GOSHEN COLLEGE ALL EMPLOYEE RETREAT AT MERRY LEA

August 17, 2011

Bringing all Goshen College Employees Together to Celebrate the
Beginning of a New Academic Year Around the
Core Value of Servant Leadership

As employees of Goshen College, we have multiple opportunities to integrate our faith and our career choices. We each come to our work with varying experiences, skills and hopes. In the midst of practicing our vocation, we are able to be reflective and practice the ways in which our faith understandings inform the tasks we undertake. It is indeed a benefit that, as members of this community, we can learn from and challenge each other to grow in our spiritual lives – and discern the intersections of our faith and job tasks. A framework that assists us in our spiritual growth as a community is our shared institutional Core Values.

Our employee retreat this year will focus on the Core Value of Servant Leadership. This value is not unique to us at Goshen College, but it does become a powerful model for our relationships in the community especially when it is combined with our Core Value of Christ-centered (last year’s theme). Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase “Servant Leadership” in a 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader, in which he said:

"The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."

"The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?"

Our retreat gives us time to reflect on our individual and corporate understanding of this Core Value – and to ascertain the ways we can more effectively practice Servant Leadership at Goshen College. Our varied tasks – and the vision of Goshen College – require active leadership patterns. At the same time we desire to be a community that embodies the servant spirit of Jesus Christ. It is our goal to bring these two concepts – servant and leadership – into realistic and attractive practices.

Our retreat begins this year with a one-day event at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center. In this wonderful setting we will explore many intersecting concepts around the theme of Servant Leadership. This will include thinking about how ecology informs our understanding of the Core Value, as well as the meaning of diversity, conflict and synergy. The activities listed in the following schedule set the stage for an excellent time of interacting with each other during this retreat. The resources provide readings that will assist us each in preparing for meaningful dialogue and engagement with each other.

Schedule:  All Goshen College Current Employee Retreat

Tuesday, August 16, 2011 -- Stay overnight at Merry Lea (optional)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

8:00 a.m.     Gather at Physical Plant for those traveling via the GC fleet
8:15 a.m.     Depart from GC for Merry Lea
9:00 a.m.     Arrive at Merry Lea – Registration and Refreshments
9:30 a.m.     Welcome and Introduction to the Servant Leadership Theme
10:30 a.m.   Group Activities
12:00 p.m.   Lunch
12:45 p.m.   Informal Group Activities
1:45 p.m.     Group Activities
3:00 p.m.     Individual Reflection Time
3:30 p.m.     Concluding Gathering
4:00 p.m.     Depart from Merry Lea

To assist the planning committee, please complete the Confirmation of Choices Form

Directions to Merry Lea (Note that there is an unmarked detour as you travel to Merry Lea from Goshen College.)

Readings on the intersection of leadership, ecology, diversity and spirit:

1. Life and Leadership by Fritjof Capra
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/life-and-leadership-0

2. Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From Hero to Host by Margaret Wheatley with Debbie Frieze
http://margaretwheatley.com/articles/Leadership-in-Age-of-Complexity.pdf

3. Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/ecological-intelligence

4. Habits of Heart and Mind in Leadership by Zenobia Barlow
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/essays/habits-heart-mind-leadership

5. Enspirited Leadership: Landmarks for Uncertain 
by Bob Stilger
http://www.berkana.org/pdf/enspirited_web.pdf

All Campus Employee & Retired Faculty-Staff Brunch

Friday, August 19, 2011 -- 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Fellowship Hall

Additional Fall Dates to Put on Your Calendar

Teaching Faculty All-Day Meeting
Thursday, August 18, 2011 -- 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Newcomer

Academic Department Chairs/Program Directors Meeting
Thursday, August 25, 2011 -- 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., College Church 110

Moodle Training for Faculty Members (TBA)

Classes Begin August 29, 2011, 7:00 P.M.