Approved by College Planning Council - May 25, 2006
Submitted to the President for Approval - June 5, 2006

The dates in this Plan were adjusted by the College Planning Council during 2006-08 and the final version is in the Strategic Plan for 2008-13 Appendix D.

Plan for Planning Committee Members: Linda Anthon, Fiona Baxter, Fitzroy Farquharson, Jean Marie Fuhrman, Susan Kelley, Linda Swaine, David Rogers

1. Design principles for the Strategic Planning Process

(These are numbered for ease of reference, but are not listed in any priority order.)

1. The planning process and the plan that it yields will be learning-centered, will be grounded in the College's history of excellence, innovation, and community, and will support the quality and aspiration that bequeath the College with its distinctive place in higher education.
2. The process will be strategic by impacting the results the college aims to provide to society and to students as they progress in their programs of learning.
3. The planning process will be collaborative by operating within our shared governance structure that ensures broad-based participation and by providing a means for stakeholder groups to be heard and to influence the plan.
4. The process will build trust through effective communication and negotiation, by making it safe to identify and challenge assumptions, and by supporting agreements on shared values and the making of mutual commitments that are the basis for the strategic plan, and that are honored as the plan is implemented.
5. The process will be meaningful in that it will help the College to establish a vision of the future that shapes, defines, and gives meaning to its strategic purpose, and in that it will help to shape strategic decisions, some of which are identified in advance.
6. The process will be data-driven, using qualitative and quantitative data, routinely reviewed as the plan is implemented, with the aim of continuous improvement.
7. The plan will include formative and summative evaluation components that evaluate the planning process itself, as well as the implementation of the plan, using agreed upon performance indicators.
8. The process will have a clear cycle of activities, with a beginning and an end, and timed and structured to coordinate well with SACS accreditation requirements.
9. The process will be as simple as possible while yielding a viable plan, avoiding the trap of imposing more order than the College can tolerate, and integrating planning into permanent governing structures and collegewide meetings, rather than creating a separate set of activities removed from the governance and life of the College.
10. The process will support the integration of fiscal, learning, and facilities plans with the strategic plan of the college, through careful timing and by clearly connecting each of these plans to the College's revised Vision, Mission, and Values.
11. The strategic plan will be useful to and therefore used by councils, campuses and departments as they prepare their plans, and will encourage a future orientation to their work.
12. The process, its language, its products, and the results of the plan will be communicated to all employees internally.
13. The plan will be expressed clearly, with language that is understood by stakeholders and with clear means of measuring progress.
14. The process will be truly comprehensive, and will have clearly assigned roles for individuals and groups, including students.

2. Name the work products of the planning process

• needs assessment/situational analysis/environmental scan, providing a common understanding of the present and the anticipated future, including information about our competitors and clearly defined gaps in results at the mega, macro, and micro levels, as defined by Roger Kaufman's planning model

• reviewed/revised mission (the role we will play), vision, and values statements
• a set of college strategies (the ways in which we will play our role and get results), goals (what results we want to accomplish within our role), measurable outcomes objectives (how much will we change specific results at the mega, macro, and micro levels as used in Kaufman's model), and related activities to achieve the objectives within an agreed upon timeframe
• an evaluation plan, including indicators/measures of institutional effectiveness, revised as needed, and a means of assessing the extent to which College decisions are consistent with the plan
• a recommended assignment of responsibilities for objectives to the governing councils
• list of major decisions to be impacted by the plan, which could include decisions such as:
  
  » academic program plans for new campus(es) and evolution of programs on existing campuses
  
  » the goals in the College enrollment plan
  
  » Future Valencia Foundation fund raising goals
  
  » Focus of the Quality Enhancement Plan for SACS in 2010-2012
  
  » Professional development multi-year plan
  
  » Multi-year financial plan and annual budgets
  
  » Major external funding requests with collegewide impact, such as Title III and Title V
  
  » Community relations priorities and programs
  
  » Efforts designed to support student learning and to maintain academic excellence
  
  » Strategic facilities plans
  
• Final proposed planning document for submission to the president and trustees

3. Establish first planning cycles and project future cycles.

The following sample cycle provides for three, six-year planning cycles, with a mid-point review/update/adjustment at the end of the third year of each cycle. Importantly, this is planned to complement the SACS accreditation process in 2010-12 and 2020-22, and to enable the institution to devote adequate time and energy to both strategic planning and to developing the Quality Enhancement Plan required by SACS.

2006-07 - Complete remaining priority items under current Strategic Learning Plan.

2008-2013 Planning Cycle
Needs Assessment/Situational Analysis/environmental scan/- completed by November 30, 2006

Review/revise mission, vision, and values statements - completed by February 28, 2007

Proposed strategies, goals and measurable objectives - completed by April 30, 2007

(The strategies and goals will be set by working through a joint meeting of the governing councils, with a means for collegewide input and feedback. The objectives for each goal will be proposed by each Council to which goals are assigned.)

Proposed activities to achieve the objectives - completed by August 31, 2007

Complete strategic planning document finalized - completed by October 31, 2007

New plan for 2008-2013 presented to the Trustees for action - Nov - Dec 2007

Evaluation of the planning process - April 30, 2007

Annual evaluation of progress on plan - submitted in Spring of each year, covering the past calendar year, and impacting the budget process for the following year.

