Where We’re Headed
The work of the U.S. Naval Institute has never been more important. This plan combines the strength of our independent forum with a new vision that realizes the vast potential of the Naval Institute and propels it into the future.
Mission
To provide an independent forum for those who dare to read, think, speak, and write in order to advance the professional, literary, and scientific understanding of sea power and other issues critical to national defense.
Vision
We are the preeminent thought leader serving all Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel by advancing the naval profession and preserving our naval history. USNI enhances the understanding of the vital contribution of American sea power to the defense and economic well-being of our nation.
USNI Has A Broad Reach and Deep Connection
That’s another way of saying: we raise the game for America’s sea services and for America. Currently, we . . .
"Reach broadly to provide an honest, independent forum that supports debate, develops ideas, and increases the Sea Services’ professionalism, while developing its professionals.
"Connect deeply to history, so that Americans better understand naval and maritime history and traditions.
These are serious responsibilities. And both of them have a 138-year history of shaping thought and policy.
But there is a chance to make an even bigger difference.
The time is now.
What is USNI’s immediate opportunity?
The importance of sea power is on the rise as America’s global focus shifts away from two very long and primarily land-centric conflicts. Yet, constrained national resources are already reducing our military options. Additional reductions loom. Clear thinking—inside and outside the Sea Services—is needed more than ever. Pivotal decisions are being made, and they must be informed decisions.
USNI is one of the most trusted sources for information on these matters. As we aggressively embrace difficult debate, we are easily the best independent, broad-minded forum for the vetting and exposure of new ideas.
But we can do even better, and for our nation’s sake, we must.
The need for USNI is great, and so are our opportunities. Professionals of the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard have become voracious consumers and producers of information—IF they have the right information conduits.
The traditional vehicles—books, magazines and conferences—are being revolutionized with incredible new ways both to consume and to produce information. The rules have changed and keep changing; we must keep up.
Technology has now given us ways to link even more effectively to our rich history—while at the same time allowing us to link to each other and each new generation.
These are exciting times with vast potential. We now have huge opportunities to broaden our reach, deepen our connection to history, and bring it alive for current and future generations.
And that’s exactly where we’re headed.
How did we chart our course?
This plan results from the contributions of many. To guide our course, we surveyed our membership and spoke one-on-one and in groups with many members and other key stakeholders. And, we received thoughtful and careful direction from our Board. With all of this vital input, the USNI leadership team crafted the plan. It is intended as a living document, informed by experience, continued engagement, and emerging opportunities.
What’s the way ahead?
To set our direction, we have identified four principal objectives, each one consistent with our vision and our mission. We describe the “what,” “why,” and “how” of each objective in the following narrative.
Objective #1
Enhance national understanding of the vital contribution of American sea power.
Why?
Especially now, America’s Sea Services need an open forum for honest debate, informed discussion, and professional development– a forum with no ax to grind, no issue to avoid, and one where lieutenants and service chiefs each get a turn.
In that way, we help America and we help the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
How? Key Strategies and Initiatives
1. Improve timeliness and relevance of Proceedings’ content, emphasizing prime strategic topics in addition to professional topics.
2. Rebuild connections to the active-duty community at all levels, including engagement with the Sea Service leaders on a regular basis
3. Drive conference content to advance the mission and vision of the Institute.
4. Build new connections on the national front to increase understanding of the Sea Services’ vital contributions. Especially include:
a. Private sector leaders and other citizens who explicitly share an interest in our nation’s security and economic concerns, and
b. Relationships to inform policy makers and law makers
5. Increase our go-to status as the media’s authoritative source for experts on naval matters through author and member constituents
6. Leverage the skills and talents of members
a. Via new media (establish an on-line editor position and a contributors program)
b. Via advisory groups (for USN, USMC, and USCG)
Objective #2
Preserve and make available naval history.
Why?
For those of us who are serving or have served in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, to understand our history is largely to understand ourselves. This history is where we are rooted.
For us and for the larger community, to understand history is to profit from it—as warriors and as citizens—thinking and acting more wisely.
At its best, history is moral instruction.
America’s Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard history is rife with good yarns and great wisdom; it’s our job to capture it, preserve it . . . and pass it on.
And here, we are defining “history” broadly. Even the current issues of Proceedings are time capsules of intellectual history, as is our growing on-line repository of facts, debates, and opinions. What-is becomes what-was, or “history,” if it is properly captured.
How? Key Strategies and Initiatives
Both information creators and information consumers will like the upcoming improvements.
For information creators: The phrase “freedom of the press” is about to gain more heft at USNI. Whether you are a junior officer with a clever idea, or an author with an out-of-print book, or a seasoned sailor or sergeant with a story to tell, you will increasingly find your voice at USNI. While the bar remains high in Proceedings, more junior professionals are publishing within it pages. New online editorial content extends those opportunities and the USNI Blog is a level playing field where anyone with an idea and the will to interact respectfully can be heard.
For information consumers: Formerly, if you wanted something that not many other people wanted—say, an old book, article, photograph, or USNI oral history—you were out of luck. Or, if you wanted to tap our online references or online forums, but didn’t have access to the Internet or even to a computer, then again you were out of luck. That luck is about to change.
