Proposal

Faculty Collaboration
in the Development of the Western Mission Cluster

Background

The initial implementation of the church-wide mandate for the alliance of Luther Seminary, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, and its associated leadership education providers in the Western Mission Cluster has occurred at the level of the two schools' respective boards and administrations. Early consultations of presidents, deans, development and business officers, and board representatives resulted in nascent forms of collaboration by the two schools in their development efforts and in support for establishment of an "affiliated learning project" in Seattle. At the same time the contextual education staffs of the two schools began new patterns of cooperation. Meanwhile, cluster coordinating committees established by the faculties of the two schools struggled to find their appropriate role in the cluster development process.

During the 1995-96 academic year, however. the faculties of the two schools, with the full support of their administrations and boards, determined that thev needed to take a more active role in influencing the future directions of the emerging cluster project. The two committees met together at the PLTS Faculty Retreat in August 1995 to consider actions they might take during the coming year. Numerous telephone and email exchanges beta-een committees fostered the personal engagement that began to lay the basis for meaningful joint activity. In the spring the two committees drafted and gained joint faculty approval for a response to the ELCA leadership education program action team's document on "possible programmatic goals and specializations within an ELCA leadership education network" (Attached, Exhibit A).

The faculties of the two schools are now ready for a more significant level of interaction and shared reflection and planning. Our proposal begins with face-to-face contact between the two faculties and later includes representatives of the other leadership education providers in the Western Mission Cluster.

Proposal

We propose a process of faculty collaboration and planning in three stages:

1. September 27-28, 1996 The faculties of Luther Seminary and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary will meet together for their first joint fall retreat at Dunrovin Retreat Center, Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. The two cluster committees have developed an agenda for that retreat which focuses on team building between the two faculties and a first conversation about cluster issues. (Agenda attached, Exhibit B). This is an extremely significant first step toward a fuller collegial working relationship which, it is expected, will generate motivation, creativity, and a sense ofshared purpose for future faculty contributions to cluster development. Howard Ostrem (LS) and Paul Gilbertson (PLTS), coordinators of the affiliated leaming projects, are invited to be present.

2. Sunday, September 29 The day following the joint faculty retreat, we propose that the two faculty cluster committees meet to debrief the retreat and to set goals and plan activities for the 1996-97 academic year. Howard Ostrem and Paul Gilbertson are invited to be present. We also propose that a consultant with expertise in organizational planning and development be provided to help the committees clarify their assumptions and goals and make plans that will focus their efforts for maximum effect.

3. January/February 1997 We propose that representatives of the LS and PLTS faculties and administrations meet for a two-day symposium with representatives of the colleges, continuing education centers, synods, and other yet to be determined leadership education providers in the Western Mission Cluster to devise a planning process for the development of an inclusive Leadership Leaming Network for the cluster. We propose that one or more consultants in organizational planning and development be provided to aid in the creation of that planning process. We suggest that this symposium be held at the Lutheran Retreat Center, Carefree. Arizona

Outcomes

Although the immediate outcomes of the process envisioned by this proposal must realistically be modest, its ultimate outcomes are suggested by a "Design Proposal for a Leadership Leaming Network" under consideration by the faculties and boards of the two seminaries (Attached, Exhibit C). We expect the process to lead to such immediate outcomes as the following:

• cooperative research about the needs of congregations and appropriate delivery systems involving all providers for addressing those needs.
  
• enhanced offerings in support of first-call and continuing leadership education for the church's mission in the region.
  
• intensified efforts toward use of video and other technologies for distance leaming.

• innovative experiments with new teaching-leaming models.

Within the broad outlines of the "Design" we expect that the proposal we have described will promote the intentions of the ELCA for leadership education to support the mission of the baptized in the new millennium in a way that is congruent with the vision of the joint faculty response to the ELCA Program Action Team Document:

• To be the "post-modern" interdependent system your document expressly desires means emphasizing and empowering diversity, creativity, ingenuity, and alternative perspectives, rather than either-or solutions. We recognize that we must support competition for excellence, as it may be developed within any given cluster in view of specific needs, rather than competition for power or for place.