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Welcome to the Spring 2008 Edition of the
CES Strategic Planning Newsletter!
March 2008
It's my idea
Colleen A. Bates
If you ask around, both within
and outside of Cooperative Extension’s ranks, WACEC Board President Colleen Bates
is known as one of Cooperative Extension’s most tireless supporters. If you ask her, which we did, you’ll find her support of Extension is deeply rooted in the Wisconsin Idea.
The interview, conducted by Strategic Planning Steering Committee member Rebecca Power, highlights some of Colleen’s perspectives on the value of Cooperative Extension, Cooperative Extension’s relationships with county governments, and how Cooperative Extension can continue fulfilling the promise of the Wisconsin Idea for Wisconsin’s citizens.
What’s New?
New interactive timeline: We now have two versions available – our original timelineand an interactive timeline complete with definitions for the major steps of the strategic planning process.
Thank you to the Values Design Team for their dedication in providing a good foundation for the strategic planning process. They’ve recently completed their work and have drafted brief value statements and recommendations for the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Read the Values Design Team summary report and watch for an upcoming white paper and analysis of the recent values survey.
The Vision Design Team is currently being assembled and will begin their work on April 14, 2008. Their charge is to develop a broad, overall vision for Cooperative Extension, draft vision statements for each of the strategic issues, and finalize the mission, vision, and values for the organization. We are still accepting nominations for this short-term work group.
We have just completed our situation analysis and are in the process of preparing a summary report of the data that has been collected. Thank you
to the Situation Analysis Responders who provided reactions to a preliminary data set. View an overview of the situation analysis data that has been collected. The Strategic Planning Steering Committee is in the process of preparing summaries for some key strategic issues. Are you interested in
serving as a
responder for the draft strategic issue summaries? Please email
the Strategic
Planning Steering Committee.
Why did we call this newsletter, "Whose Idea is it Anyway?"
The Wisconsin
Idea embodies the foundation and purpose of our institution, and the
Wisconsin Idea belongs to all of us: County support staff; the residents
of our state and counties; nutrition educators; faculty; academic staff;
center and unit specialists; classified staff; limited-term employees; tribal
colleges; integrated specialists; administration; and all of our institutional
and external partners. Our sincere wish is to create a process that builds
on our rich past and involves all of our stakeholders in a grassroots movement
to create our future.
The
Idea
In future issues of "Whose Idea is it Anyway?" we'll highlight people who
personify the Wisconsin Idea. Candidates may include voices from the past,
present and future including our stakeholders, partners, educators, administrators,
historical figures, and previous Wisconsin Idea Award Recipients.
Nominate yourself
or a stakeholder to be featured in Whose Idea is it Anyway.
Hearing all Voices
The Wisconsin Idea embodies the foundation and purpose of our institution, and the Wisconsin Idea belongs to all of us. Our sincere wish is to create a process that builds on our rich past and involves all of our stakeholders in a grassroots movement to create our future. Doing so will require that we hear from a wide variety of perspectives – therefore we’ve created “Hearing All Voices,” a plan for an inclusive strategic planning process. Read more about how you can contribute as an Ad Hoc Committee Member, Responder, Informational Member, or At-Large Contributor.
Where are we in the Process?
The Steering Committee has been working on establishing the scope and sequence for our planning process, creating our budget, collecting resources and data, working on our action plan to launch the process, and developing a logic model. We’ve also presented overviews at a few district meetings and the JCEP conference. If you’d like us to provide an overview for your group, please contact a member of the Steering Committee.
Take a look at our process timeline. We’ve already started implementing the process and hosted a discussion about mandates with the Cooperative Extension Administrative Council, or CEAC. The Values Design Team has been assembled and will begin their work later this summer, and conclude by the fall of this year. This fall, we’ll collect input from a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders so we can conduct the “situation analysis” portion of the process. We’ll use this information to determine the issues and priorities that we should work on as an organization. If you have ideas about groups that should be included in the situation analysis, please contact a member of the Steering Committee.
We utilized RBC resources while creating our team values. Access the Lifeline
Activity used as a method for discussing our values. Feel free to use the exercise
with a group you are working with. We also undertook a survey of specialists to gather their input on issues related to changing roles and scholarship. The study reporting out the findings can be found at http://www.aae.wisc.edu/pubs/sps/pdf/stpap521.pdf (29 pages).
Many of our newsletters will feature a message board where you can respond
to a question and provide feedback. The steering committee members will be
monitoring the message board regularly.
Thank you to the 
The
Idea
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