Jan 20 2016

Ad hoc Committee Members—

Once again, thank you for your work on the SDA Vision, Mission, Values, and Beliefs. Overall, through the table discussions that ensued yesterday at the SDA Business Meeting, most of our proposals met with 100% approval!
Vision Statement: Empowering educators, Enhancing learning, Enriching the future (approved Jan 19 2016) Mission Statement: The mission of the Staff Development Affiliate (SDA) is to impact learning through collaboration, leadership, and professionalism. (approved Jan 19 2016) Values and Beliefs

• Collaboration – Collaboration through partnership instills cohesiveness and a sense of community within the affiliate.**
• Leadership – Leadership opportunities within the affiliate help empower and inspire members to build confidence and capacity. (approved Jan 19 2016)
• Professionalism – Professionalism, reflected in affiliate words and actions, strengthens integrity and trust. (approved Jan 19 2016)

**Google form feedback from the membership: 1) "partnership" is redundant with "collaboration", 2) "communication" is missing. With this in mind, I composed the following draft, which I ran past Rhonda this morning and she asked that I share with you:

• Collaboration – Collaboration promotes meaningful and purposeful communication within the affiliate, instilling cohesiveness and a sense of community.

Please reply all with your insights regarding this proposal statement. Feel free to offer counter-proposals. Once we're ready, we can forward a new belief statement related to "collaboration" to the strategists for future consideration by the membership.

Thank you,
Rhonda and Jeff

Dec 4 2015

Ad hoc Committee and Strategists--

Rhonda and I met this morning to review the committee proposal and to consider the feedback that had been offered (thank you to Kelly C and Kathy V). As a result, we made slight revisions to the belief statements, making them more succinct and narrowing their foci to the membership experience within the SDA affiliate. 

SDA Vision, Mission, Values, Beliefs (DRAFT) Our Vision ►Empowering educators. Enhancing learning. Enriching the future. Our Mission ►The mission of the Staff Development Affiliate (SDA) is to impact learning through collaboration, leadership, and professionalism. Our Values and Beliefs ►Collaboration – Collaboration through partnership instills cohesiveness and a sense of community within the affiliate. ►Leadership – Leadership opportunities within the affiliate helps empower and inspire members to build confidence and capacity. ►Professionalism – Professionalism, reflected in affiliate words and actions, strengthens integrity and trust.

Source document that includes the November 11 Ad hoc committee meeting notes, reviewer feedback, and the finalized draft (above).

Next Steps

1. Strategist review
2. Membership review and consideration (with an opportunity to edit), with an opportunity to further engage members with these statements (30 minutes at Jan 19 SDA Business Meeting)

And Beyond

The next step in the Bernhardt process (Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement, p. 362) is to identify goals. This would be new to SDA, but might also be a timely consideration as the bucket process is also undergoing review. This could be an opportunity in which to incorporate goals, collaboration, and action plans around the SDA Vision and Mission.

Finally

Rhonda and I would like to thank everyone for their contribution to this process, even if you volunteered and time did not materialize for you. Your interest and participation led to the development of a proposal that will provide a common focus for SDA as we move forward.

Thank you,

Rhonda and Jeff

Oct 28 2015

Dear Ad hoc Committee Members--

In this message . . .

• Continued online collaboration
• Details about the Nov 11 meeting
• What if I can't attend on Nov 11?

Continued online collaboration

In last week's Email message, links to the following articles were provided. Please review these articles and respond to the questions in this week's discussion forum.

►Educational Leadership: Lincoln's Mission

►Proclaiming Your Dream: Creating Vision and Mission Statements

Details about the Nov 11 meeting

We will meet in the Sarpy-Washington Room, beginning 15 minutes after the end of the Assessment Literacy Day 1 training session. Following a grounding conversation, we will divide into two subgroups to address belief statements and mission/vision statements. We will then regroup and report out, concluding by 5pm.

