CLMP Announces Planning Results: Primary Goals Defined
CLMPages, Fall 1997

In the past year, dramatic changes in both the publishing and cultural communities have had a profound effect on CLMP's membership. Publishing has experienced the rise of chain superstores and the subsequent closing of many independent bookstores, the shrinking availability of distributors and wholesalers for both books and magazines, and increasing rates of returns. Those magazines and presses that are not-for-profit organizations have also had to deal with the continued attacks by Congress and others on the National Endowment for the Arts, resulting in a restructured NEA with fewer resources.

The combination of this environment, and CLMP's need to address its decision not to move the organization as a transition between executive directors, caused CLMP's board to re-evaluate the organization's resources and direction during the latter half of 1997. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, we undertook a strategic planning process for that purpose.

Before the board convened for its planning meeting in December, CLMP undertook an extensive process of soliciting information from the membership via three methods: our bi-annual membership survey; a series of phone interviews with members; and a series of membership focus meetings at locations across the country. All information gathered was forwarded to CLMP's board to inform their decision-making.

The planning process looked at two components of the organization that are necessarily intertwined--the organizational health of CLMP and the usefulness of its programmatic activities. Clearly, evaluating our programming was an important step in the process. However, without a strong organization, the most appropriate of programmatic goals would mean nothing. Therefore, the three primary goals that grew out of CLMP's planning process reflect three levels of activity: organizational, membership-driven and field-wide.

Goal I: Ensure the organization's long-term health and stability.

Goal II: Develop and maintain programs and services that best meet the needs of the membership.

Goal III: Increase public understanding of the valuable role played by noncommercial literary publishers and CLMP.

I. Organizational Stability

With Congress's mandate that the NEA no longer make general operating grants to cultural organizations, a number of groups, including CLMP, lost their primary source of unrestricted revenue. For CLMP, this has meant the loss of, on average, $80,000 of annual, unrestricted support.

Many service organizations' core operations are primarily supported by their membership dues; however, CLMP serves a constituency that has never provided more than four percent of its revenue. Therefore, with the loss of NEA operating support, CLMP needs to significantly increase its fundraising of unrestricted dollars to cover basic operating costs.

CLMP's board of directors has embraced a leadership role in raising donated revenue, and will focus on this goal in the coming years. As the board has been relatively small over the last few years, additional board members will be added through 1998 and 1999. The board also adopted a policy of annually reviewing the organization's goals and direction so that CLMP can be more flexible and responsive to changes in the environment and the position of the membership.

II. Membership Programs and Services

Soliciting input from the membership provided CLMP with much information about members' expectations. Findings showed that members were generally appreciative of CLMP's current programming. There was also a consensus, however, that CLMP could support other activities that would benefit the membership.

As CLMP needs to raise funds for its operating budget, any new programmatic activities must be funded by outside sources. In 1998, CLMP will make inquiries at foundations with the intent of interesting them in supporting literary publishing through programs that can benefit both for-profit and not-for-profit publishers. As in the past, the challenge will be to interest funders in a field that currently has few funding sources and to educate them about the cultural contributions made by CLMP's membership.

If we are successful in raising restricted programming dollars, we will focus on the following areas as determined by the membership's priorities:

• developing methods of electronic communication as a way to disseminate information to the membership and encourage greater exchange among the members and with the organization;
  
• increasing visibility for literary publishing and CLMP;
  
• expanding research and information services.

The range of CLMP's membership presents a real challenge for the organization: how can CLMP implement new programs that serve a group of publishers united in purpose, but who have a diverse set of needs and concerns? CLMP seeks to support the valuable service literary publishers provide to readers and writers while recognizing that some publishers wish to maintain their organizational level while others desire growth. CLMP strives to offer programs and services that can assist our members in professionalizing their organizations according to their own goals and expectations.

In recent years, CLMP has tried to construct programs that serve as many members as possible in the same way. Regranting programs were designed to benefit both presses and magazines, and monographs were published that addressed publishers of all sizes. This approach has helped serve a number of publishers. With the membership as diverse as it is, however, CLMP will begin testing a strategy of working with well-defined subsets of members to provide support more efficiently and effectively. Working with subsets of the membership may also help facilitate members' ability to work more effectively with each other.

III. Roles of Publishing and CLMP

The membership communicated a clear wish for a greater understanding and appreciation of the cultural role played by literary publishers by a range of communities: funders, reviewers and the general public. Some members believed that CLMP should undertake a widespread campaign to increase visibility and awareness of literary publishing--something along the lines of the dairy industry's "Got Milk?" campaign was suggested. Although a campaign of that magnitude is beyond our resources, CLMP acknowledges a need to increase its efforts to promote the accomplishments of literary publishers.

Finally, the membership also expressed a desire for greater communication with CLMP. While certain decisions about how often to do mailings/make contact are made for financial reasons, we will continue to look for ways to increase our contact with the membership, and we also ask the membership to accept a greater role in communicating with CLMP. Presenting the membership with this summary of our plan provides an opportunity for that type of an exchange to occur.

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