Columbia Visioning Project

As the city of Columbia — its government and its citizens — move forward with the implementation of the goals and strategies identified in Imagine Columbia’s Future, the Columbia Missourian and The Watchword want to help. That’s why we’re pleased to announce a collaborative arrangement in which The Watchword will serve as an online gathering place where residents, city leaders and elected officials can discuss the community’s progress, exchange ideas about visioning and share the lessons we learn along the way.

The Watchword will be working closely with Sarah Read of Communications Center, Inc., who has been hired by the city as a vision implementation consultant, and with her research associate, Dave Overfelt. Both have been involved with the visioning process since its inception.

The discussion starts with this site; it’s a work in progress. We need to hear from you about how The Watchword and the Missourian can contribute to the cause. Toward that end, the Missourian will have representatives at the Visioning Implementation Open House, scheduled for 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 30, at the Activities and Recreation Center, 1701 W. Ash St.

We’ve started by offering some interesting reading material.

First, you can review the Imagine Columbia’s Future visioning report produced by ACP Visioning and Planning after months of deliberation by the 13 citizen topic groups that formed during the visioning effort.

You’ll also find links below to a paper from the National League of Cities, “Changing the Way We Govern: Building Democratic Governance in Your Community;” and to two papers from the Case Foundation, “Citizens at the Center” and “Social Citizens.” All three discuss and promote the premise that the way citizens engage in municipal governance is changing. We hope you’ll find them informative and inspirational.

Changing the Way We Govern

Citizens at the Center

Social Citizens

As you’ll see in the tabs above and in the Pages list on the left, we’ve created a separate page called “Columbia Visioning,” where you’ll find this announcement and the accompanying documents. Unfortunately, WordPress does not allow users to “post” to a particular page within The Watchword. So, all new posts regarding this visioning project will appear on the “Home” page. They’ll also be categorized under “Visioning.” So, if you want to view only the posts related to this project, you can search the “Visioning” category in the list on the right side of the screen.

Again, this is a work in progress, so please let us know what you think. We’ll look forward to hearing from you.