STRATEGIC PLAN FOR STUDENT DIETETIC ASSOCIATION

Izzy Birdsall & Alivia Oney

Mission: Our mission is to create a supportive and inclusive community that facilitates the
promotion of emerging research and current practices in the field of nutrition and dietetics while
cultivating professional development through meetings, activities, and programming.

Vision: Our vision is to become the leading organization for prospective dietitians in which they
will be equipped with the proficiency and clinical/professional skills to become highly competent
and respected dietetic professionals.

Values:
● Inclusiveness
● Community
● Respect
● Professionalism
● Quality performance
● Collaboration

ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS: Where Our Organization Stands

Compared to the Outside World

Strengths: Access to professional guest speakers, networking opportunities, volunteering

opportunities, only dietetic club on campus

Weaknesses: Limited communication platforms, limited social media presence, inadequate

resources (meeting spaces, funds)

Opportunities: Digital marketing through apps other than Instagram (Tik Tok & Twitter),
collaborating with other dietetic associations at other schools, using the increased demand for
healthy lifestyle to promote the club and profession

Threats: Declining membership, lack of funds, changing interests and priorities of members,
graduating members

3 GOALS (that will align with strategic plan and help to achieve it):

Goal 1: Establish a large social media presence

Goal 2: Provide members with more opportunities to play an active part in growing their
networks through local and national nutrition related conferences and events.
Goal 3: Expand our presence and the awareness/understanding of nutrition and dietetics
careers on campus to students outside of our field to promote and grow the profession.

SMART TACTICS FOR EACH GOAL:

Goal 1: Establish a large social media presence

● Specific: Expand the responsibilities of the social media team and establish a Tik Tok
account for the organization, actively posting promotional events, Q&As, and new
updates in the world of dietetics.

● Measurable: Create a team of at least 3 members and post at least 2 videos/week with
the goal of at least 50 views.

● Appropriate: Appropriately aligns with the strategic plan to become the leading
organization for prospective dietitians by utilizing the opportunities presented by social
media and digital marketing

● Reasonable: Reasonable and feasible to do with a social media chair and team who are
proficient in creating, editing, and posting videos

● Timeline: Social media team will meet once a week to brainstorm new video content and
ideas. The team will start by posting at least 1 video per week. Once comfortable and if
plausible, social media presence will increase to 1-2 videos per week and so on.

Goal 2: Provide members with more opportunities to play an active part in growing their
networks by taking trips through the SDA to local and national nutrition related conferences and
events.

● Specific: Create a fundraising committee to help create and run fundraising opportunities
throughout the academic school year to pool funds and split amongst members to aid in
costs for nutrition related conferences. Start with biannual trips/events and possibly
increase to annually depending on the amount of funds we are able to raise.

● Measurable: Raise adequate funds to cover 50% of funds required for members’
registration, transportation, and other fees (depending on the type of event: conference,
speaker, different site visits, etc.) in order to take 1 trip within a two year time frame.

● Appropriate: Appropriately ties to our organization’s goal/vision to equip our members

with professional and clinical knowledge and skills to be highly competent and respected
 dietitians. A large part of this concept lies in networking and seeking opportunities which
conferences or events like these provide. Another concept in our vision mentions clinical
skills and knowledge which is also supported in this goal as the main purpose of these
events would be to hear leaders in the field present on current topics in the world of
nutrition and dietetics.

● Reasonable: Keeping the percentage of the expected trip expenses raised to a small
portion at the beginning of this goal’s development. As a small organization, before any
major growth we cannot expect to raise enough funds to cover full costs. Small numbers
may also be a positive initially as the number of member’s needing expenses covered
would be fairly small. Keeping it biannual also keeps the goal within realistic parameters,
and

● Timeline: Create a fundraising committee by the end of this spring semester to provide a
general overview of fundraising events that can be carried out starting at the beginning
of our next academic school year. Throughout the following two school years, continue
monthly meetings and have at least 2 events each semester and ongoing fundraising to
reach our goal.

Goal 3: Expand our presence and the awareness/understanding of nutrition and dietetics
careers on campus to students outside of our field to promote and grow the profession.

● Specific: Hold different events on campus like informational sessions about the program,
“lectures” on different food and nutrition related topics, interprofessional discussions, and
booths promoting various topics in our field.

● Measurable: Set up a booth at the beginning of the academic year to survey students’
knowledge of our program and repeat subsequently throughout the year to determine
the growth in knowledge of our program and the benefits of growing the dietetic
profession.

● Appropriate: Appropriately aligns with the vision of the organization to become a leading
club for prospective dietitians through promotional events and campus exposure.

● Reasonable: Because we are in a position in which we have access to thousands of

students with prospective healthcare careers, this is a reasonable goal that will allow us
to expand our presence to a target audience through engaging, promotional events.

● Timeline: Create flyers, post them around campus at least a month in advance of the
event. One week before the event, walk around a highly populated area on campus,
such as The Oval, handing out flyers and explaining our event.
Communication Plan:

As the SDA currently holds monthly meetings, our communication plan would first start
with a presentation outlining this strategic plan at the February meeting to introduce the goals,
tactics, and vision for the future of our organization. To gain buy in, it is important that member’s
feel like they have played a part in the plan and ideas that they will be helping to promote, so we
would hold a second meeting this month as a workshop to brainstorm further tactics (in SMART
format) that would contribute to our plan and help us reach our goals.
On a consistent basis, student’s would receive emails with a couple reasons why
growing the profession is beneficial to them and anecdotes from past graduates who can attest
to the importance of networking, educating others, and staying up to date with current nutrition
related research in order to gain the necessary skills to be a competent and respected individual
in the field.