Strategic Planning> Minutes > Sept 26

Strategic Planning Committee
Wednesday, September 26
Teague Library

Present: Doug Bennett, Margaret Hampton, Paul Ogren, Monteze Snyder, Rick Foreman, Nancy Sinex, Wes Miller, Newell Pledger-Shinn

Agenda

1. Introductions (redux)
2. Approval of 9/19 minutes
3. Committee schedule for the year
4. Engagement with various parts of the Earlham College Community: What form? What questions? What timetable? - with faculty - with staff - with students - with alumni - with the Board of Trustees: a very special case
5. A web site for the strategic planning process: what should it look like?
6. Data available for the Strategic Planning Committee
7. Essential foundations of Earlham College: what shall we take as given?
8. Review of the Repositioning Plan and the Kane/Krukowski research (begin)

The meeting began with introductions and a special welcome to Newell Pledger-Shinn, one of our two student representatives. Most of our time together was spent discussing ways of engagement with the broader Earlham community, data resources and the "essentials" of Earlham. We reviewed briefly an Excel document on our proposed meeting calendar (remember to send conflicts to Nancy). Nancy passed out copies of "pages" of the proposed web site designed by Sara, who received many kudos for her good work. Nancy is just learning web site development and maintenance, but with Sara's guidance hopes to have the site up and available to the SPC and the wider EC community soon.

Notes from Discussion Engaging the Broader Earlham Community
Doug suggested that we send a letter from the president to alumni, staff and students about the strategic planning process and how they can participate, whether via our new web site, correspondence, conversation, etc. Other ideas are listed below by constituency.

1. Alumni
• Make available a draft of Doug's letter at registration for Homecoming/Parents Weekend
• Get this item on the agenda for Doug's meetings with the Alumni Council and other meetings of the Parents' Committee and African-American Advisory Board during Homecoming. (Doug will contact Melissa and Susan Hillman about this possibility, inviting other members of the SPC to join him if available.)
2. Board of Trustees
• At the October Board meeting Mark Myers will appoint a small subcommittee of Board members who will engage with the SPC, through a process yet to be determined.
• The SPC will prepare a presentation for the Board and engage in conversation with all Board members at the February Board meeting.
3. Faculty
• In conversations with some faculty, it was suggested that the SPC take advantage of existing structures and get on the agenda of regular division or department meetings.
• We should provide many channels for information sharing, including open discussions ("listening" sessions) for a mix of faculty, students and staff (similar to the DuBois lunchtime discussion groups).
4. Staff
• Meet with Employee Council during one or more of their regular meetings. (Note: Sara Penhale is a member of Employee Council.
5. Students
   • Again, taking advantage of existing structures, meet with students in an all-student meeting.
   • The idea of combined faculty/student/staff discussion groups was encouraged.
   • It will be important to meet with students in the residence halls.
   • Newell will speak with other members of Student Government to ascertain other suggestions for student engagement in the process.

Doug will plan to bring a "proposal for engagement" for our consideration to next Wednesday's meeting. SPC members should continue to consider the suggested and other options for the process of engagement.

Data Resources
Earlier in the week, Doug sent us the following handouts on available data sources:

• Earlham College Factbook 2001
• Data Available for the Strategic Planning Committee - An Inventory, prepared by Mary Ann Weaver
• Memo to the Board of Trustees from Nelson and Doug on the College's Repositioning Plan and a copy of the Repositioning Plan (1999)
• Key Findings from the Kane/Krukowski 1999 Study
• Report of Findings from Kane, Parsons 1999 Study on Earham College Marketing and Communication

Notes from Discussion of Data Sources:

• We need to take a fresh look at what is included and what isn't in the College Factbook. It was noted that retention data is absent, and committee members agreed that future data collection for the factbook should include comparative retention information.
• Monteze had done some further analysis of academic information by breaking down divisional statistics by department. (A copy of her work was provided to committee members.)
• We raised the question of where some of this data come from and how "secure" we are in the figures that are provided by various departments and/or administrative units.

Nancy will check with Mary Ann Weaver about whether or not we can access the HEDS data on-line. (The College has participated in this data set for four years.)

Essential Foundations of Earlham
Doug asked that we share our lists of words that express "givens" about Earlham ("essential features of the college that are beyond considering change"). (See "next week's meeting" below for an extension of this assignment.) Here's our list:

• strong academics
• cooperative learning environment
• international/off-campus study
• active social environment
• small*
• Midwestern*
• co-ed*
• Quaker*
• liberal Arts*
• independent (private)
• Richmond
• intentional community
• residential*
• thoughtful/thought-provoking engagement
• "a real place for chasing incredible ideals"
  (* = descriptors that were mentioned more than once)

Miscellaneous

• Wes handed out a second (his) draft of the outline for the Strategic Planning report.
• Doug encouraged SPC members to join him for dinner with the Board of Trustees, next Thursday, October 4 at 6:30 in the ESR dining room. An exercise with the Board on strategic planning is planned. If you can come, call Janice Bragg in Len Clark's office (x1318). Spouses/significant others are also welcome.

Next Meeting - Wednesday, October 3 (4-6:00) - Teague Library

• Read through all of the data resource handouts, especially the repositioning plan documents.
• Review the proposed web site pages and send Sarah and Nancy comments and questions.
• Similar to our exercise on noting the essentials of Earlham, be prepared to share a list of 4-6 words we would like to be able to use to describe Earlham (what we'd like to "be about").

Housekeeping Notes

• Consideration will be given to installing a computer in the SPC "reading room" in Lilly for use by committee members.
• A flip chart, easel and markers will be available for our regular meetings in Teague (should be there by next Wednesday's meeting).