Community Engagement

Submitted by Mark Winson

Attendance: Gary K., Steve W., Janet B., Pam E., Peggy G., Kevin F., Mark W., Wade G., Bill M., Sonda S-L.

Define ‘Event’
invite persons from the outside (open to the public)
anything that brings the community on to the campus
***Anytime the public comes to the campus for an activity is an event
Event/activities that involve public areas (not classroom/lab)

SWOT analysis
Strengths

• Have great facilities
• Great maintenance staff
• Plenty of parking
• Great location
• Staff creatively generates the opportunity for events

Weaknesses

• No protocol/procedure for events
• Ideas are generated throughout the campus (lack of central processing)
• People do not know what is available here (facilities, etc.)
• Don’t have a consistent fee structure for charging
• Have not clarified which senior administrator is in charge
• R25 is not well understood and/or utilized well by staff
• Don’t have an updated directory (map) of rooms and locations

Opportunities

• Ideas are generated throughout the campus (lots of ideas for events)
• We have established events that could generate other events
• We have an established program for scheduling (R25)
• We can generate some revenue through events
• Events generate greater publicity for institution

Threats

• Competition with other venues
• Perception that the campus is favoring some political or religious viewpoint
• Liability issues
• Inconsistent application of policy

Current State

• Communication – use of R25 and its capabilities (invite Shannon to next meeting)
• Need to develop a check list for event planning
• Discussion on types of events to try to attract to campus
• Not in competition with other venues

Events should be…

• Tied to LSC mission
• Student driven
• Cultural
• Public service

To do list:

• Need to research state policy on using state resources for “for profit” organizations
• Research other college policies
• Provide committee members with copies of current policy and application forms
• This committee does not have a faculty representative, so it is important to solicit faculty input on this project

Submitted by Mark Winson

Attendance: Gary K., Steve W., Janet B., Pam E., Peggy G., Kevin F., Tess D., Mark W.

Changes in membership: Lin Black has gone to a different project, Zbigniew Wdowiak has left I. E. due to class scheduling conflicts, Tess D’ Andrea and Mark Winson have joined the project.

Discussion of goal(s) for this action project:

What is the problem?

• More then one event is occurring at the same time
• How well are events meeting the goals of having the event
• We want the community to know more about the college per the Conversation Day discussion.

Issues

• Internal coordination – no one knows what events are taking place or planned
• External coordination – our events are held at the same time as other events in the community
• Evaluation – there is none, don’t know how many people attend, what are the demographics
• Internal communication for logistics
  • Maintenance
  • Publicity
  • Impact on the community
  • No recognized source for event calendar
  • Academics scheduling of classes
  • Location of event information
• R25 is not appropriately deployed
• Should develop a checklist
  • add questions intended audience, hoped for outcomes
• Need to develop system to approve events
• Are we missing opportunities for collaboration

GOAL

Create a system (procedures and policies) to improve quality of campus events/activities and maximize the impact on the community.

Should include all facilities including ERTC and airport

Need to create a definition for “event”

Future/desired state

• Event Planning
  • Public Information needs to be in the loop so that everyone can know about all events on a timely basis
  • Spread events out over the year
  • Do events that serve the community
  • Event application/approval process to be clear and effective
  • Events system needs to work with Academic schedule
  • Events implementation and promotion
  • Communication to ancillary services maintenance, food service, public information
  • Consistent promotion policy
  • One stop resource
  • Coordination with other events in the community
• Events assessment and evaluation
  • measure participant satisfaction
  • demographic breakout
  • participation numbers
  • measure cost/benefit financially
  • assess missed opportunities
  • Data analysis