[Press Release] : Imagine Columbia's Future: Sponsors Council taps six for Vision Committee co-chair interviews

[pr-l at news.gocolumbiamo.com]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Paula Hertwig Hopkins, Assistant City Manager - (573) 874-7218 

Imagine Columbia's Future: Sponsors Council taps six for Vision Committee co-chair interviews

COLUMBIA, MO (October 12, 2006) -- The seven-member Sponsors Council now guiding “Imagine Columbia’s Future,” a community visioning process, soon will name two citizens to head a Vision Committee. Meeting yesterday at the Boone County Government Center, the panel selected six people from a field of 23 applicants for public interviews. The interview date will be announced.

Those to be interviewed include: M. Dianne Drainer, executive director of the Mizzou Flagship Council; Douglas J. Lange, vice president, Operations and Facilities, Stephens College; Sally Beth Lyon, director of research, Assessment and Accountability, Columbia Public Schools; Nicholas H. Peckham, owner, Peckham & Wright Architects, Inc.; Mary Colton Wilkerson, vice president, Marketing, Boone County National Bank; and Jeffrey Robert Williams, director of Access and Urban Outreach, University of Missouri.

The Sponsors Council recruited applicants from throughout the community, in a public campaign, from Sept. 6 - Oct. 6. Columbia Assistant City Manager Paula Hertwig Hopkins, who coordinated the application process on the Sponsors Council’s behalf, said she was “absolutely excited” that so many citizens responded to the call for interest in the co-chair positions. “I want to thank everyone who took the time to apply and really express their commitment to this community. The field reflected the whole range of talent available in Columbia.”

The Vision Committee ultimately will include representatives from all the citizen-led, small discussion groups that will focus on specific subjects of interest to Columbians. These Citizen Topic Groups will be identified later this year and start meeting in January 2007.

The Vision Committee will manage the vision process and write the vision plan on behalf of the community, but its most critical short-term goal is to encourage citizens to attend the two BIG (Big Idea-Gathering) Meetings set for Nov. 28 and Nov. 30. ACP Visioning & Planning Consultant Jennifer Lindbom told the Sponsors Council that citizen ideas generated at the BIG Meetings would lay the foundation for Columbia’s vision plan.

Because they must be able to quickly mobilize balanced citizen interest in visioning, Lindbom suggested that those selected for Vision Committee co-chair interviews have the ability to speak effectively on behalf of the visioning process; have connections with the community; and make a commitment to be involved for at least one year. Lindbom also said that the co-chairs should have different interests and reflect both established and emerging leadership experience.

The City Council expressed its commitment to community visioning and implementing a vision plan by resolution on July 17, 2006. For more information, visit the City of Columbia’s Web site at www.GoColumbiaMo.com and click on “Imagine Columbia’s Future.”

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