Core Assumptions will guide Campus Master
Plan Task Force through "scenario phase"
At a special congregation forum on Sunday, September 18, the Campus Master Plan Task Force presented a document three months in the making—a set of “core assumptions” that will guide it as its planning process now moves into a new phase.
The Core Assumptions are a series of statements that assimilate the results of the “listening phase, which included a major survey completed by twenty percent of Central’s members; individual and group conversations with members representing the various ministries and demographic groups at Central and “external voices” that included the presidents of Luther Seminary and Augsburg College, Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak, and the vicar of Trinity Episcopal Church, on Wall Street, in New York.
Completion of a master plan for Central’s campus is one of four strategic priorities for the 2011-2012 program year, as established by the Congregation Council. The Task Force was elected in January to engage the congregation in a “prayerful process of discovery, listening, discussion, creative imagination and visioning.” The group will propose improvements or changes to the campus to be accomplished, in total or in phases, by 2019-2020, Central’s centennial year.
“When an organization undertakes a significant project, it is critical to develop a set of core assumptions,” said Sarah Strickland of Cincinnatus, Inc., the primary consultant to the Campus Master Plan Task Force. “They are the vehicle for establishing understanding and alignment between people about internal and external information, perspectives and opinion.”
“Core assumptions provide a reference point over time between phases of a project thus eliminating the need to go back to the starting gate for each phase,” she said.
In his presentation on September 18, Task Force Chair Bill Masche said the Core Assumptions, coupled with Central’s vision and mission statements, “provide clarity and alignment from which the Task Force can evaluate alternative scenarios.”
He also said that the Core Assumptions are a written tool to describe to different stakeholders the information the Task Force used to arrive at preferred site development concepts.
“They are a tool to capture the congregations alternative perspectives into a unified view,” Bill said.
The Task Force has now begun a phase, led by newly-engaged architects from Architectural Alliance, where actual site concept scenarios will be developed, based on alignment with the Core Assumptions. Two or more such concepts will be publicly presented later this year to determine support from the congregation and alignment with key external stakeholders’ priorities.
Plan Task Force through "scenario phase"
September 25, 2011
At a special congregation forum on Sunday, September 18, the Campus Master Plan Task Force presented a document three months in the making—a set of “core assumptions” that will guide it as its planning process now moves into a new phase.
The Core Assumptions are a series of statements that assimilate the results of the “listening phase, which included a major survey completed by twenty percent of Central’s members; individual and group conversations with members representing the various ministries and demographic groups at Central and “external voices” that included the presidents of Luther Seminary and Augsburg College, Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak, and the vicar of Trinity Episcopal Church, on Wall Street, in New York.
Completion of a master plan for Central’s campus is one of four strategic priorities for the 2011-2012 program year, as established by the Congregation Council. The Task Force was elected in January to engage the congregation in a “prayerful process of discovery, listening, discussion, creative imagination and visioning.” The group will propose improvements or changes to the campus to be accomplished, in total or in phases, by 2019-2020, Central’s centennial year.
“When an organization undertakes a significant project, it is critical to develop a set of core assumptions,” said Sarah Strickland of Cincinnatus, Inc., the primary consultant to the Campus Master Plan Task Force. “They are the vehicle for establishing understanding and alignment between people about internal and external information, perspectives and opinion.”
“Core assumptions provide a reference point over time between phases of a project thus eliminating the need to go back to the starting gate for each phase,” she said.
In his presentation on September 18, Task Force Chair Bill Masche said the Core Assumptions, coupled with Central’s vision and mission statements, “provide clarity and alignment from which the Task Force can evaluate alternative scenarios.”
He also said that the Core Assumptions are a written tool to describe to different stakeholders the information the Task Force used to arrive at preferred site development concepts.
“They are a tool to capture the congregations alternative perspectives into a unified view,” Bill said.
The Task Force has now begun a phase, led by newly-engaged architects from Architectural Alliance, where actual site concept scenarios will be developed, based on alignment with the Core Assumptions. Two or more such concepts will be publicly presented later this year to determine support from the congregation and alignment with key external stakeholders’ priorities.
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