Updates from Search Committee Chair
March 11, 2013
Since our last update our search firm has continued to process the list of applicants and nominations for Bethel’s presidency. They have reviewed the candidates’ professional experiences, references, and written answers to several leadership questions.
In addition to phone and electronic communications with all of our candidates, the search firm has now met in-person with a smaller, select group of individuals/candidates. I have been accompanied by our Chairman of the Board on almost all of these visits.
This month of March is very crucial to the search as we begin to enter the “home stretch” of our yearlong process. The Search Committee will meet later this week to consider and evaluate a list of potential semi-finalists. In further meetings at the end of March, the Committee intends to narrow that list with the goal of naming two finalists for the Board’s consideration. That was the Board of Trustees’ charge to our committee last September. The Board would like to introduce our next president at the College’s commencement exercises on May 4th.
Despite this progress, our committee’s journey is not over. Please continue to pray for the process, the college community, and for God’s chosen person to lead Bethel College with “Christ at the Helm”. Pray that this individual will “sense a deep spiritual wooing and calling to serve” our entire college community.
Dr. Richard E. Felix, Chairman
Presidential Search Committee
January 30, 2013
I just wanted to provide our community with a quick review and update of where the process of our Presidential Search stands at the end of January 2013.
Our fall semester consisted of organizing and assembling the Search Committee. The Search Committee met in September 2012 on campus to do a campus-wide assessment of Bethel's future needs. The Bethel Board of Trustees met in October to review those findings and to approve the selection of an outside search firm to assist in the search process. SIMA, who provided counsel in Bethel's recent search for an Academic Vice President, was selected to provide assistance for the Presidential Search.
SIMA spent three days on campus in early November to validate the findings of the search committee's work in September. SIMA crafted the Presidential Opportunity Profile which was then distributed nationally in December 2012 through multiple channels of potentially interested candidates.
SIMA has indicated a very strong initial response to the national casting of the position. They are responsible for performing the background work including reference checks on the various candidates that would seemingly measure up to the standards of the Opportunity Profile. Obviously this will entail hundreds of hours of work by the SIMA staff. This becomes the "quiet period" of the process for those of us on the Search Committee and those in the larger campus community.
The charge to our Search Committee from the Board of Trustees was to have a new President for Bethel to be presented to the campus community prior to the 2013 College Commencement.
Please continue to pray that God will lead us to that right leader for our bright future. Pray that she or he will "sense a calling to be a servant/leader" for our college community.
We will attempt to provide another update in March 2013.
December 7, 2012
The Bethel Presidential Search Committee is pleased to launch the Opportunity Profile for the next President of Bethel College. We have been working diligently over the past few months in preparation for this time and are pleased with the progress to date.
We appreciate your prayers for the search committee, prospective candidates, and the Bethel community as we conduct this search. We intend to update this site every 4-6 weeks.
