Institutional Planning and Budget Council
Meeting Notes
Wednesday, September 8, 2004
Present: Laurie O'Connor (Math and Science), Carolyn Arnold (Institutional Research and Grants), Melinda
Matsuda, Sally Jahnke, Kathleen Schaefer (Grant Development/Classified), Robert McAllister (Classified
Senate), Debbie Budd, Rachel LePell (Humanities and Title III), Bob Curry, Patricia Shannon (Humanities and
Title III), Tom DeWit, Gerald Shimada, Clara McLean (Language Arts), Dmitriy Kalyagin and Steven Small
(Applied Technology and Business), Steve Piatesky (Media Services) Robert Carlson, Ron Taylor, Denise
Noldon, Chad Mark Glen (Faculty Senate), Bill O’Mahoney, Marge Maloney.
NOTE: For this meeting, there were 8 or more handouts, and they are listed and numbered on a handout called
“Guide to Handouts and what to do with them.” This should be used to identify the handouts, as they will be
referred to by number in the sections below.
1. Progress Report: Response to Accreditation Team Recommendations
Melinda Matsuda called the meeting to order at 3:10 p.m. She passed out the draft of Chabot’s progress report,
in response to the Accreditation Team Recommendations. This report is to be submitted for Board Approval
September 21st prior to submission to the Accreditation Commission on October 15th. She asked the group to
review it and if they found any factual errors, to tell her by September 15th. See handouts 1a and 1b.
2. Welcome and Introductions
The members went around the table and introduced themselves, who they represented, and how long they had
been on IPBC or earlier Planning Committees. Experience in Chabot planning ranged from one day to more
than 10 years.
3. Overview of IPBC Charge & Agenda for 2004-05
Carolyn Arnold and Melinda Matsuda passed out and led a discussion on a series of handouts that outlined
IPBC’s charge, committee membership, the levels and types of plans that IPBC is charged with developing, and
the 2004-05 timeline for developing these plans. See handouts 2 through 5.
Questions and discussions ensued about the definition of a unit and whether that would change when the
program review process identifies program clusters (maybe); how to communicate all this planning information
to divisions and disciplines (reasons to have representatives from each division); and how to get information for
planning from the grass roots so that the plans are built from the bottom up rather than top down (need to
discuss how representatives can do this); how to integrate the information that the units have (discipline plans,
program review, etc.) with college goals, and who synthesizes overlapping goals, objectives, and activities
(combination of units, deans, and VPs). Patricia Shannon made the point that Improvement Goals should also
include ways to save money in the operational areas, in order to free up funds for the developmental or
improvement areas. Rachel LePell asked about our role in making final budget decisions and whether we would
vote. Dr. Carlson said that consensus is our norm, based on the governance document, and he will be training
committee chairs in how to arrive at consensus decisions. Carolyn Arnold said we were able to develop a
funding decision process for the PFE funds, and we could develop a process like that again. In addition, by the
time the budgets get to us, they will have been synthesized by the Deans, VPs, and Budget Committee so we
will probably not be making specific budget decisions, but broader priority decisions. In any case, we won’t be
working with budgets until Spring, so we can clarify a process by then.
Rachel and Patricia made the suggestion to formalize IPBC representation or liaison on all the committees and
task forces that report to IPBC. The group agreed, and Melinda and Carolyn volunteered to identify and confirm
this representation.
The most important Fall 2004 deadline for IPBC is the development of the final drafts of the Strategic Plan
(2005-08) and Annual Plan (2005-06) by November 17th, so that the Annual Goals and Priority Objectives can
be sent out to the campus to be used in developing unit plans, budgets, and other college decisions.
4. Strategic Planning: Multi-Year Plan and Annual Plan
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Strategic Plan: 2003-04 Accomplishments: Carolyn Arnold passed out a cover letter and four-page
outline of the college-wide strategic planning goals and objectives accomplished during 2003-04. This
was for members to recognize how much the college accomplished last year. See handout number 6a.
Strategic Plan: 2004-05 Annual Plan: Priority Goals and objectives: Carolyn Arnold then passed out
the one-page summary handout of the 2004-05 priority goals and objectives, as well as the two-page list
of priority goals and objectives, which included all the PFE-funded activities. The top sheet included all
of the objectives that IPBC was coordinating this year. See handout number 6b.
Strategic Plan: 2003-06 Goals and Objectives by Theme: Carolyn Arnold passed out complete
current Strategic Plan 2003-06. The first two pages were the themes and goals, and the next 10 pages
were all the goals and objectives that had been proposed for this plan. Shaded goals and objectives were
those that were not priorities in 2003-04. She included them since we will be reviewing the entire
document and wanted us to have the complete list. She explained that our definitions of goals versus
objectives in our plans had drifted away from their standard definition, so she had relabeled these three
handouts so that goals and objectives were closer to their common meaning. She requested that members
review this document thoroughly in preparation for the Strategic Planning Retreat. Questions for review
are on the “Guide to Handouts.” See handout number 6c.
Strategic Planning Retreat: Melinda and Carolyn proposed a strategic planning retreat to kick off the
process of reviewing and updating the multiyear plan (from 2003-06 to 2005-08) and selecting the 200506 Annual Plan priority goals and objectives. It would include training in planning terms and methods
for IPBC members, and would also serve as a bonding activity for the members. They proposed Friday,
September 24th, but some of the newest members could not make it. Friday October 1st was proposed,
and everyone could make it [Potential conflict: a District accreditation taskforce meeting that Melinda,
Carolyn, Ron, Marge, and Chad may have to attend]. Carolyn asked for a small group to help her plan
the retreat, and Bob McAllister, Rachel LePell, Laurie O’Connor volunteered.
5. Other Fall 2004 Task Groups
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College-wide Learning Goals: Carolyn Arnold passed out a proposed process for engaging the campus
in a college-wide conversation on college-wide learning goals. One Idea was for the IPBC
representatives to facilitate brainstorming sessions in the division meetings. However, it was pointed out
that there is not enough time in those meetings, and that a cross-campus discussion might be more
fruitful. Patricia and Denise volunteered to develop a campus-wide process for brainstorming the
learning goals. They will report back at the next meeting, which will include training for IPBC
representatives on how to facilitate the brainstorming sessions. See handout #7
Community input to planning: Carolyn Arnold passed out several possible processes for soliciting
community input on learning goals and planning goals during October. Dr. Carlson and Tom DeWit
volunteered to help her develop a process. See handout #8.
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Other: Reports on upcoming taskforces for Distance Education and Student Equity were deferred until
the September 22nd meeting.
6. Committee reports
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Grant development: Kathleen Schaefer reported that she turned in the TRIO Student Services grant in
August, and the group applauded her work. She is now turning back to the Title III “Strengthening
Institutions” grant proposal, and will be primarily working on it until the due date of February, with the
help of Rachel LePell and Patricia Shannon, the Title III grant coordinators. Kathleen reported that we
did not receive the $35,000 Title III Planning Grant, missing it by less than 2 points. Carolyn asked for
more members for the Grants Subcommittee, but there were no volunteers, so a campus-wide call will
go out.
Institutional Research: Carolyn Arnold reported that the Institutional Research Subcommittee also
needs more members. It meets infrequently to provide input on the research priorities. Both Bob
McAllister and Tom DeWit volunteered.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:10 pm.
Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Arnold.