Annual Report 2007-08 | Page 35

Annual Retreat In August of 2007 the Board held its Annual Board Retreat in Lansdowne Resort in Lansdowne, VA. The two day retreat was facilitated by Jim Rogers, a Senior Consultant with Cook Ross Inc. with over twenty years of experience in the fields of Human Resources, Change Management, Organization Development and Diversity/ Inclusion Integration. The retreat was attended by Board members and staff and focused on clarifying new committee structures and generating and prioritizing committee goals for the upcoming academic year. The opening session of the retreat identified the goals of the retreat: 1.) bringing members closer together; 2.) establishing and prioritizing goals for the academic year; 3.) agreeing upon and approving the structure of committees, decision making, and accountability. The second portion of the retreat involved a presentation by Jim Rogers which contained useful tools for Board members to use in creating strategic plans of action to achieve their goals. During the presentation Mr. Rogers encouraged the use of different acronyms for board members to reach their goals, such as: “SMART” Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Bound, and “RASCI” Responsible, held Accountable, act as Support, Consulted, and Informed, which can be used when assigning tasks to different committee members. Following the consultants presentation, Ms. Gutierrez and Ms. Hernandez gave an update on the new parking lot construction, after initial meetings with developers. They presented temporary and permanent scenarios for the school’s parking lot and gave initial estimated cost projections for each scenario. Among other things this past year the Board worked with Carlos Rosario staff on the following: facility expansion, the creation of an endowment and establishing criteria and a process for the transition of all board members and eventually the transition of the CEO and members of the staff. Board Meetings/Facilitated Work Sessions: The following meetings/work sessions were held during the 200-2008 academic year: September 24, 2007 December 10, 2007 April 14, 2008 June 9, 2008 35