Organization & Management - Connections Newsletter

O&M Connections Newsletter - Antioch University New England

Cheryl Lower, Donna Mellen, and Stephanie Tickner, Editors	Summer 2007

New Developments at the Tomey Center

Polly Chandler
Director of Tomey Center
O&M Faculty

As the new director of the Tomey Center for Organization Development, I am delighted to report about our accomplishments, goals, and upcoming projects.

The Tomey Center, a relatively new consulting and research division of the Department of Organization & Management, has started to attract regional attention from schools and nonprofit organizations. We have assisted organizations in program evaluation, meeting facilitation, strategic planning, board development, culture and climate analysis, customized course design, and team building. Our primary goals are to provide exceptional service to a diversity of clients and to provide our students with the opportunity to work with O&M faculty and alumni on organization development and training projects. Learning through experience is at the core of Antioch’s educational philosophy, and we are excited to offer such learning opportunities for our students through the Tomey Center.

During the past year we have worked with several organizations:

The Gilmanton Schools hired the Tomey Center to assist their HOPE team, a teacher leadership team, on communication within the school. Sarah Gates (student), Steve Guerriero (faculty), Robin Christopherson (alumna), and I worked on assessing the school climate, conducted workshops on how to have “difficult conversations,” and offered a two-day course on Peer Mentoring. This work will continue in 2007.
Steve Guerriero supported Project Learning Tree in board development and strategic planning.
Polly Chandler facilitated conversations on place-based education at the Neighborhood Schoolhouse for their board and faculty summer retreat.

Also, Cheryl Lower (O&M Administrative Director), Ed Tomey (faculty emeritus), and I worked with a Keene State College marketing class on designing marketing materials for the Tomey Center. This was a service-learning project for the Keene State students. They conducted a needs assessment with past and possible clients. They have presented their designs for a logo, tag line, brochure, and stories for our website.

We have three current projects that provide opportunities for student involvement:

First Course is a new nonprofit in Keene. Their mission is to train homeless adults and adults with developmental disabilities in skills needed in the food service industry. This program is modeled after Missions with Kitchens in Seattle. The Tomey Center has helped with facilitating steering committee meetings and is currently working on surveying local food service industries on their hiring needs. This is the Tomey Center’s first pro bono project, and we hope to make it an annual tradition to reach out to a start-up organization to help them in their initial planning and implementation stages.
The Tomey Center is working with Keene State College to help answer the question: “What is the vision for a service experience for all Keene State College students?” Sarah Gates (student), John Everest (student), Claudia Needham (student), Donna Mellen (faculty), and I are working with a representational steering committee at KSC and are conducting focus groups with various stakeholder groups. This work will be ongoing throughout the year, and students are invited to join us in this data collection and analysis.
An exciting project with the New Hampshire Humanities Council will highlight program evaluation. The NHHC has received a grant to launch Courage to Teach. This retreat-based teacher renewal program will be offered in northern New Hampshire starting in January. We will be looking for students to assist with focus groups, surveys, and collecting stories at the retreats.

If you are interested in learning more about the Tomey Center, please visit our website or contact Pauline Chandler

Last Updated: 11/10/08