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We’ve worked with ALPA (Academic Libraries of Pennsylvania) — a statewide coalition of libraries dedicated to enhancing textbook accessibility and affordability across Pennsylvania through digital and open education resources — over several years and across multiple efforts.
Our throughline: when you invest in team building and strategic planning together, a group engages far more meaningfully in shaping its own future. That work came into sharpest focus as ALPA approached the end of its primary grant cycle, when the network needed both a sustainable path forward and relationships strong enough to carry it.
what we did
Facilitated multi-year virtual Fellowship Team Retreats for ALPA’s Open Education Resource (OER) Specialists, delivered on our Virtual Connection Café platform
Guided the wider network’s strategic planning as its primary grant wound down
Designed a participatory stakeholder process with a core planning team
Ran a virtual series to drive implementation of the strategic plan across 8 high-priority areas, with OER Specialists leading each topic
how we did it
Fellowship Team Retreats that built the relationships first
Over three years, we ran a series of virtual retreats for ALPA’s OER Specialists, each tailored to that cohort and delivered on our Virtual Connection Café platform. To make connection real even at a distance, we mailed every participant a goodie bag ahead of time — Field Guides, facilitator card decks, and connection toolkits — with instructions not to open it until the day of the retreat.
Across the gatherings we used a Collective Story Harvest (what the team needs from one another), moderated Hot Seat dialogues on likely challenges, “What’s Worth Doing” brainstorming, Open Space working sessions, and trainings on “Community Organizing 101” — all in service of stronger relationships and clear collective priorities.
A member-shaped strategic plan through a funding transition
Asked to guide strategic planning for the wider network, we started with a core planning team to design a participatory stakeholder process, which included establishing a baseline of the network’s current work and surfacing the real questions around value creation, organizational model, partnerships, and funding.
We then hosted a virtual planning process so members statewide could shape what the network’s future had to include, and used Impact Grids to prioritize the initiatives offering the most impact for the least effort.
From insight to an actionable, funding-ready plan
With the task force, we distilled stakeholder feedback into agreed priorities and an actionable plan. This plan was later presented back at ALPA’s annual summit and focused squarely on sustaining the network’s core value as its primary grant came to a close.
To turn the plan into motion, we ran a Pro-Action Café where the wider network mapped action steps across 8 high-priority areas (student success, data collection, training templates, faculty engagement, and more), with the OER Specialists from the retreats each leading a topic — proof of why investing in team building and strategic planning at the same time pays off.
