Executive Summary of Minutes
Budget & Resource Committee Meeting
April 29, 2008
Present: Jack Renza, Tammy Anderson, Michael Archetto, Anthony Basilico, , Margaret
Clifton, Annmarie McMahon, , David Rawlinson, , Ruth Sullivan, Carl Toft and Jean Potvin.
Jack opened the meeting by explaining that the purpose of today’s meeting was to help the
committee refocus on what our job is from this point on. Members were provided the
following handouts to aid them in the process of determining what needs to be accomplished
from this point forward:
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Copies of all reports presented to the entire Strategic Planning
Committee on April 22, 2008.
A copy of the CCRI Mission Statement
A copy of the President’s timetable along with this committee’s
upcoming meeting schedule.
Copies of the original charges to all the committees from the President.
Jack pointed out that now that the committee has gone through the process of identifying and
zeroing in on important questions, it is time to get into the research portion of our charge. It
seems that all committees had similar discussions. Jack suggested that members look over all
the handouts and try to identify the repetitive areas. He also discussed how the group may be
divided to deal with the next phase, which will be research. He will allow members to select
the area they would prefer.
A question was asked for a definition of research and what is the goal this committee is
working towards?
Some of the observations and questions that were discussed:
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Strategic Planning presents what the goals will be and the process is determined-Ultimately coming up with recommendations for resources for the school.
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Groups 1, 2 and 4 will identify what the college should be doing.
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Group 3 (our group) will provide how we will supply the resources
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It seems all the committees are tied to the same timetable, which could be problematic:
how can we find solutions until we know the goals/questions from the other three
committees?
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Shouldn’t this Committee be trying to prepare for what we know is coming down the
line? Our research should be identifying potential sources of increased revenue or ways
to decrease costs and/or increased productivity.
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Two things we could focus on while we wait for the list of goals from the other team,:
--What are our current sources of revenue?
--How can we increase resources and productivity?
The discussion continued that one of the four biggest issues is to how do we address these
issues now to prepare ourselves for the questions we will be receiving from the other
committees.
Jack asked Carl Toft if it would be possible to put together a sample matrix to look at specific
funds, faculty hours, course enrollment etc. Carl agreed that his department could put this
information together into a spread sheet using averages. (i.e. This is what it costs to do
something right now; if we change it to “this” we could expect it to cost “that”.)
It was also noted that during the first year of the BRC the committee talked with all
departments regarding cost savings and everyone in those areas felt they were already working
with limited amounts of personnel and resources. This may make it difficult to identify
processes and ways to save money.
It will be the task of this committee to come up with ideas to present to other committees. It is
not our responsibility to determine exactly which of our recommendations should or will be
chosen.
It was suggested that we should look at what are the top ten areas where we could find costs
saving, productivity improvements, and revenue enhancements.
It may be difficult to get people within the college to make hard decisions. But it isn’t our role
to make these decisions--it is our responsibility to give options for solutions.
Instructional productivity may be something we can begin to look at. If we can find costs
savings there, it would be up to the institution to look into that initiative.
What are we looking for as an outcome?
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Are we looking to set up a plan that the institution is going to follow?
Are we looking for completed activities?
Are we looking for an operational blueprint that can be put into place one year
following this process?
Most successful cost containment programs start out with rules, keeping in mind that we cannot
negatively affect the students.
Jack asked members to also look at all the information from the other committees and possibly
get refocused and continue to identify procedures that will enhance our ability to identify costs
ahead of time and not ‘after the fact”.
Next meeting will be May 13th in Warwick.
Meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
Notes prepared by: Jean Potvin
Notes approved by: Jack Renza