Minutes 02/10/1998

A strategic conversation of the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board was scheduled to be held at 6:30 p.m. at the District Support Services Center, 2411 West 14th Street, Tempe, Arizona, pursuant to A.R.S. 38-431.02, notice having been duly given.

Present

Governing Board
Ed Contreras, President
Linda Rosenthal, Secretary
Nancy Stein, Member
Gene Eastin, Member
Donald Campbell, Member

Administration
William Waechter
Rufus Glasper
Ron Bleed
Alfredo G. de los Santos, Jr.
Mary Vanis for Larry Christiansen
John Cordova
Art DeCabooter
Stan Grossman
Homero Lopez
Linda Thor
Tessa Martinez Pollack
J. Marie Pepicello
Arnette Ward
Raul Cardenas

Absent

State Board
Nick Balich

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Strategic Conversation:

Identification of Leadserhip Characteristics
Needed to Meet the Issues Facing the
Maricopa Community College District in the Next Ten Years

The outcome for the evening was to identify the characteristics of leadership needed to meet the issues that the District will be facing in the next ten years. A previous conversation had been held on January 13, 1998 to help identify those issues.

Pat Case, President of the Faculty Association, welcomed the group, reviewed the ground rules, and recognized community members and students present in the audience, along with her fellow members of the strategic conversation planning committee - Laura Helminski, Homero Lopez, Arnette Ward, Ron Bleed, and Debbie Fox. Dr. Case introduced Ed Contreras, Governing Board President, who also welcomed the group and thanked them for attending the meeting to provide their input in identifying the leadership characteristics needed for the next chancellor for this District. Mr. Contreras indicated that Dr. Elsner will be leaving "big shoes to fill" upon his retirement from the District. The information gathered at the conversation will be given to the ACCT search consultant and used to help build a profile of qualities to be looked for in candidates for the position of chancellor. Mr. Contreras explained that the consultant will be working closely with the search committee, which will be composed of Board Members and a diverse group of individuals from throughout the District and community. He asked the participants to think of the qualities as if they were building a brochure advertising for the chancellor position.

Small groups were formed and asked to identify the qualities of leadership that they felt were needed in the next chancellor. They were then instructed to prioritize those qualities, identify the top seven, and measure them on a scale from one to five (one being important and five being most important). The top seven qualities from each small group were then synthesized on the final product which were large continuums of seven identified major topics or qualities. A representative from each small group put dot votes on the large continuum sheets from the worksheets developed in their group. The resulting seven large continuums were as follows:

Characteristic: Ethical
Principle-centered; Integrity; Honest; Healthy (mind, body, spirit); Politically Astute

These characteristics were found to range between 2 and 5 on the scale, with the most weight given at the end, or as most important, by 5 dot votes.

Characteristic: Educator
Focus on Educational Role; Experience with Community Colleges

These characteristics were found to range between 3 and 5 on the scale, with the most weight given on 2 and 5, by 2 dot votes each.

Characteristic: Technology

This characteristic was voted a value of 3.8 by one dot vote.

Characteristic: Multi-Culturally and Community Oriented
Sensitive; Business Oriented

These characteristics were found to range between 3 and 5 on the scale, with the most weight given to 5, or most important, by 3 dot votes.

Characteristic: Student/Learner Centered
This characteristic was found to range between 4 and 5 on the scale, with the most weight given to 5, or most important, by 4 dot votes.

Characteristic: Superb Communicator
Management Skills; Team Builder; Motivator; Business Savvy

These characteristics were found to range between 2 and 5 on the scale, with the most weight given to 4 by 5 dot votes.

Characteristic: Risk Taker
Visionary; Creative; Futuristic; Sensitive to Change; Creative Use of Resources

These characteristics were found to range between 3 and 5 on the scale with 4 to 4-1/2 receiving a total of 5 dot votes.

Pat Case took the groups through three questions. Those questions and responses are as follows:

Did we leave any other significant characteristics out? - Should be a learner - Sense of family - Commitment to excellence - Humor - Unbiased - not making favorites between the colleges - Have faith - Diplomatic - Collaborative

The leadership characteristic that surprised or interested me was... Accountability - Learner-centered/student advocate.

One thing that I learned was.... - Strategic conversations are fun - Whoever the new chancellor is will be an awesome person - One mission, though a diversity of colleges - Equal voice - Consensus on the value characteristics.

Mr. Contreras thanked the audience for coming and providing their input to assist in building the selection criteria for the next chancellor. A suggestion was made that perhaps in addition to the strategic conversations held, focus groups meet to provide their input. He introduced Liz Rocklin, the search consultant from the Association of Community College Trustees, who will be coordinating in the search process to select


Adjournment
The Strategic Conversation adjourned at 8:30 p.m.

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