Chapter Assessment and Planning Session
The Chapter Assessment and Planning Session (CAPS) is a tool to help the chapter identify its goals and begin to plan its program for the coming year, based on an assessment of the past year. It is not designed to be a comprehensive, point-by-point analysis of all chapter operations. It is also not designed to plan every activity or to set the calendar in stone for the coming year. However, it should identify areas the chapter wants to improve and key events or activities the chapter wants to see happen.
The end result of the CAPS is documentation of goals and desires in a form that will help the chapter officers develop and implement plans for the coming year in a manner that represents what the chapter sees as most important. Further, it helps to think of planning as a cycle, not a straight-through process. Approaching planning as a cycle will help the chapter to ensure that plans are fully considered, well focused, flexible, practical, and effective. It will also provide an opportunity to evaluate and learn from any challenges that occur and then feed this information back into future planning and decision making.
Upon completion of the CAPS session, a report should be completed by the Chapter President (or an Executive Board member designated by the President) and submitted to the National Office.