Major Issues that need to be addressed during the coming planning cycle will emerge from the internal and external scans. These will include: national, state and local trends (e.g., political, economic, demographic) that are likely to impact the Aging Network and older people; new federal and state initiatives that need to be considered in planning (e.g., AoA's Choices Initiative, Money Follows the Person grants); and problems which directly affect the SUA/AAA (program-specific as well as cross-cutting issues), which need to be addressed. The interplay between the internal and external scans and the interplay among various issues (e.g., the impact of demographic trends on political decisions) must be considered.

Key Considerations

• New, unanticipated issues may come to light from the information received through environmental scanning and/or analysis of specific issues.
• Some major issues can be fully addressed during the current planning cycle, while others will require multiple planning cycles to fully address.
• It is useful to identify those issues which can/should be tabled for a later planning cycle.

Questions Specific to This Decision Point

• What major issues from the internal and external scans need to be addressed during the current planning cycle?
• What major issues are most important to address?

Who Participates?

• Representatives of all internal stakeholders
• Program participants
• SUAs
• AAAs
• Providers
• Advocates
• Tribal Organizations

A Planning Work Group representing the above interests might be convened to address this and the next four decision points, resulting in development of the plan goals and objectives. The Work Group could be convened for one or more face-to-face meetings or do its work through e-mail exchanges. A combination of approaches could also be used.

The Work Group can be involved at different levels of decision-making:

• The Work Group could sift through the results of the internal and external scans to identify and prioritize major issues.
• Staff could develop a "first cut" of issues for Work Group consideration. The Work Group could then be invited to finalize and prioritize the list of issues.

Staff could develop a final list of issues to be addressed in the current planning cycle, and the Work Group could be invited to prioritize the issues to be addressed in the Plan.

Key Decision Points

1. Mission & Values
2. Environmental Scanning
3. Issues Identification
4. Needs Identification
5. Assets Identification
6. Barriers Identification
7. Goals & Objectives
8. Outcomes & Performance Measurement
9. The Plan