Full Group Meeting – The Docks – September 17, 2013
Purpose – Join together to celebrate accomplishments, provide feedback for moving forward, and socialize to learn more about each other and the individual initiatives.
World Cafe – The premise of World Café is both simple and powerful: nothing great comes to fruition without conversations that matter The power of intimate conversation among people chasing ideas related to the same goals is undeniable and transcends geographic location, formal education, and socio-economic upbringing .
Conversations – Using the World Cafe style, participants broke themselves down into groups and discussed several key questions. The group then reconvened and discussed the results of these conversations.
Positive Toledo
One FoT survey shows that 75% of the people surveyed are willing to do something to help make Toledo a better place to live. The same survey also shows that 25% of the people want to leave Toledo. Often, it is human nature to focus on the 25% who want to leave and make changes to appease them that may upset the 75% who want to stay. Let’s focus on the majority. Toledo was recently named by Forbes as the 9th Best City for Jobs this Fall. Our budget is in a surplus, streets are being paved, police are being hired…
What other positive things or facts can you say about Toledo? What positive things have you heard people saying about Toledo?
Family Oriented Events
John Gardner, former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare once said, “The problem with many of our cities is that they are encampments of strangers and not communities.” This is also a problem with many families. Too often in our modern, complex, fast-moving, high-tech societies, families do not always develop a sense of community, and children get lost in the rush. To create this sense of community, family members need to be involved with one another, to do things together.
— Dr. Newark, How to Raise Emotionally Healthy Children
The Future of Toledo Initiative aims to promote positive, family oriented events, that are free to low cost in the Toledo Metropolitan Area. What are some events we can promote? What are some new ideas we could initiate or get started?
Business Concierge
Of late there has been a lot of talk of a Business Concierge, or Liaison, where someone from a pool of people with the knowledge and authority, assist businesses with opening or expanding, with getting through the maze of permitting, plan approval, applying for and receiving available incentives, etc..
What are your thoughts on the concept of a Business Concierge service? Do you have any additional ideas on what services and details such a service might include?
Jeep Trail and Museum
The Jeep Trail and Museum initiative has run into a major obstacles pertaining to the size and location of a Toledo Jeep Trail project. Land is scarce within the city limits and is hard to come by. The Jeep Trail and Museum team is seeking input and suggestions on how we can overcome this obstacle.
Do you have any suggestions about where can we get 100 to 300+ acres of land?
We are considering pursuing the museum first and using it as an anchor for the trail. Do you feel that this is the right move or do you think the trail should come first?
Sylvania Avenue Mile
The Sylvania Avenue Mile (SAM) Revitalization Initiative is really diving into developing a comprehensive SAM plan. In the near future they want to engage the residents and businesses in that area in a conversation about what a walkable community means to them and what services they would utilize on a long term basis if it were on Sylvania Avenue.
What kinds of businesses and services in a walkable downtown areas are beneficial and will attract patrons to walk around in that area. How do we attract these businesses to SAM?
Grant Funding
Funding is the key to success for many of the FoT Strategic initiatives. Applying for and receiving grants is the fundamental focus for long term sustainability. To write for a federal grant takes a minimum of 100 hours, and requires a considerable amount of data.
How can the FoT Strategic Initiative teams enlist experienced Grant Writing Professionals to assist the team members in writing successful grants? What incentives can FoT provide to a Grant Writing Professional?
Back to the Future
With the demand for school supplies increasing, the Salvation Army has filled over 100 teacher requests through the Back to the Future Initiative. What resources exist in our community to help support this initiative year round?
Full notes available here: http://bit.ly/1eEZopO
