Goals & Measures

In the fall of 2007, the Alberta Barley Commission established measures and targets to better report its progress and respond to issues and trends in the barley sector.

“Establishing priorities, measures and targets is something the Commission’s Board and management have worked on for more than a year,” Mike Leslie, the Commission’s CEO, said. “It has been part of a larger objective to make our organization more business focused and more accountable to our producers.”

For the fiscal year of 2007-2008, the Commission set four long-term goals, or strategic priorities to:

From the strategic priorities, seven measures of success were established:

The measures and priorities will evolve as the barley sector evolves. And they will be reviewed and updated annually by the Commission's Board and management.

Non-feed, non-malt products

The Commission wants to see more of the six million tonnes of barley grown in Alberta every year used in non-feed, non-malt products. In 2006, it gathered information from Alberta Agriculture and Food and other reliable sources to determine current uses. Future tracking will be based on voluntary reporting by barley customers.

Projects created

This measurement shows the number of projects created within the Commission’s mandate and indicates its ability to engage stakeholders in those projects. It will track:

• Active projects annually; completed and closed projects will not be included.
• Projects with specified objectives and a contract or letter of agreement between parties.

Research leverage ratio

This ratio measures the Commission’s effectiveness in engaging others in research beneficial to Alberta’s barley producers. It will assist the Commission in stretching research resources and enable greater influence on barley’s future. The baseline was established using information from 2006/2007’s research project approvals.

This measure will be calculated cumulatively and show the amount of third-party dollars attracted for every one dollar of Commission research funding. It will not include in-kind contributions.

Third-party or outside funding will be tracked:

• Clients: direct contributions by companies or institutions managing and/or performing the research
• Government: municipal, provincial or federal government contributions
• Industry: contributions from private or other companies or institutions that are not part of the government or research project team.

Collection percentage

This measurement will reflect the Commission’s effectiveness in collecting check-off dollars. Increasing the percentage of check-off dollars collected ensures the Commission has the revenue it requires to carry out its work, reflects industry’s support of the Commission, and enables the Commission to attract additional leverage for research projects.

Commission staff established the baseline using in-house records and projected targets based on third quarter results for 2007.

Of note: the measure reflects the Commission’s six-month holdback policy on refunds and collections. Check-offs are not recognized as income until the six-month holdback period expires.

This measure will be:

• Based on the crop year
• Reported annually and compared to a five-year collection average
• Calculated as follows: total service charges collected in a crop year / $0.50 check off per tonne = baseline (# of tonnes check-off dollars are collected on during crop year). For example, in 2005, $1,404,742 / $0.50 = 2,809,484 tonnes, or 50.4% of the 5.565 million tonnes produced in Alberta.

Partners working with the Commission

This measure shows the Commission’s ability to engage others in important barley issues and initiatives. It will:

• Track the companies and institutions involved in active partnership projects; individuals within a company or institution won’t be counted
• Track the partners involved in events organized or hosted by the Commission
• Track committee members and staff actions.

Media hits/requests

Measuring annual media hits (or coverage) and requests reflects how well the Commission is representing the barley industry and engaging external audiences.
This measure will:

• Track media requests to and coverage of the Commission and its representatives
• Not track advertising or content purchased by the Commission.

Delegate engagement

The Commission’s delegates are important stakeholders. Their engagement and participation with producers in their regions in a variety of industry and community events and meetings are needed to succeed in a number of goals.

This measure will track the number of delegates involved in events and the number of events they attend.