When President Reveley took office in 2008, he launched a new strategic management process, based on annual updates of an evolving five-year plan. Each April, the process produces an updated strategic plan, a budget that reflects strategic priorities and a set of specific implementation steps for the coming year. The Planning and Steering Committee (PSC) guides the planning process, tracks progress using a university-level dashboard, reviews budget requests for their strategic importance, recommends annual updates and tracks implementation. Every five years the committee reviews major challenges and opportunities and recommends more substantial revisions to the plan.

During 2008-2009 the Planning and Steering Committee reviewed prior studies, gathered input from all W&M constituencies, and coordinated closely with the Board of Visitors (BOV). That process ultimately identified six grand challenges of greatest importance to the future of the university. Subcommittees of the PSC, including additional alumni representatives and members of the BOV, recommended goals and objectives for meeting each challenge.

The implementation of the Plan includes the development of annual implementation steps, assignment of responsibility for each step, development of specific metrics to track outcomes, and open reports of performance against objectives. As a result, our planning and financial processes have become more transparent and more directly focused on strategic priorities. We review and update the Plan each spring.

President Reveley has asked the Planning Steering Committee to complete another comprehensive scan of the strategic horizon in 2012-2013 to see what has changed over the past five years and what new challenges and opportunities have emerged.  This will include an assessment of the progress we have made and where we should focus our efforts going forward. He encouraged the Planning Steering Committee to be bold in assessing the possibilities.  The Committee will review the current challenge areas and the goals within them, recommend changes as needed, and add or subtract challenges as appropriate.  The President and the Board of Visitors will review the recommendations as part of the annual review process leading to a new strategic plan in April 2013.