The Pool and Hot Tub Alliance has developed a Strategic Action Plan meant to serve as a guiding document for the year-and-a-half-old organization.
PHTA formed in April, 2019 with the merging of the Association of Pool & Spa Professionals with the National Swimming Pool Foundation. Upon her hiring in September of that year, PHTA CEO Sabeena Hickman said the organization needed the document as a foundation.
“This plan will serve as our foundation, define our priorities and chart PHTA’s pathway into the future,” Hickman said.
The Strategic Action Plan includes a mission statement, core purpose, core values and the organizational pillars “Educate, Advocate and Elevate,” with descriptions of each.
“These three pillars focus on education programs and delivery, government relations and advocacy, certification and professionalism, chapter relations, and PHTA’s spiritual purpose,” the organization said.
PHTA’s board of directors and leadership team developed the plan after taking a survey of its entire membership.
“Some of the common themes that came out of the member survey were a focus on education and government relations — not only on a federal level but on state and local levels, which played into strengthening the relationships with chapters,” Hickman said.
The need for closer relationships with chapters and to work more with local governments became apparent as the industry managed the various state and municipal restrictions brought about in response to the global coronavirus pandemic, Hickman said. So the organization gave this purpose a higher priority in the final document.“We had a board meeting at the end of March, where we were going to approve the strategic plan,but that one looked a little bit different than the current one,” she explained.
For instance, PHTA plans to allocate more of its own funding to government relations efforts, rather than relying on donations from directly affected parties.
