Students map out group's strategy

StudioMain plan crafted at UALR

The nonprofit studioMain tapped a group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock students recently to develop a strategic plan to carry the organization through 2020.

StudioMain is a collaborative of professionals drawn together by a shared desire to create well-designed neighborhoods with input from residents and businesses. It has no employees, just a volunteer board of directors and a host of engineers, architects and other design-related professionals who volunteer on studioMain's projects, which are mainly in Little Rock and North Little Rock.

That structure should be altered if the group expects to grow and gain participation, said Vickie Edwards' students in UALR's Institute of Government and Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

The students presented their suggestions for organizational changes to studioMain late last week. StudioMain, based at 1423 S. Main St. in Little Rock, will celebrate its third anniversary next month. Last year, the group benefited from more than 2,500 volunteer hours, curated and hosted nine exhibitions, started a symposium and conducted its third Pop Up in the Rock, according to the group's annual report.

The majority of studioMain's projects have been along the north-south Main Street corridor, including over into North Little Rock. But the group also works in other areas of central Arkansas and would consider going elsewhere in the state, said studioMain board member Joe Stanley.

The students pegged studioMain as having a loose organizational structure and no formal recruitment for volunteers to run its day-to-day operation. Projects are run by one member who is juggling other studioMain endeavors at the same time, the report said.

The large majority of studioMain's funding comes from a grant. Other contributors include Little Rock, individuals, businesses and the American Institute of Architects.

The students' suggestions include taking on a volunteer coordinator to manage 10-12 dedicated volunteers, hiring a part-time executive director who could eventually become a paid staff member and developing a method of communication that works for all involved.

The students said studioMain should assign a market value to its work "in order to increase public knowledge of the monetary worth of the organization's services."

In return for their work on the strategic plan, the students got practical, applied experience, Edwards said.

"They get a lot more out of 'doing' than sitting in the classroom just hearing about theories all day," she said. The students spent most Saturday afternoons during the fall semester working on the plan. In Edwards' strategic planning and nonprofit management courses at UALR, her students help studioMain and others "be more efficient in their effectiveness -- be smarter about how they apply their resources and how they expand."

The studioMain board will meet with Edwards in January to ascertain which suggestions are applicable.

Business on 12/10/2014

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