Strategic Long Range Planning

November 2010

by Gregory Markling, FCSI, AIA, CCS, CCCA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C
Denver Chapter Strategic Long Range Planning Chairman
Institute Education Committee Chairman

To each one of us, membership in CSI is fundamentally important, or we would not continue to participate in this organization year after year.  However, many of us may not be aware of CSI’s stated mission within the design and construction industry:  

“Advance building information management and education of project teams to improve facility performance.”

It was my privilege to present the essence of CSI’s Strategic Plan to our Chapter at the October 2010 luncheon meeting.  The attendees were treated to an interactive session which related CSI’s mission and its key values (diverse membership, standards and formats, education, certification, and practice tools) to our current initiatives.  Those initiatives include many new products and services which are specifically intended to serve our diverse membership, which is the essential value of CSI, in my opinion.

The conclusion of the meeting was for each table group to develop an “elevator speech” to answer the inevitable question that most of us have already encountered:  “So what is CSI anyway?”  The results were very entertaining, but also very enlightening, as we all wrestled with the question and attempted to come up with a “clear, concise, and correct” response.  

Though there is no “right” answer to this important question, I challenge each one of us as members of CSI to come up with our own elevator speech, and to be prepared to answer the question when it is posed.  Our diverse membership is our life-blood, and your answer to the question may make the difference to someone looking to join our GREAT organization – CSI!