City meets with visioning facilitator

St Augustine Public Affairs Director, Paul Williamson, informed Historic News this afternoon that on Tuesday, March 11th, Commissioner Roxanne Horvath and members of city staff met with the firm facilitating the “2014 and Beyond” visioning initiative, for the purpose of developing a plan of action to launch the program.

Herbert A. Marlowe, Jr., PhD of Analytica Consulting located in Newberry, attended for the firm to discuss the next step.

I. Phase 1 Objective

The Phase 1 of the visioning initiative is designed to develop a process by which the visioning program will be conducted. At the completion of Phase 1, the Steering Committee will have a vision process plan with which to continue.

II. Survey

On Friday, March 14, members of the steering committee were send a six-question survey (see questions below) through which Analytica will receive a sense of the committee’s preferred direction.

•           What are your expected outcomes, desired results or general hopes or the project?

•           How would you judge project success?

•           Do you have any specific expectations of the consulting team? If so, what are they?

•           Are there any specific process issues, potential pitfalls or errors that we as the consultants should be aware of or sensitive to?

•           Are there any particular topics that should be considered at some point during the project?

•           Is there a community you would like to emulate? Not emulate?

Analytica will use the responses in planning the work for the Steering Committee’s initial workshop.

III. Initial workshop scheduled

There will be three meetings in Phase 1:

•           an initial Steering Committee workshop to review visioning process options and discuss how to best prepare for the Town Hall;

•           the Town Hall offering open participation to the community; and

•           a second Steering Committee workshop to finalize the vision process plan to be presented to the City Commission.

The initial workshop will be held on Saturday, April 5th from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in The Alcazar Room, City Hall.