[Press Release] : Sponsors Council selects Drainer, Williams to serve as Vision Committee co-chairs

[pr-l at news.gocolumbiamo.com]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

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

Sponsors Council selects Drainer, Williams to serve as Vision Committee co-chairs

COLUMBIA, MO (October 18, 2006) -- The Vision Sponsors Council today selected two Vision Committee co-chairs following public interviews of six finalists. The interviews were conducted in the City Council Chambers at City Hall.

Dianne Drainer, Executive Director, Mizzou Flagship Council, and Jeffrey Williams, Ph.D, Director of Access and Urban Outreach, University of Missouri - Columbia, will co-chair the Vision Committee that will be responsible for guiding the community wide visioning process, “Imagine Columbia’s Future.”

“The Sponsors Council was extremely impressed with the field of finalists and enthusiastic about the selected co-chairs,” said Mayor Darwin Hindman, who chairs the seven-member Sponsors Council. “We are confident that Dianne Drainer and Jeffrey Williams both have the ability to organize Columbia’s visioning efforts and will move the discussion toward a community vision that represents the community. Their first major task is to select 15 co-facilitators who will work directly with Citizen Topic Groups. It is exciting to see this process move along.”

Other finalists were Douglas Lange, Vice President, Operations and Facilities, Stephens College; Sally Beth Lyon, Director of Research, Columbia Public Schools; Nicholas Peckham, owner, Peckham & Wright Architects, Inc.; and Mary Colton Wilkerson, Vice President, Marketing, Boone County National Bank.

The Vision Committee 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. Another critical task is encouraging citizens to attend the two BIG (Big Idea-Gathering) Meetings set for Nov. 28 and Nov. 30. Citizen ideas generated at the BIG Meetings will lay the foundation for Columbia’s vision plan.

In addition to Mayor Hindman, Sponsors Council members are Dr. Gerald Brouder, President of Columbia College; Dr. Phyllis Chase, Superintendent of Columbia Public Schools; Dr. Brady Deaton, Chancellor, University of Missouri - Columbia; Dr. Wendy Libby, President of Stephens College; Keith Schnarre, Boone County Presiding Commissioner; and Bill Watkins, Columbia City Manager. 

For more information about community wide visioning, visit the city of Columbia’s Web site at www.GoColumbiaMo.com and click on “Imagine Columbia’s Future.”

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