Wednesday, July 16, 2014 12:00 AM |
Board Retreat Update 2014Greetings from the Consortium board! We have all returned safely from our travels to the University of Vermont. There, we hosted our 2014 Summer Institute on July 11. Following that, we held our Board Retreat from July 12 - 15. We are grateful for the opportunity to connect with each other and plan for the year ahead. Read on to learn about everything we accomplished and how you can get involved. Summer Institute We began the retreat by hosting our summer institute, titled “Points of Influence: LGBTQ Students, Social Change, and You.” Over 130 student affairs professionals, graduate students, and K-12 educators attended. One highlight of the institute was our keynote address featuring Representative Bill Lippert, Representative Kesha Ram, and UCLA’s Raja Bhattar. We had a great time! Thanks to our Education Chair, Shaun Travers, for leading the work to make the institute possible. Anti-Racism and Inclusion We grounded our time together in a discussion of our values as a social justice organization. We discussed our responsibilities to demonstrate these values as individual board members and as the Consortium as a collective organization. Implementing the Strategic Plan Our time together at the retreat focused on carrying out our strategic plan. Board members will be working to make the following things happen:
Next Steps Over the next few months, you should expect to see your board carry out the plans we made in Vermont. Many of these action steps need your approval in the form of votes and your support through joining committees and working groups. We encourage you to connect with us as chairs or the appropriate board member if you’re interested in getting involved. Highlights include:
Thank You We are grateful to the board for spending part of their summer focusing on this work. One of the major advantages of the summer retreat is that it allows our board to be together in person. For most of the year, we are physically far apart, connecting only by phone and email. Being together for the retreat means that we can set expectations, make plans, and get to know each other. We had a great time learning about each other! We were fortunate to have the support of Dot Brauer, Becky Swem, and Evan LitwiĆ of the LGBTQA Center at UVM in planning and executing these events. Thank you and your colleagues for all of their help! We truly enjoyed our time in Burlington. Just as UVM did, we encourage you to consider hosting the Consortium at your campus for the institute and retreat! We’ll send more information soon. Thank you for your continued support of the Consortium and our board!
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