Full Report: http://tinyurl.com/SP2013Report
The Future of Toledo (FoT) Initiative is moving to action. Over 300 people attended the January 16, 2013 Strategic Projects meeting at the Valentine Theatre. The room was set in a layered circle of chairs, and speakers stepped into the middle to address the surrounding participants. Mayor Michael Bell kicked off the meeting with an enthusiastic, and appreciative, opening speech, followed by instructions for picking projects and getting to work.
Over the past several years, community and government leaders have held several meetings to collaboratively create a mission, vision, and goals for the Future of Toledo, resulting in the Strategic Action Plan 2013 (http://tinyurl.com/CoT2013Strategy), with 14 Strategic Projects for 2013. At this Strategic Projects meeting, 14 City of Toledo government leaders (champions) entered the circle, one at a time, and asked other city leaders, and community members, to join them in taking action to complete one of the 14 Strategic Projects for 2013. Teams formed around projects of interest, and moved immediately to action.
View the pictures at: http://tinyurl.com/SP2013Slideshow.
An amazing 324 people RSVP’d for the FoT 2013 Strategic Projects Meeting. 277 people signed up for at least one of the 14 projects that night. The FoT community is now at 920+ participants involved either in working sessions, opting into the communication circle, or wanting to contribute to projects as we move forward. Want to sign up for a project? Click here to get in on the action: www.FutureOfToledo.com/signup.
Each of the 14 teams are completing a thorough project PLAN. This plan will ensure the projects are robust and the teams can make a compelling case to stakeholders and grant institutions. View the PLAN template at: http://tinyurl.com/StrategicProjectsTemplate.
The project teams began by answering the first two questions from the template: 1) Provide a one-sentence statement of the project problem or need?, and 2) How did you come to realize the problem exists?
As of January 30, 2013, the teams have completed the first 13 questions from the Strategic Planning Template. View each team’s progress at: http://tinyurl.com/FoTProjectPlans.
General reactions from the meeting participants were as follows:
- 8.11 Avg. Confidence Score (10 being highest) – How confident are you that the mayor and city government can accomplish its action plans in collaboration with the community?
- Why did you score it as you did? A. The Mayor and staff’s energy. B. Anything is possible if we remain committed.
- Biggest “Take Away” is people care about Toledo and the community.
- What seems unfinished? Keep the plans sustainable, Connect all the ideas, and Keep the positive momentum.
- Advice? Keep moving forward. Change room to be more conducive to the mtg.
- One page evaluation summary: http://tinyurl.com/SP2013EvalSum
