a webinar in the fall to share our findings with SfAA members and seek their reactions and first thoughts on changes to our own mission statement(s). In future communications we will share other opportunities for SfAA members to become involved in this very important process

Thank you in advance. Please take a few minutes and send examples of mission statement(s). Let us know if you have questions or suggestions. You can email any one of us at the below addresses. Please put “SfAA Mission Statement” in the subject line.  Thank you!

mpaoliss@umd.edu
cguerron@udel.edu
dhimmelg@usf.edu