March 20, 2019

Charting the Course for the American Fisheries Society The Strategic Plan Revision Committee includes: Jim Bowker, Tom Bigford, Scott Bonar, Julie Defilippi‐Simpson, Ron Essig, John Jackson, Steve Midway, and Margaret Murphy AFS STRATEGIC PLAN REVISION COMMITTEE The Strategic Plan Revision Committee developed the 2020–2024 draft AFS Strategic Plan with the goal of making it a more useful document for AFS Unit leadership when developing their annual plans of work and helping committees and members focus their activities as they relate to the Society’s mission and goals. The emphasis of the draft Plan is to outline Goals and Strategies to help AFS move forward over the next 5 years. The Committee reviewed the last three Strategic Plans to ensure that we were capturing major salient points from previous plans. The Committee has also tried to capture the key topical areas of current officers’ plans‐of‐work and findings from the Potomac Communications Group’s recent assessment of the Society’s brand and communication strategies. As with the 2015–2019 Plan, this draft Plan is shorter than its predecessors and focuses on metrics to report for each of the plan’s Goals and Strategies. Additionally, the draft Plan describes the AFS and Unit Missions, the Society’s Vision, challenges fisheries professionals will face in the future, and areas where AFS operations and business models must adapt to changes in technology and communication. The draft Plan also dovetails with the new AFS Governing Board Reporting Tool, which will allow AFS leadership to quantitatively assess Society productivity. Ultimately, the 2020–2024 Strategic Plan will be for a variety of audiences, both within and outside of AFS, and is meant, in part, to reach out beyond our membership and the fisheries world to other organizations, decision makers, and the public. The draft Plan has been reviewed by the Governing Board, which voted unanimously to distribute the document to the membership for review. The document is available for review in the March 2019 issue of Fisheries and on the AFS website (see below). If you have comments about the draft Plan, please submit them at fisheries.org/strategicplancomments by August 23, 2019. After the comment period, the Plan will be updated as appropriate and presented to the Governing Board for its final approval. If approved by the Governing Board, the Plan will be presented for approval by the full membership at the Annual AFS Business Meeting in Reno on October 2, 2019. Acceptance of this Plan requires at least 50 active members voting (to achieve a quorum) and the vote will be determined by simple majority. If approved by the membership, this Strategic Plan will guide Society operations through 2024. AFS DRAFT 5‐YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN, 2020–2024 For 150 years, the American Fisheries Society has served fisheries professionals, advanced fisheries science, and promoted wise use and stewardship of fisheries and other aquatic resources. One and a half centuries of international leadership in fisheries science, policy, and management does not simply happen: it is the result of carefully crafted plans of action carried out by the Society’s membership. Like previous strategic plans, this document is intended to guide the Society, its Units, leaders, and staff in fulfilling our mission to improve the conservation and sustainability of fishery resources and aquatic ecosystems by advancing fisheries and aquatic science and promoting the development of fisheries professionals. This document is also intended to help us gauge our collective progress in the coming years. Quantitative analysis is ingrained in all fisheries professionals, but we have not always measured our accomplishments and effectiveness as an organization with the same rigor we apply to other aspects of our professional lives. The 2020–2024 Strategic Plan was written to inspire our members, facilitate benchmarking, and foster meaningful introspection regarding the Society’s productivity in the coming years. The 2020–2024 Strategic Plan speaks to internal and external audiences and articulates who we are and what we do. It is meant to help us reach out beyond our membership and discipline to other organizations, decision makers, and the public. The challenges facing aquatic resources are complex, and we must work across traditional boundaries to identify and implement solutions. We look forward to achieving the goals set forth in this strategic plan and fulfilling our shared mission for the next 5 years and the next 150 years to come. OVERVIEW The American Fisheries Society, established in 1870, is the world’s oldest and one of the largest professional fisheries organizations representing approximately 7,500 members worldwide. The Society’s actions during the next 5 years will be guided by the Strategic Plan for 2020–2024. Our mission and vision will be achieved if each of the objectives and strategies listed below are met through the collective efforts of AFS and its members. We acknowledge that Units serve specific functions in this effort and, as such, are not expected to address all strategies. This 2020–2024 Strategic Plan refines previous plans by reorganizing the objectives and strategies, making the plan more usable as both a planning document and as a framework for reporting accomplishments. The Strategic Plan also serves as a stand‐alone document appropriate for dissemination to our stakeholders. This Strategic Plan lists “Reportable Information” under each strategy that will help Unit officers develop their plan of work and determine how they address various strategies. The companion Governing Board Reporting Tool tracks how Units address specific strategies. As such, it is recommended that Unit officers look at not only the strategies in this document, but also at the Governing Board Reporting Tool for ideas on how to develop specific actions or work plans. This Strategic Plan recognizes that the fisheries profession, like other scientific and technical disciplines, faces an ever‐changing suite of new challenges, including: climate change, weakening of the Clean Water Act, insufficient funding, pressures from increased globalization and urbanization, lack of science‐educated public that understands growing complex environmental issues, embracing landscape‐scale management of fisheries and research projects that extend across geographic or programmatic borders, and an aging workforce that does not reflect the diversity of society and fisheries stakeholders. To meet member needs