Epic Huggles

SPE # 7

Our group has come together to address the sprawling development within the Blacksburg community, and wanting to maintain the local characteristic within the town's core.  Therefore, our group has been named Working Together - Building Together.  The name represents the group's goal: to work together as a community, to build a collaborative community.  Our name is important because it gives our group an identity within the community, and legitimizing ourselves.  With recognition and legitimization by the community, our group will be able to grow together, ultimately to work work together and build together.

SPE #2

The question was what is it about your issue that will make people change their habits? Issues need to be immediate, specific, actionable, and realizable.

Our first issue that John identified was revitalizing existing business.This would be much more difficult if a walmart or other large scale shopping was to be built in Blacksburg, which our problem says is being proposed. This makes the issue immediate. Furthermore, the issue is specific in that our group wants to forgo large scale business for smaller business. its actionable since citizens could take action such as showing up a a town council meeting, protesting etc. It's also realizable since it has achievable goals.... walmart or other large scale development is not built.

The second issue is that of sprawling residential development. It is immediate in that if it is allowed to continue, the problem will get infinitely worse. it is specific; the citizens want to compact an easily recognizable type of development pattern. its actionable because citizens could either attempt to stop any future sprawling development and/or they could themselves move into more dense housing communities. it's realizable when sprawl stops.

strategic plan question 5

We talked about keeping people involved and decided that we would...

-Welcome newcomers by providing them with a packet of information and a small gift (coffee mug or something). And also introduce them at the first meeting.
- The information packet would also provide people with the reasons why things must get done.
- One way to make people feel like they belong would be a separate social gathering or a coffee reception before meetings
- A way to acknowledge contributions might be a small thank you gift at the meeting nearest to the person's anniversary of getting involved.
- An email listserve would be a great way to keep people updated on the groups progress and keep in contact.
- One way to recruit unfamiliar and diverse groups of people would be to have booths at festivals like "Stepping Out", the International festival and other events downtown.

Strategic Planning Exercise #3

Sorry this is up late.

Ideally we would want people from each type of community to make up this organization. This includes individuals from the benefit/need community, action community, and target/response community.

It will be important to involve people who are affected by the planning decisions made by this organization. That way those involved will be emotionally invested in what this organization is trying to accomplish and will put forth more effort to solve this issue.

I personally see a group of 12 or so core members. This will include a collection of town residents, store/shop owners, legal help, town government officials/planners, and perhaps a representative from Virginia Tech.

These 12 individuals will make up the leadership core group. The leadership group will help provide direction for the organization as well be the most active members. They will keep in close contact with each other and are acting facilitators at most meetings. This group will also be essential in keeping the movement alive and moving.

We will also have a need for a steady stream of workers and assisters in order to keep the organization afloat over a long haul. I also see a need for both advisers and inactive general supporters. Advisers will be able to help us obtain some media coverage/leverage, can provide us expertise in fields we don't have a resident expert for, etc. The inactive general supporters are valuable because they will give our organization some street cred. These individuals will provide a climate of change and if they are influential members of community some legitimacy as an organization.

I really want to focus on recruiting mostly "Doers" for this organization. I want there to be people that will do things, and not just talk about them. These individuals are responsible and can we can trust them in getting the job done. We will need motivators for times when we're facing a particularly imposing challenge. Also specialized skills and talents (legal, planning, etc.) and access to resources (meeting rooms) will be essential.

Also good attribute we are looking for individuals in this organization should be an ability to roll with the punches, humor, tenacity, willingness to take a risk, self-reliance, responsibility, and some decision-making ability.

Strategic Plan Elements

Question 6.

    We decided that our group would be a Multiple Issues Power Base type.We would have two issues as John said in his blog and focus on one issue at a time. This way we will keep people interested and have a sense of accomplishment of some sort.
   Our group would have a steering committee and a core group and the rest of the members can be regular attendee of the meetings.

Strategic Planning Q. 1

Question 1: What are your issues?

We chose scenario number 3, in which residents of Blacksburg were unhappy with the sprawl development taking place and large-scale commercial centers coming to town.  The problem was obvious - citizens were unhappy with the type of growth.  But why?  What issues about the sprawl development and proposals for large-scale commercial center were citizens most concerned with?  After making a lengthy list of possible issues, we narrowed it down to two main issues we thought citizens would care most about: revitalizing existing business, particularly in the downtown district and controlling residential spawl development.

Strategic Planning Q.8

What are you going to do next, after this meeting? And after that?

Between meetings, the leadership needs to be sure that tasks are being carried out, keeping in touch with members, and planning for the next meeting.  The most important thing though, is to continue to try and reduce the inevitable turnover that occurs in organizations.  Ways that can be done are through focal activities that reinforce the organizations cause, such as going to a Town Council or Planning Commission meeting that is discussing the issues we are concerned about, having a booth at Town events like Stepping Out or Gobblerfest, etc. The leaders also need to figure out who they are trying to target for support, like downtown business owners, residents of surrounding neighborhoods, etc. Other ways to try and reduce turnover is to delegate tasks to various members in the group, even if it is something small, that is a way to get even the most shy person involved.  In doing so, this creates and strengthens relationships between the members, thus creating a stronger, unified organization that has a clear direction and cause.

Strategic Plan; Question 4

The Blacksburg Town Council webpage would be good place to post a message about setting up a meeting to stop or reduce sprawl development in Blacksburg.  Another way would be actually attend one of the town council meetings, hand out flyers to people, get to know them, give them a little bit of information on the group, what the group is going to be about, and what their group is trying to accomplish.  Another way would be to get a list server of the Blacksburg town area and send out emails about the meetings, group, and their goals.  Within these notifications state the reasons for joining this group; would be to help stop development in Blacksburg area so we can keep this rural community setting.