Administrative staff across the Los Rios Community College District attended a conference in the Winn Center on Feb. 2 to discuss the Sacramento region’s impact on LRCCD.

Faculty and staff took part in a community conference detailing the growth of the Sacramento region and how its educational institutions, specifically LRCCD, would accommodate in the coming years.

After reviewing data based off of the Sacramento region, a strategic plan is then developed.

“The Strategic Plan is what should guide the district over a set period of time,” said Sue Lorimer, Deputy Chancellor for the LRCCD. “Usually, it’s somewhere from three to six years.”

The plan itself has a purpose to adapt to constant change.

“The idea is that what we did in the past may be very good, but the world has changed,” Lorimer said .“If our students are changing, our communities are changing, then we need to refresh our strategic plan.” said Lorimer.

Lorimer also said that a new strategic plan is written every six years. However, each individual college presents their own plan at their own college.

The event lasted from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and featured prominent figures from Cosumnes River College, including  College President Edward Bush, Vice President Whitney Yamamura, and Public Information Officer Kristie West.

“CRC will use the LRCCD plan to lay the groundwork for our campus strategic plan,” West said. West also said that the campus would be impacted by the plan, but that it was too soon to say how.

Forty people attended the conference.

The process of the CRC conference was split between several powerpoints, presentations, key speakers and group workshops going over the different counties within the Sacramento region and their projected population growth.

The LRCCD serves three counties: Sacramento, El Dorado and Yolo County. Those three, including seven other communities, are among those whose populations would increase to about 100,000 and were the focus of the presentation.

An annual Environmental Scan of the Sacramento region was presented as the statistical precursor for CRC’s strategic plan. It offers a comprehensive statistical look at the factors impacting the LRCCD.

These factors include the economic, ethnic and environmental changes the greater Sacramento region undergo, according to the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC).

Director of Institutional Research Betty Glyer-Culver has spent 20 years in the service of LRCCD and was the key presenter of the Environmental Scan.

“My role in the strategic plan process is to support the groups like this with data and evidence,” said Glyer-Culver. “And that data and evidence provides them the plan.”

Within the meeting, the theme, or vision of CRC’s strategic plan was to continue as an institution which served the students in their educational endeavors. Effectively, adding to the idea of an able bodied community.

Glyer-Culver said the most essential part of the plan is the community itself.

“It’s this,” Glyer-Culver said. “It’s  coming together to talk about our students. Besides the final product in that road map, it’s these conversations, because you learn so much.”