Mapping out our Future

Academy teams dream big and do big at annual Planning Days.

Ah January; a time for beginnings, for closure, and for looking back and looking forward. The new year can feel like a blank slate. It is in this spirit that the Academy teams do their annual team planning days. Team goal-planning is an opportunity to reflect upon, and celebrate, what milestones were achieved in the previous year. It’s a time to assess what works, what doesn’t, and what needs just a little tweaking to get it right. Teams spend the better part of a day in a “think tank” of sorts, encouraged to throw out big ideas and reach for the stars.

Past planning days have yielded some pretty exciting changes around the Academy. The culinary team dreamed up Fine Dining Day as well as our Monday-Thursday continental breakfast (we still rock the buffet on Fridays), both of which have produced an increase in attendance. Graphic Design/Multimedia is well on their way to publishing our first Art & Literary magazine, The Art of Recovery (due out this spring) as well as technical workshops in recording, editing and design. Our Business & Technology team has implemented a powerful new database that will revolutionize how we collect and analyze statistics and other data. They’ve ramped up customer service training, and modernized the boutique with added racks, a point-of-sale system and individual pricing.

The teams wrapped up their planning days before the ball dropped on the new year. In the coming weeks, each team will have its turn to present their goals to our Academy community. What will 2022 hold? We will remain in suspense just a little while longer. What we do know is that we are big thinkers, dreamers, and doers, and our members are not afraid to try hard things. So, expect exciting things in the months to come, because we’ve got a plan!