With summer just around the corner, Exploring units may soon be formulating their annual plans for the next program year. Much of the annual planning process for Exploring is based on the Exploring Guidebook for Post & Club Leaders—Youth & Adult, found on the Exploring homepage under Unit Resources. As a unit commissioner, you can assist them as the council information resource, which will help you build a supportive relationship with the unit’s adult and youth leadership.

Who should be involved in this annual planning, and who should lead it? The following participants should be at the annual planning meeting:

• Advisor (post) or sponsor (club).
• Associate advisors/sponsors.
• The unit’s five youth officers: president, administrative vice president, program vice president, treasurer, and secretary (or equivalent title associated with the sponsoring agency, i.e., law enforcement).

The post or club president, supported by the other youth officers, should take the lead on the program annual planning process, guided by the adult leaders.

The annual program planning meeting involves the following four steps:

Step 1: Gathering & Evaluating Information—The unit officers gather and discuss the following resources that they should bring to the meeting:

• Calendar of known events that could present program conflicts.
• Unit’s current Career Opportunities Worksheet summarized for all adults (registered or not) associated with the unit.
• Unit’s current Explorer Activity Interest Survey from each Explorer (located in the appendix of the Exploring Guidebook).
• Exploring unit’s Journey to Excellence Unit Scorecard.

In addition, participants should understand their unit goals and the five Exploring Program Emphasis Areas, which units are strongly encouraged to incorporate into their events, projects, and activities as much as possible:

• Career Opportunities
• Leadership Experience
• Life Skills
• Citizenship
• Character Education

Every officer should be familiar with the above resources, and it is important that they ask any questions they might have about the information they are reviewing to help guide their next steps.

Step 2: Brainstorming Ideas—Each unit officer will suggest ideas for activities that come to mind. Encourage them to be creative, use their imaginations, and think about any and all possibilities. They need to keep visualizing answers to the question, “What could we do?”

Step 3: Discussing & Evaluating Brainstorming List of Activity Ideas—Now it’s time to think about the value of the suggested ideas in relation to the information reviewed in Step 1. Stand back and objectively discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each idea and weigh each in relation to the others. This is also a good time for the unit commissioner to share any council resources: either individuals or facilities that could assist in accomplishing a potential activity.

Step 4: Selecting Activities for Unit’s Annual Program Plan—In this last step, the unit’s youth officers decide which activities they think would be best for their Exploring program and fit those activities into the unit’s calendar. As a result of this last step, everyone present will know which activity they plan to do in each month, who the activity chair will be for each, and what superactivity (one or more) they would like to plan for the year. Remember, planning a superactivity meets one of the requirements for the Exploring Post/Club Journey to Excellence Award.

It’s easy to see how important the annual planning meeting is for the appeal and success of the unit, but its value in modeling and implementing the planning process is something that will benefit each Explorer in not only their unit leadership role, but in their future careers, volunteer positions, and lives.