Visioning process moves forward
Published Oct. 31, 2006
The city of Columbia took another step Monday toward having a vision for its future.
The city is formulating a plan for how Columbia will grow in the coming years. This process, called visioning, is being driven by citizen topic groups that will outline a plan on certain topics yet to be determined.
At a meeting at the Daniel Boone City Building, the Sponsors Council of the visioning process chose co-facilitators for the citizen topic groups.
"The Sponsors Council agreed to go with the list the co-chairs recommended," city spokeswoman Toni Messina said.
Messina said the visioning process is important for everyone who lives in Columbia.
"I think it's an important issue for everyone in town, including students," she said.
The Sponsors Council is co-chaired by Dianne Drainer and Jeffrey Williams, who recommended 15 co-facilitators.
The 15 co-facilitators will jointly serve as chairpersons of the citizen topic groups with another elected by the group. Messina said the appointed facilitator and the elected facilitator will bring different viewpoints to the group.
Messina said it is unknown how many citizen topic groups there will be. If there are fewer than 15, Messina said some would serve as alternates.
The topics the groups discuss will be determined by citizen input at Big Idea Gathering meetings in late November.
"The groups will further refine and discuss and prioritize the ideas shared at the Big Idea Gathering meetings," Messina said. "We think it's kind of an interesting process. It gives you someone with not a lot of subject matter ownership paired with someone who doesn't necessarily have that ownership."
The appointed co-facilitators applied for their jobs though the Sponsors Council. Messina said they were recruited through many events.
"We recruited through paid ads in local newspapers, the Fall Vision Festival, the city Web site and wherever we were giving presentations on the visioning process," she said.
The Big Idea Gathering meetings will be used to gather information on what citizens think is important in the visioning process. The meetings will be held on Nov. 28 and Nov. 30, according to the city's Web site.
"We'll be convening some sessions where everyone can come and talk about what's important to them, then have the comments taken down verbatim for consideration," she said.
