The OVC Strategic Planning process has entered a new phase – Action Planning.
To be effective, a strategic plan must have actionable goals; we are now entering a phase where these goals will be drafted. Five Action Planning Groups (APGs) are now being established to help with this process. These APGs will be spending the next few months drafting recommended actions in response to one of five Critical Strategic Issues (CSIs) identified at the retreat held on October 11th and 12th
What is a CSI? It is a critical current or emergent issue that will impact our ability to deliver on our mission and vision for the college over the next five years.
Nearly 40 people, comprising students, staff, faculty and external stakeholders, gave generously of their time during the recent retreat to help us arrive at five CSIs. We also made use of the survey results from over 80 people who chose to respond. It was a very interactive and productive process and I wish to thank the contributors to the retreat and survey for the time and energy they invested in these important elements of our plan.
Each Action Planning Group will meet over the next few months, to further refine their CSI, and develop recommended actions that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound – no small job.
The current OVC vision is to be “a world leader, integrating animal, human and environmental health through innovation, excellence and societal relevance”. Thus some of our goals may be “stretch goals”. In other words, they will be ambitious but achievable goals that will demonstrate national or international leadership in select aspects of teaching, research, or organizational health. This is exciting stuff!
The APGs have not yet met, so their CSIs are still only loosely defined; with that proviso, I think I can share that the APGs will be working on the following issues
- Curriculum: optimizing the student (undergraduate, DVM, graduate) experience; preparing our students for emergent careers
- Research: encouraging, dynamic, collaborative, and entrepreneurial research programs, and effective research support, to attract the best researchers and appropriate funding
- Organization: optimizing OVC’s organizational health, being the best employer and service provider we can be, through enhancing recruitment, retention, collaboration and community.
- Infrastructure: ensuring state of the art facilities, integrating technology, and leveraging data tools to optimize teaching, research, and business operations
- Outreach: enhancing our outreach, public profile and influence; rewarding external engagement
The APGs will have two co-leads, one of whom will be a Dean’s Council member. In the near future, Daniel Stone, who will continue to work with us through all stages of the process, will orient the APGs. Both co-leads will report back regularly to ensure all groups are on track. There will be opportunities for the APGs to interact with each other through a shared document drive to ensure we end up with a coherent vision and plan.
How can you contribute to the Action Planning phase? There are several ways:
- If you attended the retreat, you will almost certainly be serving on at least one APG
- When the APGs meet, they may well invite additional individuals to join their group – let us know if you are interested in one or more APG (contacts are listed below).
- The APGs may also arrange focus group meetings with students, staff, faculty, or other stakeholders to further refine their CSIs
- Finally, the APGs will periodically post drafts; these updates will be found on the OVC Strategic Planning web page http://ovc.uoguelph.ca/strategic-planning where all documents associated with our Plan can be found. We will let the OVC community know when new information is posted, and we will provide a mechanism for comment on drafts over the next 4 months.
Contacts for the APG’s include:
Curriculum: Dr. Peter Conlon (pconlon@ovc.uoguelph.ca), Dr. Kerry Lissemore (klissemo@uoguelph.ca) and Dr. Tarek Saleh (tsaleh@uoguelph.ca )
Research: Dr. Gordon Kirby (gkirby@uoguelph.ca)
Organization: Carolyn Kerr (ckerr@ovc.uoguelph.ca), Carol Ann Higgins (chiggins@uoguelph.ca)
Infrastructure: Paul McDonald (paulmcd@uoguelph.ca), Kim Robinson
(krobin01@uoguelph.ca)
Outreach: Dr. Stephanie Nykamp (snykamp@uoguelph.ca), Jane Dawkins (jdawkins@uoguelph.ca), Cynthia Kinnunen (ckinnune@uoguelph.ca)
The APGs will conclude their work early-February, followed by a second retreat on February 22, 2017. The plan should come together by the end of February.
Just to remind you, there is a wealth of information on our strategic planning process, and progress to date, at this page: http://ovc.uoguelph.ca/strategic-planning . We will also continue to make use of the Bulletin for communication.
I am looking forward to the ideas that come forward from our APGs. Thanks to all of you for your engagement in this important planning process.