We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don't let yourself be lulled into inaction. --Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, 1996 Bill Gates could probably have used even more extreme adverbs. That is, we vastly underestimate the change that will occur in ten years. Think of 1999 and compare it to today. Think of webinars, going digital, investment bubbles, e-readers, chat reference, handheld computers, cloud computing, Twitter, Facebook, Google Books, Flickr, social networking, and Library 2.0. This is the second column examining the statements of concerns from 105 candidates who have run for an elected position in RUSA in the past three years (2007-9). The method is described in the following note. (1) In the Winter 2009 RUSQ, I examined issues related to association participation. In this column I analyze the candidates' statements to determine implications for our strategic planning process. I know, strategic planning is not always interesting, but it is necessary and should act as a roadmap for our future. Sometimes it's nice to see where we are headed, and I hope to make it fun, or at the very least educational! I hope you will find this discussion interesting because it is from the membership's perspective (RUSA candidates who have run for office). I must again remind you that when the candidates created their statements for election, they did not write them for the purpose of this analysis. The idea to use them in RUSA's strategic planning process came later. In September 2009, leaders from ALA's executive board, divisions, round tables, and senior staff met for a strategic planning retreat in Itasca, Illinois. This meeting was the first step in the process of developing ALAS next strategic plan to guide the association over the next five years. To help inform our members, ALA created an environmental scan containing documents on major issues and trends affecting libraries, posting it on ALA Connect (http://connect.ala.org/2015scan). The environmental scan includes documents on these topics: * academic libraries * cultural environment * economic environment * educational environment * media environment * nonprofits and associations * political environment * public libraries * school libraries * societal environment * special and government libraries * technological environment * the American Library Association The document that came out of the Itasca planning retreat identified five goal areas to guide the planning process: * advocacy and public policy * building the profession * transforming libraries * member engagement * organizational excellence The planning document was reviewed and refined at the 2009 ALA Executive Board Fall Meeting in Chicago. The revised plan was disseminated before the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting for further member review. The intent is for the plan to go into effect after ALA Council approval at the Annual Conference in Washington, DC, in June 2010. Each October, all of ALAS division leadership and the ALA executive board gather in Chicago to discuss both division- and ALA-wide issues. RUSA's executive committee includes the Three P's (RUSA's current, past and future presidents), our ALA councilor, and the RUSA board secretary. The 2009 committee was Susan J. Beck, Neal Wyatt, Barry Trott, Kathleen Kern, and Theresa Mudrock. The RUSA committee meets in the morning to discuss RUSA issues, and then all the ALA leaders come together in the afternoon to discuss a common issue. This year we contributed to the development of ALA's next strategic plan. The following morning, the RUSA executive committee met again to review our current strategic plan and establish new strategies for this year. …