Stewardship at ACU

Consultation with ACU

Over the past two months we have explored what stewardship means at ACU. More than 200 staff and students were consulted through a series of workshops, interviews and small group discussions. Key discussion topics included:

• What does stewardship mean to you?
• What is the current state of stewardship at ACU?
• What are our broad aspirations for a stewardship strategy? What do we want it to achieve?
• What actions do we need to take?

This consultation has produced a wealth of information, which is helping us shape a draft Stewardship Strategy, to be released for your feedback in early December. In the interim, the word cloud below provides a picture of what staff and students currently understand about stewardship. The larger the word, the more frequently it was mentioned during the consultation process.

More perspectives of stewardship

In addition to the views of ACU students and staff, we have also considered:

• the Vice-Chancellor’s Inaugural Lecture
• stewardship literature – both from Catholic Social Thought, leadership model perspectives, Ex Corde Ecclesiae and Laudato si
• stewardship-led professional services firms (accounting, advisory and legal)
• stewardship in the context of not-for-profit organisations and international Catholic universities.

Next steps

Based on the information gathered through consultation, we are currently refining the following elements for the draft strategy, to be released in early December for feedback:

• definition of stewardship at ACU
• key pillars
• focus areas

Keep a look out for the release of the draft Stewardship Strategy in December so you can share your views and ideas.

Want to know more about stewardship?

You can read more about why ACU is developing a Stewardship Strategy in Chief Operating Officer Stephen Weller’s October Staff Bulletin message.

You can also view a snapshot of the information shared during the consultation sessions.

Feel free to contact Sharone Ciancio, Bill McKendry or Nicole Van de Gard with any questions, comments, or suggestions about the strategy.