2006 President's Retreat

Once every year President T.K. Wetherell gathers a select group of students, faculty, and staff in a retreat setting to discuss issues of importance to our community.  During this year’s retreat, titled Individual Journeys, Shared Experience, participants will be asked to identify and explore the values that define our community.

The 2007 President’s Retreat is being held to facilitate:

1. An exploration of the values that define our community
2. A shared vision for the common experience members of our community have as a result of the community’s ownership and demonstration of these values
3. A personal exploration resulting in the identification of ways participants can embody the values of our community in their everyday lives
4. A dialogue that results in recommendations for increasing the presence of our community’s values in the institution’s narratives, symbols, traditions, and rites of passage

By attending the President’s Retreat, participants will:

1. Speak about the values that define our university community
2. See the connection between our community values and our daily lives
3. Identify how we currently, and can better, demonstrate the community’s values in our daily lives
4. Have the opportunity to participate in a University-wide effort to increase consistency between our personal and collective behavior and our community’s shared values
5. Serve as role models and catalysts within our community

What is the issue to be explored?
This retreat will explore the values that make our community special.  Reflecting a shift in focus from previous years, the retreat will include facilitated introspection that asks participants to identify ways they can more consistently embody the values of our community in their everyday lives.  Participants will also discuss a vision for each community member’s ownership and demonstration of our shared values.  The day will include the development of recommendations for increasing the presence of our community’s values in the institution’s narratives, symbols, traditions, and rites of passage.

Why are we spending this important time exploring this issue?
As our community has changed and grown, a number of distinct community values have emerged and become visible.  These values, demonstrated by the actions of community members in their daily lives, have produced an educational experience and community environment that is very special.  This year’s President’s Retreat will focus on providing definition to these shared values and invite all community members to participate in a university-wide movement to embody them in our everyday lives. 

Why were these specific participants invited to be a part of this conversation?
Attendees have been identified and nominated by faculty and staff for their formal and informal leadership role in, and demonstrated commitment to, the educational and social environment at FSU.  

What will happen after this conversation?  Who is listening to what we discuss?
That the 2007 President’s Retreat has been devoted to the exploration of this issue is a demonstration of the high level of concern our community members have for the quality of the educational experience at FSU.  Who is listening? We are – as a community – because we care about our shared experience and we want to know if there is a way to do things better.  From this perspective, all participants bear with them the responsibility to take a piece of what is discovered at the President’s Retreat back into our daily lives.

On a pragmatic level, the same committee that organized the retreat will meet after its conclusion to discuss ways to integrate the concepts that were identified and explored.  The committee will then make recommendations to community members, staff and/or offices that are based on retreat outcomes.

Lastly, University President T.K. Wetherell and Vice President Mary Coburn are very interested in hearing the outcome of the retreat and receiving feedback from retreat participants.  They recognize that the President’s retreat marks the one time each year that such a diverse group gathers to discuss issues of importance to the University community.  They value the time and energy participants contribute to be a part of this experience and are personally committed to make sure that something meaningful comes from it.