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Looking to get involved in the strategic planning process?
Got some suggestions for the community? Want your voice heard?
Contact Coordinating Committee Chair, Del Tacconi at Tacconi1@pacbell.net
Or post your feedback at: http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com/
The UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Life Strategic Planning Process Coordinating Committee is charged with developing a 10-year road map for the fraternity and sorority community. This map will direct enhancements to the undergraduate experience for students associated with fraternities and sororities at Berkeley, ensure reinforcement of our collective founding values, direct a quality undergraduate fraternal experience, will be inclusive of all fraternity and sorority communities and members, and will be consistent with the mission of the University, Division of Student Affairs, Campus Life and Leadership, and Center for Student Leadership.
Background on the Strategic Planning process
Seven Core Values that form the basis of the planning process
Presentation on the Strategic Planning Process to the Center for Student Leadership - May 2009
[November 13, 2009]
Dear UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community
This is the seventh update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process and we have endeavored to keep the community informed about this transparent and inclusive process over the year. As we near the end of this 10 month process, much work remains as we finalize our plan for the next ten years.
The Strategic Planning Committee held a retreat two weeks ago to synthesize all of the recommendations to date and to put together a final DRAFT available HERE. This DRAFT is intended to be just that: a DRAFT.
Now that we have a DRAFT we want your input: Attend the community Town Hall meeting on Thursday, November 19th, at 7 pm, in VLSB 2060. We very much would like a good turn-out from the Fraternity & Sorority community at the meeting to give your opinions.
The time-frame from here on out is to use the input from the blog and the Town Hall meeting, and revise the plan further. A final DRAFT will then be sent, via the listserves and blog, in December for final input. From there the plan will be finalized for Jan. 1.
Please take advantage of these final opportunities to give your input on the plan. As we have said before, a Strategic Plan is only as good as the input the community gives. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020. Please take some time to give your input over the next few weeks.
Interfraternally,
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[October 26, 2009]
Dear UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community,
This is the sixth update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process. We hope these updates keep the community informed about this transparent and inclusive process that will move the Fraternity & Sorority Community forward over the next ten years.
Much work has been accomplished since this process began some seven months ago with the initial surveys of the community. The Strategic Planning Committee made up of undergraduates, alumni, and friends of the CalGreeks' community, has been hard at work during these past months with many meetings, more surveys, and countless emails, to gather your input on where you want to see the Cal Fraternity and Sorority Community in 2020 (the 150th anniversary of fraternities and sororities on our campus).
As you will recall there are seven broad Core Areas for this plan:
1. Values
2. Growth
3. Leadership
4. Governance & Accountability
5. Safety
6. Measures of Success
7. Support
Each area has been headed up by the students, alumni volunteers, and community people, and has endeavored to make some far-reaching recommendations that will move our community forward.
To date there are now over 60 various recommendations for the plan. These can be found at http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com/ We encourage you to look at this web site and post your comments, even anonymously. As the plan is finalized, these recommendations will likely go through many changes, as they have already, and even more will likely be proposed. This is a dynamic process and your input will help shape these recommendations tremendously.
The planned schedule for the final two months of this planning process is the following:
1. Oct. 30: A Planning Committee retreat will be held offsite over the weekend to develop a preliminary draft. Planning committee external consultant, Dr. Ron Binder from the University of South Carolina, will be in 102 Sproul Hall on Friday, October 30 between 1 PM and 2 PM. If you have questions, comments, or concerns for him. You are encouraged to meet with him to give your feedback.
2. Nov. 10: the preliminary draft will be posted to the web site and circulated widely for input.
3. Nov. 17: a Town Hall meeting will be held in room VLSB 2060 at 7 pm where the Planning Committee will present the preliminary draft and solicit input. This is an open meeting for anyone - current undergraduates, alumni, volunteers, and friends - with an interest in this plan.
4. Dec. 1: the final draft will be circulated widely for any final comments.
5. Jan. 1: the plan will be adopted.
Please take advantage of the opportunities to give your input on the final plan. As we have said before, a Strategic Plan is only as good as the input the community gives. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020. Please take some time to volunteer, to suggest, to investigate, and to give your input on any and all of the Core Areas. Please be a part of this process.