SACS 2010-12
SACS Quality Enhancement Plan - Must develop in 2010-11, should be selected based on the work on which we want to focus at this stage of the 2008-2013 plan.

Mid-point evaluation and update of 2008-13 plan - submitted Spring 2011

SACS Team Site Visit to Valencia - Spring 2012

2014-2019 Planning Cycle
Needs Assessment/Situational Analysis/Environmental Scan for 2014 - 2019- completed by November 30, 2012

Review/revision of mission, vision, and values statements - completed by February 28, 2013

Proposed strategies, goals and measurable objectives - completed by April 30, 2013

Proposed activities to achieve the objectives - completed by August 31, 2013

Complete strategic planning document finalized - completed by October 31, 2013

New plan for 2014-2019 presented to the Trustees for action - Nov-Dec 2013

Annual evaluation of progress on 2014-19 plan - submitted in Spring of each year, and impacting the budget process for the following year.

Mid-point evaluation and update of plan - submitted Spring 2017

2020-2025 Planning cycle
Needs Assessment/Situational Analysis/Environmental Scan for 2020-2025 - completed by November 30, 2018

Review/revision of mission, vision, and values statements - completed by February 28, 2019

Proposed strategies, goals and measurable objectives - completed by April 30, 2019

Proposed activities to achieve the objectives - completed by August 31, 2019

Complete strategic planning document finalized - completed by October 31, 2019

New plan for 2020-25 presented to the Trustees for action - Nov - Dec 2017

SACS - 2020-22
SACS Quality Enhancement Plan - Must develop in 2020-21

Annual evaluation of progress on plan - submitted in Spring of each year and impacting the budget process for the following year.

SACS Team Site Visit to Valencia - 2022

Mid-point evaluation and update of strategic plan - submitted Spring 2023

4. Set up an organizational chart of committees and/or task forces to design and carry out each phase, including projected Small Meetings and Big Meetings, and working closely with existing Councils and within the governance structure.

We will begin with the structure for 2006-07.

The CPC will work collaboratively with others to develop and recommend planning processes.

A Planning Committee, membership to be determined, will act on the recommendations that come from those processes, making final recommendations to the President and Trustees about content/priorities in the strategic plan.

The President, as our chief planner, is being consulted about the structure and membership of the Planning Committee.

We propose to recruit/name the following five task forces. We will seek to involve CPC alumni in these teams and in the planning work.

Task Force #1 - Need Assessment/Situational analysis/Environmental Scan

Data gathering will take place June - mid-September 2006.

Data analysis will take place during late September - early November 2006.

We would ask Thomas Greene, Rhonda Glover, Joan Tiller and Fiona Baxter to propose the data to be gathered (for CPC approval) and to suggest the optimum size for the task force.

We would then ask the Faculty Council and the professional and career service staff councils for volunteers, issue a collegewide call for volunteers, and invite CPC alumni to participate. The task force would coordinate the data gathering activities, analyze and summarize the findings (including a needs analysis that specifies results gaps), and conduct and issue an analysis of our situation (which may include a report on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), completing their work by November 30, 2006.

We would ask the team to propose by the July 2006 CPC meeting a process of inviting large scale consideration of the data, resulting in a situational analysis report, which may include a SWOT analysis or some alternative assessment, to the College. This process would be acted on at the July CPC meeting, and recommended to the Planning Committee.

Task Force #2 - Mission, Vision, and Values

In Fall 2006, the CPC will recruit/name a Mission, Vision and Values Task Force. The task force will review the processes used to create the current statements, and  propose a process to invite broad input into review and revision, as needed, of these statements.

It is anticipated that the process will work within our current structures and collegewide meeting opportunities. For example, work to review and recommend changes to the Visions, Values, and Mission statements could be conducted as part of the October 31, 2006 Learning Day.

The task force will work with the CPC to carry out the process by February 28, 2007, with recommendations made to the Planning Committee at that time.

Task Force #3 - Strategies, Goals and Objectives

In January 2007, the CPC will recruit/name a Strategies, Goals and Objectives Task Force. The task force will review the processes used to create the strategies and goals in the current SLP, and propose a process to invite broad input into decisions to be made about strategies, goals and objectives for 2008-13.

It is anticipated that the process will work within our current structures and collegewide meeting opportunities. For example, the governing councils could be asked to work jointly, seeking input and reaction from the College, in crafting new strategies and goals. And each Council assigned new goals would be asked to develop measurable objectives and a plan of action to achieve the objectives, all of which would tie into the annual budgeting process and the multi-year financial plan.

The work would take place during the Summer and Fall of 2007. Resulting recommendations for new strategies, goals, and objectives would be made to the Planning Committee by October 31, 2007, and the 2008-09 budget (and the budgets in subsequent years) would reflect the priorities in the plan.

Task Force #4 - Communications

In July 2006, the CPC will recruit/name a Communications Task Force that will  have the responsibility of communicating with the College about the planning process, opportunities to participate, and the products of the process. This task force will play a pivotal role in ensuring that the plan is based on the best thinking of the College and that the planning process is open and builds trust.

Task Force #5 - Evaluation

In September 2006, the CPC will recruit/name an Evaluation Task Force that will have the responsibility of evaluating the planning process, using the design principles established, and seeking feedback from all those involved. The Task Force will also make recommendations about the process of evaluation of the results achieved throughout the implementation of the plan, working through existing councils and meetings to the greatest extent possible.