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Master Planning is one of the most critical tasks taken on by
the college. It is a large undertaking that relies on strategic vision,
research, and most of all, the collaboration of the college as a whole. After
one and a half year’s of work and many meetings and reviews by the College
Master Plan (CMP) Task Force, CPC, the Division Chair Council, management
meetings in the Student Services and Business Services, CMP has reached the
stage of strategy development. This is the phase in the process that the
involvement of every office and division is crucial.
If you have wondered how the budgetary process works, how the
college adapts to change, and how you can be part of it, strategies are the
place to start. Prior to starting to develop individual strategies, it is
recommended that the Objectives in the CMP be reviewed for the purpose of
understanding their intent (Addendum). Objectives guide the development of
strategies. A clear understanding of the hierarchy of goals, objectives and
strategies can no doubt assist you in identifying the direction the college is
moving toward, framing your action plans, and developing corresponding
strategies of your own.
WHAT ARE STRATEGIES?
1)
According to our CMP Prospectus, strategies need to be action
oriented and they represent the developmental aspect of the job responsibilities
of the college management. They are specific actions designed by
offices/divisions to achieve the Objectives.
2)
Strategies are directly related to the budget. Each strategy
proposal needs to include a check for one of two fiscal impacts: a) whether
there is existing funding and staffing resources already built in, or b) whether
additional funding is necessary. Please refer to the Strategy Template for
detailed information.
3)
A strategy needs to have a rationale grounded in research and
careful deliberation. Even though strategies will appear in the CMP in their
abbreviated form – they are listed as simple statements, proper documentation
and careful argument will assist your component heads in understanding them.
4)
A given strategy typically remains effective for a year and
it needs to be a change agent. Every strategy is evaluated at year’s end by
responding to the question of: “Yes, the strategy has been executed.” or
“No, the strategy hasn’t been executed.” If no, a brief explanation is
needed.
There is no minimum and maximum limit on the number of
strategies each office/division will identify. Each office/division needs not to
identify a strategy for every Objective.
Some strategies only impact one’s own department/unit, but
others may require collaboration with other departments/units. The tasks of the
components are to determine the feasibility of each strategy from the
perspective of the entire college and develop plans for collaborations for those
strategies that require the involvement of multiple offices/divisions or across
components. THE 12 STEPS TO SUCCESS
There are a
variety of sources for
offices/divisions
to
use for identifying strategies. The CMP and the individual planning documents
may be a good place to start. The Fact Book, instructional planning surveys,
Accreditation self-studies, and other program planning documents are good
sources, too.
A typical
set of steps for identifying and writing strategies is as follows:
The person(s) responsible for
the strategies…
1)
reviews the
Planning Prospectus,
2) collects
internal documents, data, budgetary history and projections, as well as
documents from external sources,
3) incorporates
components of departmental plans, such as the Technology Plan, Matriculation
Plan, DSPS plan, Distance Education Plan into the strategies,
4) studies the
goals and objectives the
office/division
had
in place in the past, which can be useful for the future,
5) lists
briefly the directions that each department/unit would like to go,
6) examines the
objectives of the CMP to find a linkage that the college’s objective(s) agrees
with yours,
7) translates
the broad directions into initial set of strategies,
8) breaks each
individual strategy into an action that the
office/division
believes can be accomplished in one year, if a
strategy is for multi-years,
9) weighs the
fiscal impact of each strategy,
10)
writes a rationale for the strategy,
11)
submits the strategies to components for review, and 12) revises the strategies if necessary.
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