Interfraternally,
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[August 27, 2009]
Dear UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community and Friends,
This is the fifth update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process and the first to be sent to every chapter designate in the CalGreeks community! (Please be sure to share this communication with your chapter undergraduate and alumni members.) If you are interested, prior updates are available online at http://greeks.berkeley.edu. Our goal is that these updates keep the community informed about this transparent and inclusive process.
Much work has been accomplished since this process began some six months ago with the initial surveys of the community. The Strategic Planning Committee, made up of current undergraduate fraternity & sorority members, alumni, advisors, University staff, and community members, has been hard at work during these past six months with many meetings, more surveys, and emails, to gather your input on where you want to see the UC Berkeley Fraternity and Sorority Community in 2020 (the 150th anniversary of fraternities and sororities on our campus).
There are seven broad Core Areas for this plan: Values, Growth, Leadership, Governance, Safety, Success, and Support. Each area has endeavored to make some far-reaching recommendations that will move our community onward and upward.
To date there are now 37 various recommendations for the plan and these can be found at http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com. We encourage you to look at this web site and give the Planning Committee your feedback directly on the blog. For more information about the plan and to contact the Planning Committee directly, go to the Strategic Planning page at http://greeks.berkeley.edu
For the next three months, as the plan becomes more finalized, each area's volunteer team will be meeting to gather more input, to make more recommendations, and to refine the ones already made. To be a part of this process, please go to the blog and give your comments.
The goal is to have a set of final recommendations by November 1 for the entire community to weigh in on face-to-face during an open "Town Hall" meeting on November 19. Hopefully by December 1 the final plan will be ready to be implemented.
As we have said before, a Strategic Plan is only as good as the input the community gives. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020. Please take some time to volunteer, to suggest, to investigate, and to give your input on any and all of the Core Areas. Please be a part of this process.
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[June 24, 2009]
Dear UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community and Friends,
This is the fourth update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process. As we have stated before, we are trying to as transparent as possible with the entire Strategic Planning process.
An updated Core Areas document that outlines the seven core areas of the plan is available on the Strategic Planning web page at http://greeks.berkeley.edu. This document has gone through some changes to be sure to check it out. These seven Core Areas are the focus of the plan and are guiding us in this yearlong process.
In this document you will find the following:
• An updated description of each of the seven Core Areas
• The names of the Coordinating Committee members who are working in each area along with their contact information. We have added some new people to the committees so check out who these new people are.
• The dates, times and locations of each of the committee meetings that are open to all interested in the Cal Fraternity & Sorority Community
For each Core Area, a committee has been working to explore their area with the eventual goal of making a set of recommendations that will significantly improve the Fraternity & Sorority Community over the next ten years. Below are some recent updates for each of the seven Core Areas as well as their first draft recommendations. We STRONGLY encourage comment and input on the recommendations by visiting: http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com
VALUES
• Currently discussing a possible recommendation regarding a requirement to have a live-in House Director in each housed fraternity and sorority
• Currently soliciting new member/membership intake programs from each fraternity and sorority chapter on campus; we will review the programs and possibly develop a recommendation around incorporating educational activities on the organization’s values.
GROWTH
See our first draft recommendations and comment at http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com
LEADERSHIP
No new updates
SAFETY
Different Areas of Discussion:
Alcohol Related Issues
• What is the climate on campus in relation to alcohol safety?
• Is there an evolution of Greeks use of alcohol over time – meaning, is there a stronger prevalence of alcohol abuse as a freshman versus being a senior?
• How are Greek social events contributing to binge drinking? How can we fix this?
• How many Greek-related alcohol transports are there per semester? How does this compare to the amount of transports campus wide? Do we have a higher concentration?
Overall Risky Behavior
• Invitations – drinking on bus, security guards give away wristbands, regardless of age, preloading to be drunk before getting to event
• Drinking in chapter houses, what can we do to eliminate this risky behavior?
• Exchanges – enforcing policies from PHC’s “Something of Value”
• Abusing Adderall
• Dealing drugs from chapter houses
Hazing
• What is the prevalence on campus?
• Are people educated on the issue?
• Do new members know their own rights?
Disaster Preparedness – safety of our houses
• Do our housing corporations work with us to keep our houses up to date?
• Are the houses retrofitted?
• Do chapters have safety procedures ready to put into place in the case of a disaster?
