sustain:if:able kiwi

telling a story one year on

Today I’m planting seeds. First, early morning, in my garden, Van Gogh sunflowers, Wild Sweetie micro tomatoes, heirloom carrots and provencal salad mix. Second, later today, I’m hosting a one year on anniversary.

This is the invite I sent out (planted?) a few weeks ago …

Greetings,

A year ago, you gave us at Uniting College a gift.

You participated with us in a Capacity Builders process, giving your input, ideas and perspectives, as we at Uniting College worked toward a four year Strategic Planning process.

One year on, we want to report back.

On Tuesday, September 10, between 4:15-5:15 pm, in Uniting College Common Space, 34 Lipsett Tce, we want to thank and update you,

to share with you,

• the result – including the new tag line, sharpened mission statement, signposts, and 2014 objectives
• the home truths – some feedback we found hard to hear, but essential as we looked into the feedback mirror
• the road not travelled – some moments of learning, about ourselves and our mission, emerging from our 2013 objectives
• the road travelled – some highlights of God’s goodness in the last 12 months

There will be wine, cheese, stories and information, so for catering purposes, can you please RSVP to eloise dot scherer at flinders dot edu dot au.

It was in September a year ago that we as a theological College began a strategic planning process. While the idea of strategic planning in a theological college has a number of potential pitfalls, for us its been a breath of fresh air, providing clarity and allowing a depth of listening and community and team.

Today we’ll share some of that, and some of the stories of fresh life (planted seeds) that have sprouted among us.

Update: Feedback was very positive. We began with wine and cheese, which gave a relaxed, after work type of feel.

I then talked about the results, the feedback and the process. At various times I offered ways to engage. One idea that went really well, was giving out 5 hot dots to each person and asking them to vote on what they thought our 2014 goals should be. The goals had been placed up around the walls. I ran through them and then (3 days after the election here in Australia) people got to to vote (again), wandered around with the dots, choosing. It has been great for us as a team to have this outside input into what we as a team had initially thought was important.

Finally I finished with four highlights of the 2013 gone

• our first ever candidate indigenous immersion experience (see here and here)
• a just announced Gold award for “Best Theological Article” from the Australasian Religious Press Association for one of our lecturers
• our growth in the use of online learning, in both our under-graduate and post-graduate courses
• regional delivery, allowing us to engage many more lay people in our BMin

All in all, One Year On worked really well – an informal way for us to enjoy ourselves, while maintaining connections, giving and receiving feedback and telling stories