Appendix C — Strategic Plan Development and Engagement Process

 

The Goals and Structure of the Plan

What is being developed is a plan with a vision and high-level goals for the coming five years. It will also include some concrete, outcome-oriented goals and success measures for the first three years, also at a fairly high level. A process facilitated at the department level once the plan is finalized will produce work plans for each department that are guided by the Strategic Plan goals.

The Strategic Plan and its goals and success measures will be reviewed annually in a streamlined process designed to flag the need for any adjustments to the Strategic Plan based on changes in resources, opportunities or challenges. A more in-depth review is planned for year three, but this could be initiated sooner if necessary. The mechanisms for these reviews have not yet been designed, but they will dovetail with an annual department-level work plan review and revision process.

 

 

The Timeline and Process for Completing the Strategic Plan

This process started in summer 2017 with the hiring of a facilitator, Tasha Harmon, and the selection of the Strategic Planning Committee (Appendix B). That committee met bi-weekly from September 2017 to May 2018 and continued their engagement in less collective ways through the completion of the plan in September 2018.

Department-level work plans for year one, with some notations about multi-year goals, were developed in the summer of 2018, and then these were integrated into the Strategic Plan in September of 2018.

 

Mechanisms for Input

The committee was designed to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the work of drafting the Strategic Plan. Input from other library stakeholders was also sought through three meetings to which all library faculty and classified employees were invited: a meeting in September to get initial input; a second meeting in February to respond to draft language; and a third meeting in May to review and respond to a more complete draft. Input was also captured through an anonymous form, which offered an asynchronous opportunity for input and a venue for input outside of the group meetings. Lastly, there were also several focused discussions about the process and the goals of the Strategic Plan at LAMP, the Library Administration, Management and Planning group that provides an important forum for discussing and addressing broad Libraries and Press initiatives such as strategic planning.

 

Decision Making

Final decisions about the Strategic Plan contents were made by the Strategic Planning Committee in consultation with LAMP.

Department work plans were developed inside departments and submitted to LAMP. Then LAMP made decisions related to budget and other OSULP-wide issues that impacted those work plans, and other decisions were made by the departments.