Citizen Participation

Nearly 900 people participated in Envision Golden Valley, sharing their ideas and hopes for the future of the community. Of these, 112 volunteered their time, talents, and energy to develop and implement the process for their fellow citizens.

Envision Committees

• Steering Committee - Coordinated and directed all planning related to Envision events and assured that subcommittee activities were integrated to cost-effectively meet Envision's goals. All subcommittees submitted recommendations to this group, which formulated an ultimate recommendation to present to City Council.
• Theme Subcommittee - Worked to inspire creative and forward thinking by Envision participants and developed materials to support the theme.
• Format Subcommittee - Worked to translate the format to other venues and bring the work of all groups together. Recruited and trained facilitators.
• Envision-In-A-Box Subcommittee - Translated the format for the Envision Summit so that off-site groups could readily use it, with clear directions on how to create a successful event.
• Envision Online Subcommittee - Translated the Envision Summit format to something that could be used on the Internet for audiences that would not attend any visioning event in person but may choose to participate online.
• Youth Involvement Subcommittee - Identified ways to involve youth in Envision.
• Communications Subcommittee - Worked to inform the community about Envision and ways to participate. Developed a communications plan and branded Envision to the community. Spearheaded invitation process for all events.
• Facilities and Recognition Subcommittee - Identified facilities in the community that could serve as venues for the Envision Summit and other Envision events. Organized Summit and arranged set-up on the night of the event. Identified ways to recognize individuals, organizations, and businesses that made outstanding contributions to Envision.
• Refreshments Subcommittee - Coordinated with the Facilities Subcommittee to provide refreshments for the Envision Summit at a reasonable cost.
• Report Team - Activated upon completion of the Envision idea-gathering phase to analyze all ideas submitted and group/summarize them for distribution to the community. Separate teams reviewed the ideas in each category and labeled them as visionary ideas, current problems, or other issues (ideas not related to the specific category). Other ideas were forwarded to the appropriate category team. Using an affinity analysis process, teams grouped related ideas for the purpose of identifying themes and vision statements. Each category team submitted its analysis to the Report Team to further distill the ideas into strong vision statements that incorporated the spirit of many ideas. The Writing Team then clarified the language and assisted City staff in preparing the Vision Guide for distribution.

Facilitators

Envision facilitators were community volunteers who led groups of people in imagining the Golden Valley of the future. The training was provided by experienced facilitators. Groups included a broad mix of residents, business people, educators, and civic leaders. During each Envision event, facilitators provided an overview of Envision Golden Valley, set ground rules for conduct, led the group through the visioning process, and then documented the group's ideas and submitted them to Envision coordinators.