Southern Polytechnic State University

Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF)– Notes from meeting on 2 December 2005

 

 

Report from SWOT Analysis Sub-Group – Barry Birckhead

 

·    SWOT Sub-Group met and assigned individual statements from current SWOT analysis to sub-group members to be reviewed; feedback is posted on Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF) discussion board.

·    Comments from SPTF regarding any SWOT items are welcomed by Wednesday, Dec. 7th. Comments should focus on (1) Are these the right items? And (2) Of the items that belong, what should be edited, corrected, changed, or modified?

·    SWOT Sub-Group will meet again on Thursday, Dec. 8th to discuss feedback

·    Barry gave examples of SWOT items that have already been updated.

·    It was discussed whether or not to switch SWOT to “Challenges and Opportunities”; decision was to stay with SWOT because of time constraints and because SWOT is more recognized environmental scan in the business community.

 

Report from Structure and Process Sub-Group – Becky Rutherfoord

 

·   Becky distributed a handout with a proposed planning process, which was a compilation of processes that have been used successfully elsewhere.

·   2 parts to proposal – (1) Revising strategic plan, including timeline, and (2) Creating an institutional effectiveness process.

·   Part (1) explains the expansion of the SWOT subcommittee responsibilities. New responsibilities include analyzing the completed SWOT analysis for strategic issues that need to be addressed for Southern Polytechnic to achieve its mission and perform a gap analysis (where SPSU is currently and what we need to do to get to where we want to be); new data will be reported to Strategic Planning Task Force on Dec. 15, 2005. Part (1) also calls for the creation of a Goals Sub-Group to determine university-wide goals. As each goal is determined, it is passed to a new subcommittee specifically for that goal. The new Goals Sub-Group then proceeds with strategies, action items, etc. to achieve the goal.  Timeline and assessment processes for each goal are included as well.

·   Part (2) calls for the creation of an Institutional Effectiveness subcommittee. This committee is responsible for the overall (and on-going) institutional effectiveness process for the University. Responsibilities include analyzing and updating the Strategic Planning process itself, keeping the Strategic Plan current in the face of unexpected events, assessing the Strategic Plan (current performance vs. previously set expectations), being the champions of “strategic thinking” on campus (i.e., keeping the Strategic Plan at the forefront of University decisions), and producing an annual report on Institutional Effectiveness to be presented to the campus community each fall.

·   The proposed process includes a timeline for all above events, including the creation of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee, to be completed by February 15th.

·   Zvi Szafran commented that the Outcomes Assessment data (due in January) must work together with the proposed process; he will outline a way to make that happen.

 

 

Discussion of Proposed Subgroups – lead by Dr. Rossbacher

 

·    A handout summarizing suggestions about new sub-groups was distributed;  only 30% of the task force members responded to the request for suggestions.

·    Review and discussion of subgroup chart and how proposed subgroup categories fit into proposal from Structure and Process subcommittee

·    Discussion topics included timeline for completion of SWOT analysis and idea to provide a draft of goals for the University community and ask for response / comments.

·    Decision was made to use “Five Rocks” as a draft of university-wide goals and invite comments on these.

 

Next Steps – Dr. Rossbacher

 

1)     Barry to create separate forum pages for discussion of SWOT items – one each for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

2)     Strategic Plan Task Force is asked to review SWOT items and provide feedback by Wednesday, Dec. 7th at noon. Next SWOT meeting will be Thursday morning, Dec. 8th

3)     Dr. Rossbacher will post Goals page on forum for discussion and feedback by Task Force before opening discussion to University community.  The “Vision Sub-Group” will serve as a review committee for the goals that are posted by noon, Monday, December 12 – the Vision group will meet on Thursday, December 13, 3-4 p.m., in the Building B Conference Room to plan discussion for the next Task Force meeting

4)     Tom Currin will post a definition of “goals.”

 

Next meeting of the full Strategic Planning Task Force will be held on Thursday, December 15, from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. in the Dogwood Dining Room.