Residents gather to create a Vision for Wells Branch
On February 25, around 50 residents gathered at the WB Community Center to dream and create a Vision for our community. This meeting was the brainchchild of 12 year resident George Holcombe and new resident Scott Smith. The following was presented before the actual brainstorming began:
Reason for Visioning: To gather our vision from the community to use in planning and acting out the future.
What a Vision is and is not:
• A vision is not something we do or a plan of action
• A vision is an underlying image that motivates us, defines us, is a reason for being
• When we complain or boast about our community, we are making judgments based on our unspoken vision.
Why are Visions important: They are alive and dynamic – they move us – the clearer we are about our visions, the clearer our actions tend to be.
Once the purpose and examples were given, residents were invited to share what they felt were the gifts and challenges of our community. Mr. Holcombe and Mr. Smith facilitated the rest of the session encouraging residents to to participate and collaborate to build a rational chart. Below is the result.
The next Visioning session occurred on April 1, where neighbors tackled “Challenges to” and “Strategies for” Achieving our Visions. Please see the charts for each below. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been an open weekend to get together and it looks like we’ll have to forward this effort until the Fall.
Wells Branch Challenges
Wells Branch Strategies
A number of things have come out of the sessions, among them, the need to get hyper-connected across the several Web and Facebook pages of the MUD, Neighborhood Association, Library, etc. as well as list serves in the neighborhood to make information more user friendly and readily available, also the need to increase our voting participation, so our voice is not lost on issues affecting our neighborhood.
Wells Branch is a wonderful neighborhood with lots of great events and services, in fact, it is in the top 10 best communities to raise a family according to Bloomberg Business Week. As we go into the future we are facing issues that will require the participation of informed neighbors. So keep a look out for the next workshop, and in the meantime you might want to look around and see what other neighborhoods and communities are doing in the way of planning and generating participation. Feel free to post your discoveries on the Wells Branch Neighbors Google Group. Lets keep the conversation rolling.”
If you’re not a Google Group member yet, email geowanda1@me.com to get set up.