THE PROCESS
Our first meeting was held April 13th at the Cowan Center at the Camarillo Airport. Representatives from all three colleges and the District gathered together and basically began the process of getting to know each other and formulating some sort of working forum to wrestle with the many different issues effecting the future of education in Ventura County and beyond. There was a variety of reactions among the participants ranging from healthy and substantial skepticism to enthusiastic support for what were broadly discussed as the goals of the activity. We all met Burt Peachy and were introduced to the learning plan for all of us and the proposed "working" schedule for activities.

The next gathering was on May 11, 1999 (again at the Cowan Center). During this session the group was divided into the Learning Teams and the learning design was fleshed out including the specific responsibilities for the teams to conduct Learning Days for everyone's edification.

The Learning Teams coordinated their activities and consulted with Burt Peachy in preparation of their learning Days. In the meantime a number of the members participated in the College of the Community Institute in Claremont, California (July 5 - 8) hosted and conducted by Michael Dolence. For many of those who participated, this Institute was a real valuable experience in that it both called attention to some of the major transformations taking place in education today and introduced a series of concepts and frameworks for devising appropriate responses to the future through strategic planning.

Then three intense, fun, and communal Learning Days were conducted on July 21, 22, and 23 by Teams 4, 5 and 2. Clicking on the links herein will take you to the PowerPoint presentations assembled by the various team to aid the group's learning processes. The topics addressed by the teams were: Future Trends in Education, 21st Century Organizational Concepts, and Students and Their Learning.

Another Learning day was conducted jointly by Teams 1 & 3 on August 4th. The topics these teams addressed were: Planning Processes, Models and Organizational Communications, Business Models of learning, Institutional Effectiveness and Accountability Measures. Then during two days of intensive activity the whole group finally produced some draft products on August 5 and 6 including the draft Model itself.