March 18, 2015 | SharkAdmin One of my goals soon after I came to Northwest Vista College was to lead the college in carefully examining our accomplishments, our aspirations and collaboratively developing a new strategic plan which will provide our guideposts for the next three years. Since our current NVC strategic plan is set to expire at the end of this year, it's critical we begin the process of charting a course for the success of the college, which will increase the probability to continue to improve as a student-centered institution and that we remain a college of distinction. As such, on Friday, March 27, we will hold a strategic planning retreat involving over seventy individuals including faculty, staff, community and business leaders and students. The NVC Leadership Team, consisting of the college cabinet (president and VPs), deans, chairs and college directors and other supervisors, will be leading the discussion and assessment of NVC's and the community’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in an effort to provide the basis for subsequent discussions culminating with identifying our priorities and possible strategies for accomplishing our three-year goals. We will be sure to fully engage and listen to the voices and experiences of our students as their success must be central to any plans for an egalitarian institution such as Northwest Vista College. The session will be facilitated by Jeff Wilkie of Hogan/Taylor Advisory Services, which provides counsel on organizational strategies. Jeff visited NVC before spring break and met with various individuals and campus entities throughout the college to gather preliminary research about NVC and to get input from our faculty and staff so that he could have a better understanding of our culture and history prior to his facilitating the strategic planning session. The intent of the new strategic plan will be to provide identifiable guideposts and key performance indicators which will allow the entire college community to focus our efforts through 2018. Our goal is to create a successful strategic plan that will help us set a vision for the next three years and create engagement around that vision. We want to have realistic expectations that can be completed and that are well communicated throughout the college. I invite you to send me your thoughts or share them with your chair or area leaders so they can bring those ideas to our strategic retreat on March 27.