CIPFA - Development Strategy Update 2003-2007 - A 21st Century Membership Organisation

A 21st Century Membership Organisation

The Challenges

The key challenge for most if not all membership organisations is to secure sustainable membership growth. For CIPFA this means attracting constantly increasing numbers of employing organisations and students to its professional accountancy qualification in the face of significant competition from other qualifications and other careers.

But in order to be a very successful membership organisation CIPFA must do more than offer an outstanding qualification which leads to attractive and rewarding career options in a competitive jobs market. It also faces the challenge of strengthening relationships with its members, understanding the pressures and difficulties which they face, and developing support services and products which are demonstrably helpful and relevant.

Where do we want to be in 2007?

In order to give sharpness and clarity to its plans to develop the Institute over the next few years the Council has identified seven hallmarks of the future CIPFA. These are the distinctive characteristics of the Institute which this development strategy aims to engineer. Two of the hallmarks are particularly relevant to the Institute's role as a membership organisation:

Hallmark (1) Accessible and Responsive

An Institute which is open and accessible, and responsive to the needs of its members and students, including those who wish to contribute to its work as volunteers.

Hallmark (2) Strong Sustainable Growth

An Institute which is making significant strides to grow its membership and to broaden its reputation across the full breadth of the public services in the UK and the Republic of Ireland, and which is also gaining ground internationally.

Our Strategy

The key components of CIPFA's strategy to become a 21st Century Membership Organisation are:

to ensure that CIPFA's professional accountancy qualification is continuously improved, vigorously marketed and seen to develop Institute members who are able to make an outstanding contribution to the organisations in which they are employed;
to strengthen links and build long term relationships with the employers of CIPFA members and students;
to strengthen the governance arrangements of the Institute to ensure that they remain efficient and effective and provide appropriate representation for all types of members including student members;
to make considered use of the bye-law provisions which allow admission to membership other than by examination for suitably qualified/eminent people;
to equip the Institute's regions, branches and societies to play a full part in the affairs of the Institute and to achieve the delivery of an attractive programme of local services for members and students;
to exploit new technology to significantly improve communications between the Institute and its members and students, wherever they are based, and to gather intelligence about their changing views and needs, at the same time making alternative provision wherever possible for members and students who do not have access to the latest information and communications technology;
to use technology to enable more members and students to access the Institute's services and to play an active and satisfying part in its activities as volunteers.

Progress to Date

Since the launch of the development strategy in March 2001 a number of successful initiatives have already been undertaken under the banners of hallmarks 1 and 2. These include:

the launch of a new CIPFA professional accountancy qualification following a fundamental review of employer needs and expectations;
continuous year on year growth in student registrations for the Institute's professional accountancy qualification;
the formation of the new CIPFA National Student Forum and the co-option of a student voice onto the Institute Council;
the establishment of the monthly CIPFA e-newsletter as a significant and widely used source of latest information about the activities and business of the Institute;
the establishment of the e-newsletter, Institute Matters, for CIPFA's volunteer community;
continuous improvements to the CIPFA website. Recent improvements are a members' extranet, a study lounge for students of the PAQ and a volunteers website;
completion of a series of survey-led reviews to improve access to and make volunteering opportunities more satisfying and rewarding;
publication and wide circulation of a brochure promoting the benefits of volunteering;
introduction of development plans for each of the Institute's regions, branches and societies to encourage expansion of local services to members and students and engagement of local groups across a broad range of the Institute's development initiatives;
completion of a full membership survey alongside the 2002 Annual Report;
launch of the Diploma in Public Audit;
launch of Tisonline.

Ongoing and New Initiatives

The detailed action plans which form part of this document identify a number of initiatives which aim to take our strategy for realising hallmarks 1 and 2 further forward. They include:

continuously reviewing the CIPFA professional accountancy qualification (PAQ) to ensure that it reflects best practice and continues to fit the fast changing environment and meet the distinctive needs of public service organisations;
enhancing our marketing of the PAQ using web-based guides;
achieving Recognised Qualifying Body status;
developing a database of members' special professional and work-related interests so that the Institute can communicate directly with members who are likely to be interested in particular projects, and so that members can network more effectively with colleagues who share similar interests;
following through the work on development plans for regions, branches and societies to ensure in particular that they result in the local delivery of a wide range of high quality events and services for members and students;
developing and implementing categories of membership for public finance practitioners who do not hold the full CIPFA professional accountancy qualification;
reviewing the availability and accessibility of education providers offering the CIPFA professional accountancy qualification;
development and implementation of a more explicit and uniform system for handling complaints and feedback about the Institute's services.