Session 7

 

 

Topic:  Citizen Driven Strategic Planning

 

 

Convenor: Dvon Duncan

 

Note Taker: David Buches

 

Participants: Rick Barnard - Ritchie County, Mary Ann Ferris - Shinnston, Larry Chapman - Gilmer County, Bruce Decker - Community Coach, Kathie Whitt - McDowell, Mary Keyes - Community Coach

 

Key themes, outstanding questions, observations:

 

Obstacles/opportunties for getting folks to participate:

 

• Food works! Pot luck - catered vs. bring a dish
• Need for transportation
• Newsletter
• The "ask" as part of buy-in, ask them about their needs
• Town Hall meeting format

• Music
• Community coach
• Flyers in grocery bags

 

These are all good techniques for getting people there how do we engage them once there and get them coming back?

 

How important is the agenda to the response and the participation, not just intially but the follow-on meetings.

 

Need for meeting leaders to be skilled meeting facilitators.

 

Folks need to get the strong sense that something will result from their taking the time to partcipate, also they need to know that they are being heard. All comments should be recorded so tha the least likely to comment (and be heard) at least get the feeling that this is different. Publish all even though not all will be used.

 

How to get around the feeling in the community that this has all been done before and nothing ever gets done. Need to move to action.

 

Community survey as a starting point, "what would you like to see..............?" The meeting follows the survey billed as "Come and hear the results of the survey!"

 

Contests - "donate you vision"

 

Use of topic teams.

 

Focus on those parts of the population that typically are not engaged.

 

Tag onto existing meetings. Get on the agenda.

 

Multiple meetings in different locations.

 

Create a sense of community thru various gimmicks (i.e. buttons).

 

Celebrate the successes.

 

Create a "buzz".

 

"Lunch and learn".

 

Note: alot of focus on getting people into the meeting but not alot of discussion about how to keep the engaged once you get them there and how do you keep them coming back. Planning is a long term process and the success is in engaging the population over the long run.

 

Perception and attitude - the winding road into Shinnston as an example. Turning negatives into positives.

 

Use of technology - emails, fax blast - for follow-up, for getting information out quickly. Computer based marketing, use of websites, referring folks to it for additional information.

 

Christian focus - West Virginia as the Garden of Eden??

 

Use of mini-grants (challenge grants) to get groups engaged, it plants a seed for future engagement but more importantly it creates a sense of action. People want to see things get done.

 

Giving voice to those that have not traditionally been heard, and how to deal with existing community "power" arrangements and their attempts to keep the status quo. Need to co-opt the existing powers so they do not become an obstacle.

 

 

 

Recommendations:

 

1. Pursue multiple strategies that fit the situation (see list of suggested techniques).

 

2. Use "no dumb ideas" initial strategy to get as much buy in as possible.

 

3. Gather folks with common interests and play to those interests.