May 17-18, Sevastoppol — MAMA-86-Sevastopol set to drafting its five-year plan with training in "Strategic Planning of NGO Activities," during which the organization's activists identified goals and objectives of their work for a period of up to 2018.

For MAMA-86-Sevastopol, strategic planning seems not to be a tribute to the common standards of professional management. According to the organization's leader, Tetyana Herasymova, they have been approaching it for last several years, and new planning methods have become a real need. "Members of our organization are people with an experience and a professional approach to their work," says she. "With the years, we've been getting more and more involved in local events and processes related to environment, our collaboration with authorities and partner NGOs has been evolving, and our ties with our target groups have been becoming tighter and tighter... Strategic planning will help us better see our goals and methods of their attainment, and hence be more effective and do more good to our community."

The strategic plan development started within the framework of an institutional development project supported by the MAMA-86 Central Office. The first step was the training in strategic planning, delivered by MAMA-86 Institutional Development Manager Roman Shutov and attended by the most active members of the Sevastopol organization.

The activity of the trainees and the productivity of their team-work have made a good impression on the trainer. "These people have a great experience and expertise, and in fact they already possessed the knowledge that was necessary for quality strategic planning," said Mr. Shutov. "My task of a trainer was just to wake this knowledge in them and channel their creative energy in the right direction. And the product that we achieved by the end of the second day was a wonderful result of their creativity and team spirit."

At present, a task force led Ms. Herasymova, is processing training materials and preparing a final draft of the Strategic Plan, which will be brought for approval by the General Meeting of MAMA-86-Sevastopol.