Futures Process

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, Inc. - 040009

Abstract Number: 040009

April 2004

Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) engages in a Futures Planning Process every ten years to re-evaluate the status of the organization and to strategically equip SMRLS to address changes in client need, delivery services, funding, and program capacity over the next decade. Most recently, the process entailed creating a 12-person advisory council composed of SMRLS' Board members and senior staff. The process involved the use of updated comprehensive need assessment information under Regulation 1621 and input from staff through the creation of a number of action committees charged with addressing a wide range of issues.

In the 1990s, SMRLS underwent a comprehensive diversity and leadership process which resulted in a clarification of SMRLS' Mission, written Practice Standards, and a statement of Program Guiding Principles or values. Recognizing that program reorganizations are very difficult, SMRLS sought to mitigate the effects of change by starting every meeting of the Futures process with a discussion of SMRLS' vision, mission, and program values. SMRLS was faced with an 18% cut in federal, state, and local funding, and the focus on client need and its relationship to the mission and values played a critical role throughout the Futures process.

Staff input was sought with respect to a number of goals: (1) to identify ideas for improving efficiency, (2) to identify new delivery ideas, (3) to identify emerging and changing client needs, and (4) to identify creative and new funding sources and opportunities. SMRLS received staff presentations and developed a form to gather comprehensive and uniform information to address work in SMRLS' eight priority areas.

SMRLS examined the mission and client need relatedness of these eight areas by viewing delivery issues on a regional or program-wide basis, instead of on a local office basis. The results of this comprehensive study enabled the Futures council and various committees to make widely accepted decisions on how SMRLS can best serve its client community over the next decade.

As an evolving, organic planning methodology, the Futures process explored a range of issues, such as the extent to which current work reflected SMRLS' major priorities, how work was being funded, and how staffing and volunteer patterns could be reorganized more effectively to deploy staff. The committee benefitted immensely from the 100+ hours of participation from each Board member, many of whom brought a helpful private sector analysis to the SMRLS Futures process.

The action committees and Futures council made major reorganization decisions which were adopted by the SMRLS Board in 2002 and in 2003. The overriding themes of the Futures plan included moving SMRLS (rural, migrant and urban offices) to a single law firm model and reallocating resources. Specific program delivery changes included merger of the migrant and immigration units; keeping all SMRLS rural offices open, but managing the program by regions; elimination of some services that were determined not to be core critical work; significant changes in the rural volunteer attorney program to ensure SMRLS is efficiently carrying out its work; and strengthening of its long-standing commitment to raise additional resources from both the public and private sectors.

Also, SMRLS was able to implement Minnesota's first centralized hotline intake program for its 28 rural counties using its state-of-the-art PIKA Case Management System, and reorganized its employee benefit program and personnel policy handbook. Due to the decreases in funding, SMRLS was forced to change the job responsibilities of many of its 92-person staff and also to incur both layoffs and loss of positions through attrition. SMRLS also overhauled its leadership (management) organization and made major changes in its financial administration.

Working with its employment lawyer, SMRLS developed forms and rating systems to objectively identify which positions were needed to carry out the new Futures plan, what the functions of those positions would be, and to determine which staff members were most qualified to fill the positions. Principles of diversity and seniority were also applied in making these difficult employment decisions. When layoffs were necessary, SMRLS gave persons four months' notice and worked directly with persons regarding the transition from SMRLS.

During all of this difficult time, SMRLS maintained a process of open communication, including a series of combined office staff visits and sharing, through technology, of all material with staff throughout the program.

SMRLS also affirmed an equity of access policy to ensure that residents throughout its 33-county service area have essentially equivalent access to legal services. In addition, the program built on its tradition and value of community lawyering, encouraging program staff to locate with or to otherwise work closely with different ethnic groups, with battered women and shelter advocates, and with homeless groups, to name a few. SMRLS has found that the Futures process was tremendously useful as it equipped itself for the next decade, while maintaining open processes to adjust priorities and delivery systems as emerging client needs dictate.

Contact information:

Bruce A. Beneke
Executive Director
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, Inc.
46 East 4th Street, Suite 700
St. Paul, MN 55101
Phone: (651) 228-9823
Fax: (651) 228-9450
Email

back to top ^