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Like many of its member firms, the Builders Exchange operates with an annual business plan and an equally important, long-range set of strategies. "Few of our members realize that today's BX leaders invest significant time in a Strategic Plan with planning horizons of 3 to 30 years," said Board President Charlie Steitz (Sauer, Inc.). Maybe that's because the Builders Exchange was 104 years old before a long-range plan was ever crafted. The first BX Strategic Plan was created in 1996 and in the decade since, it prompted many positive changes for the Exchange. "Focus and continuity - those were the byproducts of the leadership team sitting down together and looking farther out to the future," said Cathy Blackford, executive director since 1994. "The Builders Exchange had been operating pretty well with a year-to-year plan, but the larger we grew, the more diverse services our members expected." Blackford said the board realized that the Exchange could not be "all things to all people - offering quantity would make our quality suffer." In developing a Strategic Plan, "the BX board and staff had to take a hard look at who our core member companies were, and which of our programs were providing them real value," Steitz noted. He said over the last 10 years, the Exchange added - and removed - programs that were not aligned with the Plan's focus. "We've been able to launch efforts like the Builders Exchange Foundation and our expanded safety programs, because we had a Plan that kept us working over a multi-year timetable." The Strategic Plan has been revised and updated annually, and this year, the board wants to make members more aware of the future it envisions. "Over the next few months, you'll read more about the latest Strategic Plan," Steitz said. "We encourage members to watch the newsletter and check the BX Web site, and let us know what you think."