Expanded from an initial focus on the Southern Appalachian region, the Southeast Information Node (SEIN) absorbed the former Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) in 2011. From 2006 to 2009, the former Southern Appalachian Information Node operated under a strategic plan, available as a linked file below:

2006 - 2009 Strategic Plan Background Information
In March 2006, Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) held a Strategic Planning Workshop. This collaboration of 30 people, representing 15 agencies from a broad diversity of regional interests, made the workshop a success and resulted in a Modified SAIN Strategic Plan (March 2006). Subsequent comments from workshop participants and other interested parties resulted in further revisions, which are incorporated in the June 2006 version made available here.

2006 - 2009 Strategic Plan Rationale
Simply stated, the mission of the Southern Appalachian Information Node (SAIN) was to serve the communities of the region that need access to biological information. To fulfill this mission adequately, a strategic plan was critical.

A first step to developing a strategic plan for the Southeast region of the National Biological Information Infrastructure was to try and answer a multi-fold questionnaire with input from as many stakeholders as could be identified.

The main thrust of the questionnaire was to determine what key political, economic, social, and technological planning assumptions should be made as we look out across the next three years. Distilling this theme into several key areas resulted in a strategic guidance document, to be a work in progress as the dynamics of a region typically transform and priorities change.

Development of the 2006-2009 Strategic Plan
Discussions took place almost from SAIN's inception to try and determine the region's priorities, key directions in which SAIN should grow, and essential projects to undertake.

Two survey documents were developed, the first distributed internally to staff and a small group of initial partners. The second survey document received wider distribution to obtain a broader view of the area's activities, and information and data needs, as well as to discover who are the users and contributors of biological and environmental information.

Following the surveys of late 2003 and early 2004, in-depth interviews were conducted with the aid of a facilitator. The interviews were held over three days with the stakeholders who had responded to the surveys. A draft strategic plan document was formulated from these discussions and became the basis for a two-day work session in April 2005.

The objective was to fine-tune the strategic plan and to acknowledge a wider coverage area leading to a slight name change: SEIN, the Southeast Information Node. This work session dealt with such topics as mission and purpose issues; regional and node priorities; substantive and infrastructure issues; content issues; funding and finance issues; and organization, governance, and decision-making issues.