CCAT's Strategic Plan
CCAT's Strategic Plan
Greetings! The document before you was crafted by members of the CCAT
community in February of 2006. The Co-Directors further refined it, and now would
like to solicit people's thoughts on how it can be improved. For your reading convenience,
we have included the document in HTML format on this page or in Word format available for download.
Please read each section, either separately or all at once,
then share your thoughts and suggestions to us in the text box at the end of the document.
Thank you!
the CCAT Co-Directors.
Download:
CCAT_STRATEGIC_PLAN.doc [.DOC {MS Word} 12.1KB]
INTRODUCTION:
The Strategic Plan that follows was created during a gathering of concerned members of the CCAT community in mid-February of 2006. Past co-directors of CCAT deemed it necessary to revisit the core of what CCAT seeks to accomplish, in order to make the coming years all the more fruitful. NOTE: This Strategic Plan is NOT a static document to which future co-directors must strictly adhere; rather, it is a “living document”, meant to be revisited and refined by the CCAT community. Each new round of co-directors should be well-versed in this document, so that this Strategic Plan can aid them in making the most of their terms as co-directors of a fantastic, ever-improving organization.
CCAT VISION:
CCAT strives to effectively demonstrate sustainable living through the promotion of environmental and socially responsible behavior and community building. Student driven at its core, CCAT supports student engagement and innovation to create practical Appropriate Technology demonstrations. Contributing to local, national, and international networks, CCAT seeks to be an information resource center on Appropriate Technology and sustainable living, accessible to people across the world. We also seek to critically examine assumptions surrounding technologies and promote a more holistic, systems approach to the thought process behind and the use of technology in society. Through integration into the HSU curriculum, the organization brings the ethos of sustainability directly to students, challenging them to experiment in the living laboratory that is CCAT. Operating as a consensus-based collective, CCAT works to bring a variety of viewpoints and experiences into the organization, creating a comprehensive and diverse view of what it means to be a demonstration site and education center for Appropriate Technology.
CCAT MISSION:
CCAT strives to demonstrate that living lightly on the Earth is both practical and rewarding.
CCAT seeks to accomplish its mission by:
♦ Demonstrating appropriate technology in a residential setting
♦ Providing hands-on experiential learning opportunities to Humboldt State University and the surrounding community
♦ Collecting and disseminating information about Appropriate Technology
♦ Examining the ethical and social consequences of technology
CCAT GUIDING PRINCIPLES:
♦ Students teach students
♦ Lighten human impacts on the built and natural environments
♦ Efficient utilization of existing resources
♦ Experiential hands-on learning opportunities
♦ Constantly seek to refine the definition of “sustainability”
♦ Deconstruct or challenge social assumptions and preconceived notions regarding technology
♦ Be community-centered and facilitate community building
♦ Promote progressive and diverse strategies to create positive societal change
♦ Cooperation: collaboration, negotiation and compromise, and consensus decision-making
♦ Demonstrate inter-disciplinary living and learning
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CCAT STRATEGIC PLAN
PHASE I
Goal: Resolve and Clarify Organizational Structure
Objective: Clarify roles and responsibilities, and examine new roles.
PHASE II
Goal: Demonstrate Appropriate Technology in a Residential Setting
Objective: Physical Demonstrations of working AT systems with performance
measurements.
Goal: Provide Hands-On Learning Opportunities for HSU and the Community
Objective: Integrate CCAT into the HSU curriculum
PHASE III
Goal: Resolve and Clarify Organizational Structure
Objective: Enable skilled leadership.
Goal: Collect and Disseminate Information and Examine Ethical and Social Consequences of Technology
Objective: Be the leading source of information on technological alternatives for CCAT’s target audience.
PHASE IV
Goal: Demonstrate that Living Lightly on the Earth is Practical and Rewarding
Objective: Implement AT and CCAT demos in other departments, more broadly across campus.
Goal: Provide Hands-On Learning Opportunities for HSU and the Community
Objective: Take CCAT beyond its grounds
PHASE I
CCAT GOAL: RESOLVE AND CLARIFY ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
Objective: Clarify roles and responsibilities, and examine possible new roles.
Strategies/action items:
♦ Documentation: pass on learning in an organized manner.
