Annual Implementation Plan
Due annually by June 15th, this document is created by the cluster to communicate their plans for the upcoming year. The purpose of the plan is to help parishes move forward to achieve the goals they believe will move them toward their directives. Thus the plan includes the following:
Directives: The direction that the Bishop wants the cluster to head in. This includes both General and Cluster Directives, which are described in more detail on the Bishop’s Directives page.
Goals: Where the directive is leading the cluster. Sometimes but not always, the directive and the goal are the same thing; it depends upon the wording of the directive. For example: “Work toward merger” is a directive and “Achieve merger by 2011” is a goal.
Objectives: These are real, concrete ways that the goal will be achieved. Under every goal at least one objective must be identified, but there likely will be several objectives for each directive. For example, for the goal “Achieve merger by 2011” there are many objectives: 1) Merge financial records; 2) Merge religious education programs 3) figure out a reasonable Mass schedule, etc. Most often the completion of the objectives will be enough to demonstrate that the goal has been achieved.
Action Steps: Each objective has several action steps that clearly describe how the objective will be completed.
When / Frequency: Every action step should have a target time period in which to be completed. Think of this as self-created deadlines to keep you on track.
Responsibility: Individuals need to be identified as responsible for every action step, so that there is accountability both for when something is accomplished and for when it isn’t.
Signatures: Everyone on the Cluster Implementation Team should participate in creating this plan. When it is complete, the members will approve the plan by signing it.
Annual Implementation Evaluation or Report
This evaluation is done by the Cluster Implementation Committees in May of the current planning year to evaluate their own accomplishments in relation to their Implementation Plan for the previous year. The evaluation should address and describe what the cluster has accomplished from their plan in context with the Bishop’s directives and what they are still working on. The evaluation should also include accomplishments not anticipated by the plan.