Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning Committee
Minutes/Notes - Wednesday, December 5
Teague Library

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

The minutes from the December 5 meeting were approved.

Agenda
1. Approval of December 5 minutes
2. Progress on White Papers / Discussion of strategy and revisions
3. Discussion of Earlham Strengths and Weaknesses
4. Update on consultations with students, staff, administrative faculty, and Richmond/Wayne County community

The minutes from the December 5 meeting were approved.

Discussion

1. It was recommended that we use the Mills Conference Rooms in Runyan for our meetings with administrative faculty during the week of January 7. (Note: Mills Conference Room has been reserved.)

2. The group discussed the low attendance of staff members for the open session with hourly staff on 12/11. It was suggested that we email the group again and encourage them to contact any member of the SPC to share their ideas, comments and concerns. Some staff, in large groups, may be hesitant to share concerns, and others may choose not to participate because they feel their input is not desired. Nancy will email staff (through Patty Jenkins) and Sara will encourage responses at the next meeting of Employee Council. Responses can be anonymous and /or will be confidential.

3. We will work on combining the various databases of the recorded strengths/weaknesses and aspirations for all groups so that we can look for patterns, issues, etc. Nancy is working on this (including clustering codes) for the responses from the open sessions with students. Nancy will also collate the alumni, parent and student letters and emails and leave a copy of these in a notebook in Teague Library for all to review next Tuesday. We spoke about the desirability and/or need to provide content analysis on all of this feedback received. Those present agreed that it would be helpful. Monteze and Nancy will plan to work after Christmas on content analysis of the alumni/parent/student responses.

4. Those present helpfully reviewed the outlines for the student life and community life white papers. It was suggested that we continue to keep these topics as two separate papers. Other suggestions for content and clarity about issues to be addressed, especially in the student life paper, were offered. A revised/extended outline will be available during next Tuesday's longer meeting.

5. We hope to have revised drafts of all white papers early in second semester for review by SPC members and, soon thereafter, by other EC campus constituencies.

6. Next week during our extended meeting (Tuesday, December 18, 1:30-4:30) we will take time to review each of the white papers. We'll distribute them to one or (preferably) two members of the committee to review independently. Each person should bring three copies of her/his white paper to the meeting (even those that were distributed earlier in the semester). Readers will offer written comments about these drafts. Virginia Cottage has been reserved during this time so that members can find quiet corners to read and review. We'll gather near the end of our time together to talk about where we are and what needs to be done.

7. Next semester, one member of SPC has a conflict with our regular 4-6:00 Wednesday meeting times. We discussed other possibilities but will need to gather other information about individual schedules before we can confirm a mutually available two-hour time slot.

Next meeting: Tuesday, December 18 - 1:30-4:30 - Teague Library (and Virginia Cottage)