What if I can't attend on Nov 11?

A number of you have indicated that you have other commitments for November 11 and will not be able to attend the Adhoc committee meeting. Our plan is to engage you following this meeting to review, scrutinize, and refine the work that was completed on the belief, mission, and vision statements. We would like this review to be finalized by December 1 so that the strategists will have time to process our work prior to the SDA Business Meeting on January 19, 2016. We will be in contact with you shortly after November 11 with specific instructions.

Thank you,

Rhonda and Jeff

Oct 7 2015

Dear Ad hoc Committee Members--

Thank you for volunteering to participate in the SDA Ad hoc committee work that will focus on finalizing our belief statements, reviewing our mission statement, and creating a vision statement.

Due to the high level of interest, Rhonda and I felt that forming two groups would streamline the process: one group will finalize the belief statement process and the other group will review the current mission statement and create the vision statement. Each group will serve in a peer review capacity for the other group's work.

Group A

Mickey Carlson

Dallas Lewandowski

Cheryl Roche

Joni Runge

Debbie Schraeder

Rhonda and Jeff

Group B

Kelly Clapp

Jill Johnson

Marci Ostmeyer

Kathy VanDamme

Suzanne Whisler

Rhonda and Jeff

On November 11 we are planning to meet in the Sarpy-Washington room at ESU #3 from 3-5pm following Day 1 of the Assessment Literacy training. Please plan to attend this meeting.

Between now and November 11, we will be asking you to complete some individual reflection and virtual collaboration activities. An SDA Mission Vision Ad hoc Committee folder has been created to capture our work. 

To kick things off, we have 3 tasks for you to accomplish. First read the following two articles.

• Educational Leadership: Lincoln's Mission
• Proclaiming Your Dream: Creating Vision and Mission Statements

Next reflect on the following questions within the context of the articles that you read.

1. What connections can I make to SDA?
2. What implications are there for SDA?
3. Why are vision and mission essential to the effectiveness of SDA?
4. What are the intentional outcomes of having SDA  vision and mission statements?

Finally review the belief statements that were drafted at the Sep SDA Business Meeting (in the folder). The next phase of our work will entail some refinement. Think about the message that each statement conveys individually and collectively when combined with the other statements. Does this encapsulate what we're all about?

Thank you,

Rhonda and Jeff

Sep 2 2015

SDA Members--

Rhonda Jindra and I have been asked to facilitate a group activity at the September SDA Business Meeting that focuses on values, mission, and vision. In order to prepare for September 17, we ask that you complete the following activities by Friday, September 11.

PRE-WORK—This will take 15 minutes of your time!

1. Please read the following paragraph regarding core values to set the stage.
2. Review the slides that reflect Nebraska-based examples of values, mission, and vision of several non-PK12 entities (for a broader context) plus two additional examples.
3. Complete the Google form to submit your input, giving us a baseline for identifying SDA values.

1. What are Core Values?
The core values of an organization are those values we hold which form the foundation on which we perform our work and conduct ourselves. We have an entire universe of values, but some of them are so primary, so important to us that through out the changes in society, government, politics, and technology they are STILL the core values we will abide by. In an ever-changing world, core values are constant. Core values are not descriptions of the work we do or the strategies we employ to accomplish our mission. The values underlie our work, how we interact with each other, and which strategies we employ to fulfill our mission. The core values are the basic elements of how we go about our work. They are the practices we use (or should be using) every day in everything we do.

2. Nebraska-based Examples ◄Click to review 5 non-PK12 examples plus two bonus examples.

3. Considering the description in paragraph 1▲ and the examples in 2▲, what values do you feel best reflect the culture of SDA? Google form ◄Click to vote.

Please bring your copy of Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement (3rd edition) by Victoria Bernhardt to the SDA business meeting. Also, consider the Nebraska examples presented that 'connect' with you in their presentation.

Thank you,

Rhonda and Jeff