 Snyder said that Keith Ray, Dolan Dalpoas and he had met for
lunch to discuss how they would conduct the second round of the
summit, and Ray posed a question: "OK, Mr. Mayor, what is your
vision for Lincoln?"Snyder said he was prepared to answer with
the revitalization of the former Lincoln Developmental Center
campus, a beautified downtown, a new north-end industrial park and
more.
"I was ready to spew all those out, but then in a split second I
thought, ‘Wait a minute. That's not a vision, that's a project
list.' And, it stopped me," he said.
"My confession is that I don't have a vision that I can give to
you in the last 10 minutes as you walk out of here that is engaging,
crystallizing or motivating."
Snyder continued, "I haven't done that, and I don't know that I
can do that, but I do know who can: We can."
Snyder said that needed to be the next big task for the summit
group: to work on an engaging vision statement for the city and
county.
He outlined the steps he believes will bring the group to writing
that vision statement
Step one is to establish regular meetings on a quarterly basis.
Each meeting will have a specific agenda that will lead into the
writing of the vision statements by the end of 2010, leaving the
group ready to start drafting their strategic plan in the following
year.
For the spring, he wants collective work similar to the meeting
last fall: talking about weaknesses and threats. These were on the
"to-do list" at the fall meeting, but time didn't allow the group to
get through it.
At the end of the spring meeting, he wants members to accept
assignments to visit other communities. He cautioned that there was
no funding to assist with this, so he needs them to volunteer, to go
out and look at other cities, talk to their officials and see what
those towns are doing that is benefiting the community as a whole.
In the summer he hopes to hear from those who journeyed out: what
they learned, what they saw that they liked and didn't like.
In the fall, Snyder said that the county's economic master plan
is slated to be completed, and he wants the summit group to meet
with those consultants for what he called a "debriefing": learning
what they learned and hearing the recommendations they might have.
And finally, at the next winter meeting, Snyder said that the
group should be ready to start writing their vision for Lincoln and
Logan County, which, as Dalpoas had taught earlier, was the first
step to a strategic plan.
[to top of second column] |
Before calling the meeting adjourned, Snyder offered a few
assignments for the group between now and the spring meeting.
He asked that they be looking at what communities the visitors
should go to.
He also said that at the spring meeting he thought the group
should create a sort of score card that could be used to more or
less grade or rate these communities.
He asked that the group be thinking about specific questions that
can go on that score card so that there are uniform measures for
each town visited.
Summit aftermath and interesting facts
At the first summit meeting about 20 to 25 people attended. At
the second meeting the head count was 30 to 35. The group is
growing.
In addition to that, the mayor recounted after the meeting that
there were at least a half-dozen people who would have been there
from the first meeting, had they not had scheduling conflicts.
At the Tuesday night city council meeting, the mayor spoke about
the sheets of paper he had handed out at the beginning of the
summit, saying that he had received literally hundreds of names, and
he will be contacting people and inviting them to the spring
session.
On Thursday Snyder sent out an e-mail to all attendees he had
e-mail addresses for, giving them links to articles that Ray had
referred to and sending out copies of Dalpoas' PowerPoint
presentation.
In the same e-mail, he shared that he had heard from county board
member Jan Schumacher, as she had suggestions for other books that
members of the group could read on their own to help them become
better enlightened.
In his e-mail the mayor wrote: "Let's keep this ember we have
ignited lit and fan it into a flame that will warm and revitalize
this place we call home."
[By NILA SMITH]
Mayor's letter posted today in LDN:
Thank you,
summiteers! Learn more on planning for the future
___
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Mayor hosts economic summit, round 2
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