• Disaster caches
• CERT classes
Safety on Southside – safer streets
• More lighting
• Greater use of bear walk
• Climate change needed for people to start taking this issue more seriously
• Calling the police more in emergencies
Mental Health Issues
• Stress – academic pressures of Berkeley
• Eating Disorders
• Depression
• Suicide
• Self-Defense
• How to help a friend in need
• Financial issues – can put lots of pressures on students
Accessibility of our Chapter Houses
• They aren’t – what can we do about this?
How to group these into Subcommittees Meetings/Tentative Schedule
• Alcohol – Week of June 29
• Overall Risky Behavior/Hazing – Week of July 6
• Disaster Preparedness – Week of July 13
• Safety on Southside – Week of July 20
• Mental Health Issues – Week of July 27
GOVERNANCE
• Continuing to conduct key informant interviews with various stakeholders
• Expanding committee membership as appropriate
• Determining discussion topics for meetings in July, August, September, and October
• Discussion topics for June meeting:
o Proactive vs. Reactive
o Governance/accountability actions by and for members and chapters
o Creating a cost-effective vision for 2020
SUPPORT
• Excellent support meeting in which Advisors were encouraged to come to a roundtable and discuss how they supported their various chapters on Cal Campus
• Excellent turn out with 15 people attending from about 10 different organizations
• Advisors would like an all-campus alumni group to get together with a session to discuss best practices and keep each other informed.
• Due to a less structured recruitment process, IFC men’s organizations seem to draw on each other’s advisors to exchange ideas
• PHC woman’s groups have advisors specific to each officer position (i.e. a risk management advisor or a house advisor). This was an idea many of the attending IFC men’s groups liked and hope to implement.
• Several of the IFC men’s groups did not feel at all supported by their National Organizations.
SUCCESS
Why measure?
1. Allows us to develop longitudinal data to see how our community is growing over time.
2. Provide us with a measure of how our community is achieving the goals it sets
Data Collection
1. Should we be trying to measure data in a way that relates to the four pillars (leadership, scholarship, friendship, service)? Not sure how to capture friendship pillar.
a. How many non-Greek leadership positions do our members hold
How to get data?
1. Use data to aid in recruitment by providing accurate facts and figures to potential recruit that track historically
How to increase “positive” data?
1. Find ways to promote awards and scholarship applications within chapters at local, regional, and national levels.
See our first draft recommendations and comment at http://strategicplanning2009.blogspot.com
All of the committee meetings are open and need your input. You do not need to volunteer for a committee in order to give input. The meeting times are in the Core Areas document as well as locations. A Strategic Plan is only as good as the community; your input will be needed even more. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020, our 150th anniversary of Greeks at UC Berkeley. Please take some time to volunteer, to suggest, to investigate, and to give your input on any and all of the Core Areas. Your Coordinating Committee meets monthly to keep refining your input and will begin to make draft recommendations more frequently with the goal of having a complete set in four-five months for our Fraternity & Sorority Community. Please be a part of this process.
Look for another update soon.
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[May 6, 2009]
UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community and Friends,
This is the third update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process. As we have stated before, we are trying to be as transparent as possible with the Strategic Planning process and keeping our many constituents "in the loop" as much as possible.
For each Core Area, a committee has been formed to investigate and explore this area, with the goal of making a set of recommendations in the next six months that will significantly improve the Fraternity & Sorority Community over the next ten years.
Below are some recent updates for each of the 7 Core Areas.
VALUES
What information do we want and need to make a good recommendation?
Discussion regarding the development of a CalGreeks mission statement and/or set of values that will guide our chapters
Looking into doing a values survey of the F & S Community
GROWTH
How do we market the F & S Community?
Giving chapter the tools to survive and what would these tools be?
Plan for future chapters to establish on campus: IFC, MCGC, NPHC, PHC
LEADERSHIP
Looking into the current retreats we do and seeing who else should be part of these
How many students attend leadership schools/conferences throughout the year?
What leadership opportunities do we offer on campus and are F & S students taking advantage of them
SAFETY
Obtaining hard data for each sub area on safety – what are the concerns and issues?
Setting actual dates for summer focus groups
Obtaining actual information from 1:1 conversations with team members.
GOVERNANCE
Meet with presidents/leaders of student organizations to gauge their opinions
Discuss/draw councils and their accountability relationships and issues.
Develop org. charts detailing governance of different student organizations on campus – do they conflict with each other?
