Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning Committee
Minutes/Notes - Wednesday, August 28
Teague Library

Present: Rick Foreman, Wes Miller, Sara Penhale, Monteze Snyder, Margaret Hampton, Newell Pledger-Shinn, Paul Ogren, Doug Bennett, Kirsten Bohl

We outlined a game plan for the next few weeks, which Doug Bennett agreed to compile and circulate to the committee (see below).

Next Meeting
Next meeting will be Wed., September 4, 5:00 to 7:00 in the LBC conference room.

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TO: SPC Members
FROM: Doug
RE: Our game plan for the next three weeks
DATE: September 2, 2002

1. Wednesday presentation: noon, Carpenter Hall

a. our four-part presentation:
Why it matters that we do strategic planning (Paul)
Our process, and some discarded ideas (Newell)
The gist of the argument (Bob)
What happens next (Sara)

b. responses:
Liffey Thorpe
Zach Warren
An hourly staff person to be named later

2. Wednesday mixed-group, box lunch discussions (1:00 to 2:20 p.m.)

We'll divide into ten groups. Everyone who comes to Convo will be given a slip of paper that has his or her assigned room number on it. Each member of SPC (minus Tamara, plus Nancy Sinex) will be assigned to a room. Monteze will assign a student from her course to each room, too, to assist in taking notes. The list of room assignments will be sent to SPC members on Tuesday.

As discussion questions, we'll use the following (which are on the front page of the Word version):

· Have we identified Earlham's strengths, weaknesses, and the key opportunities and challenges facing us - on our own campus and externally - in the next several years?

· Have we proposed a course of action that will help us address the challenges and take advantage of these opportunities?

· Is our analysis reasonable, and well grounded in data? Is it persuasive? Are we prepared to undertake this work together?

Each member of SPC will write up summary notes from the meeting, drawing on notes taken by Monteze's student as well. Each SPC member will do two things with her/his notes: (a) bring copies for SPC to the dinner meeting (5 to 7pm) that day, and (b) send an electronic copy to Kirsten.

3. Subsequent discussions

Students:
Thursday, September 5, 5:30 to 7:00 pm, Friends Room, Runyan
(go through serving line for food);
Paul and Margaret will convene and take notes

Sunday, September 8, 4:00 to 6:00 pm, Orchard room
W/ snacks and lemonade
Newell and Rick will convene and take notes

Employee Council:
Monday, September 9, 8:30 to 10:00 am
Sara and Wes will convene and take notes

Notes from these gatherings should be sent electronically to Kirsten.

We will also invite members of the community to submit comments to the SPC listserv (planning@earlham.edu). We'll send invitations to comment out to the faculty, staff and student listservs immediately following the Convocation.

4. Identifying key issues for discussion

Kirsten will be collecting electronic copies of all the comments and discussion notes. She won't be trying to organize these, just collect them. Sara and Wes will meet immediately after the Monday morning Employee Council meeting to draw together a list of key issues for discussion that have arisen in the mixed group discussions, the discussions with students, the Employee Council discussion, and comments submitted to the planning listserv. This list won't seek to suggest revisions, just to identify the dozen or so largest issues that appear to warrant discussion by the faculty.

We'll send that list to the faculty listserv on Tuesday, the day before the faculty meeting on September 11.

5. Faculty Meeting one: Wednesday, September 11, 1:00 to 2:20.

6. Revising the draft plan

We'll meet following the faculty meeting (3:00 to 5:00) in Teague to consider the various discussions, and to discuss revisions to the draft.

We'll meet again on Wednesday, September 18, to discuss a revised draft, with the intention of sending that revised draft to the faculty as soon thereafter as possible.

7. Faculty Meeting two: Wednesday, September 25, 1:00 to 2:20.