♦ Introductory meetings for new CCAT’ers
♦ New Employees AND Co-Directors
♦ Create straight-forward orientation program for each
♦ Identify ways to incorporate newly hired Co-Directors as early as possible
♦ Hire new Co-D’s in March
♦ Encourage attendance at Co-D meetings, employee meetings, and Steering Committee meetings
♦ Co-Director Orientation (1 week prior to move-in):
♦ Develop consolidated training plan, involving:
♦ workshops (conflict resolution, time management, etc.)
♦ cohesive informational documents
♦ Create a subcommittee to discuss, propose, and resolve duty guidelines/structure for Co-Directors, Steering Committee, and Employees
♦ Identify and resolve problems in current organizational structure.
♦ Examine other successful organizational models.
♦ Other consensus-based decision-making groups
PHASE II
CCAT Goal: DEMONSTRATE APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY IN A
RESIDENTIAL SETTING
Objective: Physical Demonstrations of working AT systems with performance measurements.
Strategies/action items:
♦ Introduce/research new technologies
♦ Record AT Systems
ACTION ITEMS:
♦ Display real-time data of AT systems performance
♦ Perform tests & metering to quantify performance (conduct as a class project or hire consultant)
♦ Create database for performance measurements
♦ Publish public updates on cumulative data: daily/yearly solar reports, website, including historical data
ACTION ITEMS:
♦ Implement process for taking system measurements regularly
♦ Assign the task as a responsibility for an employee or Co-Director
♦ Create section on the website to publicize
♦ Evaluate already existing technologies at CCAT (maintain, enhance, or terminate)
ACTION ITEMS:
♦Implement process for the beginning of the Fall semester each academic year
♦ Testimonials from people who have incorporated AT into their lives and/or their homes
ACTION ITEMS:
♦Obtain testimonials from those who have requested information from CCAT
♦Incentive: placement of testimonials on website
♦[[[This seems to have been fairly changed from the writing before … has this definitely changed the meaning?]]]
♦ Use small interpretive signs and posters at CCAT to explain:
♦Where the water goes in the bathroom – Arcata Marsh and biological wastewater treatment
♦Natural Cleaners in the kitchen
♦Thermal curtains
♦Composting toilet
♦Hotbox
♦ Cold Closet
♦ Growing medicinal and culinary herbs
♦ Any other sustainable living features that visitors to CCAT can implement at home
(Have these be a class project/volunteer activity)
CCAT Goal: PROVIDE HANDS-ON LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR HSU AND THE COMMUNITY
Objective: Incorporate CCAT into HSU curriculum.
Strategies/action items:
♦Involve other departments and disciplines
ACTION ITEMS:
♦Develop a tour catered to each department. Then show them an application for a project. They could either apply to volunteer on an existing project or create their own.
♦ For example, create a list of focus areas or questions for each department (e.g., psychology
students, biology students, etc) and create sections in the CCAT tour binder for each
♦Develop a CCAT curriculum: convince the campus faculty to integrate appropriate technologies and philosophies of AT
♦ Gather faculty support and commitment to integrate CCAT or CCAT courses into their curriculum
♦ Have 2 or 3 courses from the College of Natural Resources and Sciences, College of Professional
Studies, and the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences College require working directly with CCAT
♦ For example, have a course requirement be to commit to a certain number of hours of
volunteering for CCAT volunteer days and/or
♦ Explore having a CCAT Service Learning option for courses in some of the departments
♦ Emphasize interdisclipinary resources available at CCAT
Ex: soil testing, statistical renderings, grantwriting;
Chemistry and biology classes: use CCAT as lab for testing (e.g. composting toilet and E. coli testing)
♦ Write a comprehensive “CCAT Curriculum Integration” proposal to present to departments
♦ Some topics to include may be:
♦ Departmental budget considerations
♦ Course instructors
♦ Determine course requirements with the faculty/departments
♦ Location of projects required for classes
♦ Location of course
♦ Determine if it is or should be an elective, major requirement, or both
♦ Determine how CCAT will ensure, if these courses are required within majors, that we will be
capable of offering them into the future and implement the courses into the program structure and
organization.
♦ Meet with willing Department Chairs to determine which current/new classes can be integrated with
CCAT
♦ Determine which, if any, campus curriculum committees must be accessed to integrate CCAT into
departments’ curriculum
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