Our strategies to preserve and make available Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard history rely on the power of recent technological advances. The list is long, but here is a sample:
1. Publishers like us have always had to weigh whether a particular book would justify the considerable expense of firing up the presses. Most new book proposals are rejected. Out-of-print books tend to stay out of print. Sheer economics have stifled the ability of the publishing industry to connect all those who had something to say and those who might be interested in hearing it. This has been so since Gutenberg—until now. Two innovations have obliterated that limitation.
a. First, “print on demand” (POD) has changed the rules. This technology now means books can be printed, one at a time, as people want them. Like going to your local market to get a single copy of a single photograph of your family at Thanksgiving, you will be able to order a single copy of an old, forgotten nautical book, or print just a dozen copies of your memoirs. If a book becomes unexpectedly popular, we can always do a large run the old fashioned way.
b. More than POD, e-books have broken down publishing barriers and are continuing to do so. When you download your books, there’s no waiting for packages; when you carry your books on a reading device, you take your whole library with you.
c. Related to both POD and e-books is the emergence of self-publishing as an important new way of preserving history in memoirs and similar recollections that do not require commercial success to prove their worth. USNI will be able to offer its members a full range of assisted self-publishing, including artwork, layout, editing, and distribution.
2. There’s plenty of treasure locked within in USNI’s library, including oral histories, back issues of Proceedings and Naval History, out-of-print books, and the most extensive collection of military photographs in private hands in the world.
Of course, our aim is to unlock that treasure, which we’ll do by digitizing all that information and making it easily searchable and accessible online. That’s no small chore (actually, it’s a lot of big chores), but it will shine light more brightly onto American naval and Sea Services history than ever before.
3. Our active-duty members have a lot to teach each other on matters as diverse as how to conduct a burial at sea or how to command. They will be able to share that information through our USNI Naval Wiki, a wisdom-of-the-crowd tool to connect our professional community and help them help each other to solve practical problems.
4. Access to USNI’s information, such as Naval Wiki, is great if you have a computer and an Internet connection. It’s a problem if you don’t. We will solve that problem by designing and building applications for Android & iOS (iPhone/iPad) devices that will hold information, make it instantly available, and then update it when the devices are re-connected to the Internet.
5. Our Digital Humanities Project will create and curate a tool for explorers: imagine something like Google Earth, but one in which the “domain” is American naval history. Imagine the capability to zoom in or out, to link from one name or event to another—to make history an intellectual adventure.
6. All of the foregoing cost money. So we will work to secure initiative-specific funding and support. That means prioritizing the work and bundling it into tasks. Some of those tasks may be achieved with the help of technology partners who may offer “in-kind” support for work such as scanning. Also, we expect some tasks to be particularly attractive to donors, as we match donors’ interests to particular outcomes.
Objective #3
Increase, broaden, and engage our membership.
Why?
To improve the quality of our dialogue we need to increase the size and breadth of our membership. This especially means that we need to bring more active-duty personnel—and other patriots—into the fold.
A larger membership means not only broader impact. It also means a bigger impact, as we extend the intellectual reach reflected in our first two objectives.
Furthermore, we must pass down USNI’s historical treasures to the next generation. They must be present for that to happen.
All of this depends on engagement: we need our members to be “members,” not mere magazine “subscribers.” More than most membership organizations, USNI relies on members’ participation to realize its full potential.
How? Key Strategies and Initiatives
1. Develop and implement an active-duty membership engagement plan. Especially aim at the younger generation of active-duty members with two strategies. First, use new media, as mentioned in the strategies under Objective #2. Second, target recruitment efforts, especially during those career milestones where training and education occur. Reach young professionals at accession points, undergraduate schools, mid-career pipeline schools, postgraduate school, and war colleges.
2. Revise and update all membership collateral and improve our Annual Meeting.
3. Listen to our members. Leverage membership surveys and establish membership advisory groups.
4. Reconnect with the services we represent as referenced in Objectives #1 and #2.
Objective #4
Secure endowments to fund key strategies and initiatives that enable the Naval Institute to realize its vision.
Why?
We are an independent nonprofit, and we must earn or raise funds to support our mission. USNI’s impact is impossible without the help of donors who support that impact. In fact, the plan you are reading depends upon the support of donors. Membership dues, book sales, conference fees, and other ordinary revenue sources help, but they are not enough.
How? Key Strategies and Initiatives
1. Hire a professional fundraiser who, in addition to raising funds, will help coordinate the fundraising efforts of the directors, key members, and the CEO and his USNI leadership team.
2. Develop a compelling donor case statement, one that demonstrates that USNI is focused on delivering impact—measurable outcomes and results on behalf of its mission (not mere outputs).
3. Build the base of those with a financial stake in the work of the Naval Institute.
4. Stay in better touch with donors and listen to them more carefully, and conduct donor events in non-traditional sectors.
5. Help individuals, companies, and foundations see the Naval Institute as a great place to advance their philanthropic goals.
6. Benchmark other organizations that are best in class.
7. Enable the Naval Institute to respond more adroitly to emerging opportunities.
In summary, we must work together to realize our Vision:
We are the preeminent thought leader serving all Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel by advancing the naval profession and preserving our naval history. USNI enhances the understanding of the vital contribution of American sea power to the defense and economic well-being of our nation.
… and meet our Objectives:
1. Enhance national understanding of the vital contribution of American sea power.
2. Preserve and make available naval history.
3. Increase, broaden, and engage our membership.
4. Secure endowments to fund key strategies and initiatives that enable the Naval Institute to realize its vision.
Conclusion
World and national events, plus a revolution in new media technology, have all converged to provide USNI an unprecedented opportunity for positive impact—on America’s Sea Services, and on our country. With the active support of our membership, that is exactly where we are headed.