The Gates Notes

All right, I thought I had captured it all with the Annual Letters of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, http://www.gatesfoundation.org/annual-letter/Pages/overview.aspx but I was wrong, here are "The Gates Notes"   which are self explanatory, that is, they are written/composed by Bill Gates of Microsoft fame. They are quite interesting also.  These "notes"  are the equivalent to websites on six topics, thus each topic is linked to a page with photos and articles  using either dates to highlight the age of the article or event or a photo of a book cover. There  are "notes" on:

• Education: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Education
• Energy: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Energy
• Books: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Books
• Development: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Development
• Health: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Topics/Health
• Personal

I thought that the Personal would be just that, however it covers topics such as "Making the Most of your Holiday Giving"

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Making-the-Most-of-your-Holiday-Giving which was quite good.  One of the causes, http://www.donorschoose.org/ was of interest in that  the underlying  concept of choosing which project relating to a school need you would like to support could be used universally. So maybe the "how to make the project work" in any country while maintaining transparency could be copyright as there are always needs with respect to schools. In our country, schools were launched in various areas  to support the concept of  faith being maintained in the schools. These concepts still hold true as most of the established religious bodies have maintained the schools in the various areas. Also there are schools which were established by the Government. I see this project as being of use for all schools.
Then there is charity: water http://www.charitywater.org/,  which deals with providing solutions to water challenges in various parts of the world.
 In "Catapult", there are 24 areas to choose from, to assist in making the world a gender equal place. http://www.catapult.org/

And just so that we will be all on the same page, here are the terms of use: http://www.thegatesnotes.com/GlobalPages/Terms-of-Use
Copyright 2010 The Gates Notes, LLC. 

Understanding your audience

Understanding your audience is key for a good delivery whether you are developing a strategic plan or delivering a speech. After all your audience could be your key stakeholders. So who would you say are your key stakeholders in an "education" environment within the Catholic Church?
~Parish priests: All parish priests are designated as the manager of the school in their area. Coming out of this is their responsibility for the development  of religious education and other areas in  primary and secondary school  children.  How does this responsibility tie in to the decisions taken at the last Synod? What is the way forward? When is the next Synod? How effective is the Priest, the Pastoral Council in this role since the Pastoral Council assists the priest in the execution of his duties with respect to matters which are non sacramental?How are we communicating the effectiveness of this  duty to all of the parties concerned?
~Staff at the schools: Succession planning and rules which govern this area. Whether the rules are based on seniority or level of academic qualification is one of the questions to guide the process. Also what are the ages of the teachers, when will they be eligible to retire and what are the plans in place to deal with those events? Tied in to this would be  performance management, updating of skills as needed.
~Population of the schools - What are the levels and numbers  of school children at each school? for example is there a need for 3 Std 5s every two years because there is some event which creates that need and that is the period in which it occurs? Where is there a GAP or surplus and how do we deal with this? Do we have a plan for this type of need or for other needs? What is the population of non school age persons in the areas? This could give an example of the population to come.
~ Needs of the school- What are the needs of the school over the next three to five years? It is all well and good for us to plan, but taking the needs of the school into account would create the impression that they have had successes and we are aware that they can contribute to the current evaluation.
~ Infrastructure ~ What is the level of infrastructure at the schools? When is expansion planned or renovations due? What are the physical needs of the school going forward? Is there land available to accommodate this or is there a need to acquire land or is the infrastructure to change to accommodate the non availability of land in the immediate vicinity?
What are the expectations of the audience? What are the external factors which will shape the goals and what are the timelines for delivery of what you need to communicate?

Copyright Jennifer Bailey