Fieldstone Consulting, Inc. customizes assignments to each institution's special needs and desires.

A Sampling of Recent Assignments:

Higher Education

Following a 360 degree review of his performance the president himself had commissioned the year before, formally assessed the president's work for the board of this major research university. A sound and well-established tradition of annual reviews made for a smooth, rapid, and productive process and underlined how much both president and board had accomplished.

As the 10-year president of an HBCU prepared to move on to new opportunities, led a day-long retreat for about 100 administrators, faculty, staff, and students - with the successor in attendance - to finalize continuation of the university's annual plan for the year to come and to begin thinking about the special challenges of the next era. Systematic reflection on all that this university had done in prior decade proved reaffirming, emotional, and forward-looking.

As an established, solidly advancing liberal arts college - and its new president - began preparations for the next in a long sequence of strategic plans, spent a week interviewing a cross-section of administrators, faculty, staff, students, trustees, and community leaders generating an overview that was used in a day-long retreat with the board. The retreat's output served as a foundation on which the planning committee could build in the year to come. The retreat also confirmed the importance and relevance of the college's recent work in branding.

Completed a two-year strategic planning process for an independent urban university, a process that had begun with a retreat for the board, had moved on the following year to include administrators, deans, and faculty, and that had wound up - before final board approval - with a complex and rewarding set of interactions with the entire campus. The university took pains to make sure that the plans laid out were realistically funded.

Returned to work with the investment committee of a university with which Fieldstone Consulting has worked for 15 years. As the committee's chair prepared to step down, he wanted to make sure that the university's fundamental investment priorities and goals were well seated and justified. The arrival of a new president made such review an even more important opportunity. Assessment of investment performance over the prior decade, consideration of the university's investment policy, review of best practice, discussion of emerging university needs, examination of broader national trends in the management of university endowments (with perspective from the university's investment managers), and evaluation of three alternate financial scenarios for the United States and world in the years to come all led to clear conclusions for future direction.

Led a two-day retreat for the board of a national leader among community colleges as it sought to prepare for more interactive and effective governance. Long success at the executive level had, naturally and unintentionally, resulted in a board - still helpful and supportive - not yet grounded in the practice and procedures of shared governance that a new era now required.

Returned to a large community college district after earlier assessments to provide the board and chancellor with an overview of the performance of each. Advance review of essential documents and extensive interviews with key leaders provided, in relatively quick order, a clear sense of progress made and work to be done.

Continued work with the board of a complex institution that had successfully completed a thorough audit of its governance history, structure, and practice the year before, and that was actively engaged in implementing the conclusions reached.

With a colleague, generated an overview of a large university system and used it as the basis for a two-day board workshop, whose purpose was development of an institutional agenda to guide interaction with the governor and state legislature and preparation for a new strategic plan. Extensive interviews with presidents and system office opened out important perspectives on the system, its history, and its opportunities - and provided new understanding, energy, and commitment on the part of the board.

Saw publication of "Stressed Institutions: The Role of the Board," in James Martin and James E. Samels, eds., Turnaround: Leading Stressed Colleges and Universities to Excellence (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009).

K-12 Independent Schools

Met for a morning with the board of a large boarding-day school with which Fieldstone Consulting has worked for 15 years. Happy with the directions set out in prior plans, the board wanted outside perspective on the continued relevance and correctness of the school's approach.

Continued a coaching relationship with the head of a day school long expert in his field, and now at a new school. The ongoing perspective of an external observer helped lift conversation and open opportunity.

At a number of moments - on site and via email and telephone - helped the board, administration, and planning committee of a school with which Fieldstone Consulting has worked for many years to assemble a transformational strategic plan, one that addressed the school's fundamental beliefs and assumptions. Skilled in working on its own, the planning committee wished outside perspective and comments as it pressed forward with its planning process, now complete.

Spent a week interviewing a cross-section of school and community leaders - after reading voluminous materials in advance - and led a board and community retreat to secure the grounding necessary for fundamental restructuring of the school's mission and vision. The sense of expanded identity that emerged came as something of a surprise to many, generated great excitement, and led to rapid moves to begin formalizing a vision that had lain latent in leadership's minds for many years.

Returned to work with the board and administration of an innovative boarding school interested in exploring a major expansion of its mission, along lines toward which it had been "self-organizing" for years. Explicit ownership of the direction that had been emerging proved bracing, and opened important questions about strategy, impact, and gut-level desire. A newly appointed board task force now can proceed to set plans for the years to come.

Began a large project with a well-established day-boarding school curious about how its well-conceived plan of several years before was holding up in a new era. Were the directions laid out back then still viable today? Did any major assumptions require adjustment? The process was expected to confirm the school's long excellent work, as well as reveal new opportunities to seize. Because comprehensive work throughout the school community lay behind the current plan, this exercise easily could be designed as an update, and, so, require far less time.

Made plans to return to a school whose board - following important advances in governance - had shifted considerably in membership and perspective, particularly under the enrollment pressures of the prior year. An update on school history and best governance practice would help align this committed board more fully with its administration and also provide administrators with guidelines for more successful support of their board.

As a result of the year-long project with a colleague in performing the first comprehensive review of the House Page Program in its two-hundred-year history, held briefings for the Speaker of the United States House of Representative and the Republican leader, the House Page Program board, and the newly appointed Deputy Clerk, a seasoned and admired independent school administrator.

Other organizations

Following a successful retreat late in 2008 designed to align recently merged component parts and to work in more integrated fashion with its European counterpart, and after intensive work of staff and board task forces that emerged from the board retreat, met with the board of this international foundation to secure the underpinnings of a new strategic plan. An essentially new board had come to life and begun to function. Considerable excitement prevailed, with all of the customary nervousness about a fine endeavor, still young.

Spent several days interviewing the staff, players, board, donors, and community supporters of a relatively new and highly successful symphony orchestra, one urgently desiring governance structures capable of advancing its emerging stature and planning for its future. Interviews made clear the vision and the community's support for it, and also ways to combine the advantages of a large board with the effectiveness of a smaller one. An energetic task force moved forward to implement the conclusions reached.

Led a retreat for the board and staff of an arts and humanities council formally charged by its county with allocation of state and county funding to local organizations and individuals. After a long period of inspirational growth, effectiveness, and transformation, a new executive director began important work at consolidation, process, and mission clarification. As she did so, both she and her board each realized the importance of joining their complementary strengths in the advance of a shared agenda. A new era opened out.