SUPPORT:
May 7th-Student Round table at Kappa Kappa Gamma-6 PM
May 15th-Parents Board Survey and questionnaire at Kappa Kappa Gamma
June 1st Advisory Board round table-6 PM TBD
What kind of support is given to chapters and by whom?
SUCCESS
Our goal will be to provide recommendations as to what measures will define success in these categories and the most effective means of collecting these data.
We will be working on contacting inter/national HQs for data for UCB chapters as most chapters submit reports and award applications that should contain relevant statistics
Need measures of our success: # of chapters receiving national awards?
Again, all of these meetings are open and are very much in need of your input. You do not need to volunteer for a committee in order to give input.
Keep in mind, that a Strategic Plan is only as good as the input the community gives. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020, our 150th anniversary of Greeks at UC Berkeley. Please take some time to volunteer, to suggest, to investigate, and to give your input on any and all of the Core Areas.
Your Coordinating Committee meets monthly to keep refining your input and will make a set of recommendations in six months for our Fraternity & Sorority Community. Please be a part of this process.
Look for another update soon.
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[April 7, 2009]
UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Community and Friends,
This is the second update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity & Sorority Strategic Planning process. As we have stated before, we are trying to be as transparent as possible with the Strategic Planning process and keeping our many constituents "in the loop" as much as possible.
Attached to this update are the seven Core Areas that were developed by the highly represented and diverse Strategic Plan Coordinating Committee, based on input by surveys and interviews. These seven Core Areas are the focus of the plan and will guide us in this seven-month process.
Below each Core Area are modified descriptions of what these Core Areas represent to the Fraternity & Sorority Community. These descriptions were modified in the last month due to your input and ideas; they are meant to be dynamic over this process. Below each Core Area is also the chair of that area, along with their contact information.
For each Core Area, a committee has been formed to investigate and explore this area, with the goal of making a set of recommendations in the next six months that will significantly improve the Fraternity & Sorority Community.
Included also with each Core Area is the regular meeting date, and time (locations TBD), so that anyone can attend these regular meetings to give their opinion and input as we strive to make the best set of recommendations possible.
These are "open meetings" and we very much want your input, whether attending the meetings or contacting the chair to give your input.
A Strategic Plan is only as good as the input the community gives. This is our Strategic Plan that will guide us through 2020, our 150th anniversary of Greeks at UC Berkeley. Please take some time to volunteer, to suggest, to investigate, and to give your input on any and all of the Core Areas.
Your Coordinating Committee meets monthly to keep refining your input and will make a set of recommendations in six months for our Fraternity & Sorority Community. Please be a part of this process.
Look for another update soon.
Del
Del Tacconi
Strategic Plan Chair
Tacconi1@pacbell.net
[March 12]
Fraternity and Sorority Community & Friends,
I am pleased to send out this inaugural update on the UC Berkeley Fraternity and Sorority Community Strategic Plan. As the alumni volunteer chair of the Coordinating Committee, I will be providing periodic updates to the Fraternity and Sorority Community, and our many friends, to keep them informed of this dynamic eight month process.
These updates will be sent to the various listservers of the Fraternity and Sorority Community and will be posted on the fraternity and sorority web site (http://greeks.berkeley.edu). Feel free to pass along these updates to anyone you think might be interested in this process. We want to be as transparent as possible with this plan.
On Saturday, March 28 a retreat was held with the Coordinating Committee to launch this process. Using the survey results, noting some national trends with fraternities and sororities, the Coordinating Committee identified seven Core Areas that the strategic plan will focus on. These areas include the following:
1. Values
2. Growth
3. Membership Development
4. Safety
5. Leadership
6. Support
7. Measures of Success
Next steps in the plan are to convene a monthly meeting of the Coordinating Committee through November. This group will work diligently to produce a set of recommendations, with time-lines, that will improve the Fraternity and Sorority Community through 2020, our sesquicentennial of fraternities and sororities at UC Berkeley.
In the next update we'll outline how you can get involved in this process. In order to make this plan work, we will need the buy-in from many people. This eight-month process will allow us to fully examine where we are at as a Fraternity and Sorority Community and to make well thought out recommendations on how we can get to where we need to be in 2020. Stay tuned!
Del
Del Tacconi
Coordinating Committee Chair
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