CTS Begins a New Strategic Planning Process

Building upon the work of Community-wide Engagement in 2010-2011, President Hunt convened a Strategic Planning Team in July to initiate a planning process charged with preparing a five-year Strategic Plan for presentation to the Board of Trustees in May, 2012. In addition to producing a Plan, this process will also initiate an on-going, normative pattern of institutional planning and assessment no longer separated by five year intervals.

Last year, Community-wide Engagement brought together many internal and external stakeholders in significant reflection on the Seminary’s future, ultimately leading the Board to approve our aggressive move into online education.  This Strategic Planning process assumes that online learning will be a core element of the Seminary’s educational program moving forward and that it will undergird the new Strategic Goals being discerned over the coming months.

The Strategic Planning process will ultimately identify four to six five Strategic Goals that will guide the Seminary’s future.  These will be accompanied by strategies for implementation over the course of the Plan, as well as business modeling to ensure that the directions moving forward contribute to the financial health of the Seminary.

Over the course of the Fall, the Planning Process will be discussed by our various stakeholders, including faculty, staff, trustees, and selected students and alumni/ae.  The Core Team will prepare a draft Plan for the Trustees to review in February.  Following that, a second round of stakeholder review among a wider circle of CTS friends and partners will take place leading toward a final Plan to be presented to the Board for approval in May.

Guiding this process is a Core Team whose members are:  President Alice Hunt, Dean Ken Stone, Professor Scott Haldeman, Senior Advisor to the President John Thomas, Vice President for Finance and Administration Steve Manning, Director of Theological Field Education Deb Derylak, Director of Enrollment Management Kim King, Trustees Don Clark, Brian Clarke, and Norman Williams, Mark Winters, a CTS graduate and Lisa Seiwert, a current CTS student.  Tom Dowling, Professor at Oregon State University’s School of Business is our consultant, and Brock Perry, a current CTS student is providing administrative support.