Strategy group to 'flesh out' process

Conway's Strategic Vision and Action Plan Steering Committee broke down into subcommittees on Thursday to "flesh out" some probable steps in the visioning process.

Chairman Scott Moore presented several proposed objectives of the process based upon information gathered in previous committee meetings and asked the subcommittees to begin in-depth brainstorming on those objectives.

The subcommittee assignments are development of a promotional campaign, Maryalice Hurst and Bill Yates; development of a historical perspective, Sonja Keith and Sandra Miller; development of public input format, Lloyd Hervey, Leo Jackson and Stephanie Lipsky; cross-section development of the community, Bill Miller and Sharon Mohammed; and development of a budget, Mike Hengel.

After a 30-minute brainstorming session, each subcommittee reported the following initial ideas:

* Yates said for promotion of the strategic process all institutions and organizations where information can be disseminated can be approached. He and Mrs. Hurst suggested some personal visits to groups and also suggested putting together a fact sheet.

* Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Keith discussed commissioning individuals or groups to write fact sheets for historical perspectives, such as Acxiom Corp. developing a perspective on technology. They also suggested creating a sample for writers to follow.

* The public input subcommittee identified target groups, such as the African-American community, youth, college students and other categories of persons from which to gather input. Hervey also reported discussion on where forums could be held and formats through which to gather information, such as group discussions, surveys and telephone calls.

Bill Miller, Ms. Mohammed and Hengel were absent. Moore asked each subcommittee to be prepared to report more specifically at the next meeting. He also asked each member to think about an estimate of time and resources required for each part of implementation of the process.

The committee also discussed development of a theme and factors that could be used to measure success of the visioning process. Although the committee agreed a theme is needed, there was some dispute over creating a theme through a contest or within the committee itself.

Committee members also disagreed on the percentage of community participation that would constitute success. Mrs. Hurst initially suggested 50 percent participation from the adult population, but Mrs. Miller and others felt that number to be unrealistic. There was some consensus about trying to reach 25 percent of people ages 14 and older.

Also at the meeting, Mrs. Hurst presented a proposal on achieving citizen input. She said her ideas were "a scaffold on which to build a method to go out into the community" and were based on discussions from the previous committee meetings.

Mrs. Hurst said the launch of the visioning process will be critical and will need to create excitement. "We need to get the momentum started," she said. "The hardest thing will be to break the inertia."

The committee will meet again at 4 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.

(Staff writer Sarah Jordan can be reached by phone at 505-1266 or e-mail at sarahj@thecabin.net)