CAPIO Strategic Plan
By Lael Wageneck, APR, CAPIO President, PIO Santa Barbara County Public Works Department
Growth isn’t easy. You have to figure out who you want to be and how to get there. You have to honestly address your weaknesses and commit to mitigating them. You have to manage your speed of growth to avoid burnout. However, growth is a good situation considering the alternatives are stagnation or regression.
As CAPIO’s current president, I’m excited to see CAPIO in a good growth situation. In the past five years, we have increased membership by 50%, doubled the number of webinars, reached record attendance at our conferences, and added new educational programs and events. With the increase in communications channels and decline in local news outlets, our role as trusted communicators is as vital as ever to good government. We will become more important as issues like artificial intelligence, political polarization, and attention spans affect public service.
With our growth, it’s important to pause and evaluate how we can remain valuable and relevant to our members for the next three to five years. Last July, the CAPIO Board met with our Association Manager Amy Orr, and facilitator Katie McCleary, to create a strategic plan that anticipates and addresses expected changes in the media and government landscapes and member needs. By 2027, we want CAPIO to be known for:
- Linking professionals, resources, and strategies to elevate public sector communications and unite government communicators.
- Inspiring communicators to power through the challenges and be their best.
- Helping to create mutually beneficial communications between our members and their agencies and the communities they serve.
- Amplifying and empowering the voices of future leaders by providing the best tools for success.
- Revolutionizing government communication through cutting-edge innovation.
- Inspiring the world of government to be the best they can be for their communities.
We are excited to share this plan and work with all of you in the coming years to help CAPIO continue to become the best organization it can be. Thank you for working with CAPIO to help every member grow in their careers and serve their agencies and communities better. If you have questions, comments, and recommendations related to the strategic plan, please feel free to reach out to me, any of our board members, or Association Manager Amy Orr.