Viewpoint from the Board OF Regents - Winter 2008 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

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Viewpoint from the Board Of Regents

Mike McCoy
National Chair of Commission on Mission
Homes: Elison Bay, Wis./Fort Myers, Fla.
Hometown: Elison Bay, Wis.
Family: wife, Marge; son, Matthew McCoy ’93; daughter Michelle McCoy Thompson ’97
Profession: Retired CFO and vice president of Hormel Foods Corp.
Education: graduate, Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa

Commission on Mission is an important next step
If we can get the input we desire from the main sectors of the college (current students, alumni, faculty and staff), it will aid in the short- and long-term growth of Wartburg. The intent and purpose of the national college summits is to inform Wartburg’s strategic plan. We will develop the plan from that input.

Commission Wartburg addressed significant results in fundraising. With much of $90 million raised through Campaign Wartburg devoted to infrastructure, several goals were achieved. Now it’s time to sit down and continue to define a strategic direction. That’s the exciting part.

Serving Wartburg’s constituents
Our missional conceptions—mission, service, faith and learning—are rooted in Wartburg’s constituents. Students, alumni, faculty and staff have each been and will continue to be part of those concepts.They will drive this as we go forward. We need that to define our future direction. We are a college of the church, and we can’t lose sight of our mission. If we lose that, it won’t help in the future.

Commission is a personal investment
Part of what makes Commission on Mission so exciting for me are the national summit meetings. Some of the friends of the college and alumni who haven’t been back in 20 to 30 years are saying they are amazed at what is being done on the college campus already. We’ve been listening to their ideas and the challenges they faced, and to some extent we’re still facing some of those challenges today.

A sidelight to this for me is that it’s been neat to hear so many stories. Everyone I’ve talked with has always had a story about a professor, a staff person or someone on campus who made a significant impact on their lives. From my standpoint, those stories are important as we head into the Commission on Mission. If we can keep people focusing on those type of things, the sky is the limit.