August 2011 - Chairman of the Board's Monthly Update
Posted 26/08/2011
Dear parents, students and staff,
On behalf of the Board I would like to welcome you to School! I hope you’ve all had a happy vacation, managed to get some rest and relaxation, and have had a good start to the new School Year!
Many of you are new to MIS and I hope and trust that you’re finding your way around, settling in well and meeting new friends. There will be many opportunities in the next few weeks to get to know the School better, including at the Back-to-School barbeque on this coming Sunday at 13:00, where I hope to meet many of you. The weather promises to be sunny, if somewhat cooler than the past few days have been, so it should be a good chance to meet old friends and get to know new members of the community.
As Chairman of the Board, I will be penning a few words on a monthly basis in the Bulletin to keep you up to date on the Board’s work. If there are issues you’d like to raise with the Board, please approach one of the Board members, or send an email to board@mis-munich.de – a response is guaranteed!
Those of you who are returning will know that the Board spent a considerable amount of time last year defining a new Strategic Plan for MIS. Working closely with the Head of School and his team, we formulated a new set of guiding principles for the School, including a new mission: “Excellence in education for globally-minded students”. Our goals are ambitious, and the Board and the School’s leadership will be working hard to make visible progress in a number of areas this year, for example in our educational programme and campus development plans.
The Board is having the first of two “Retreats” this weekend to discuss and define our programme for the year ahead. We meet again in a couple of weeks and will focus concretely on what good governance means in a School like MIS – this is one of the action items coming from the strategic planning process. Defining how the Board can best support the School’s leadership and ensure that we fulfil our mission is at the heart of good governance.
We will be giving you a fuller update on all of these topics at the Association Meeting on 6th. October – please note this in your calendars!
Best regards,
Dr. David R. Dean
Chairman of the Board