Strategic Plan Online

The Strategic Plan is finally online.

This is the document that is, theoretically, designed to guide the County Board in its thinking and decision-making for the forseeable future. It was proposed by the IGA Committee a two and a half years ago; it was important that we have it on the shelf when applying for grants. We paid a consultant around $60,000 to put it together, and they arranged dozens of meetings with stakeholders of every sort all around the County. I went to quite a number of those meetings, and they all involved interesting and energetic conversations. The consultants also assembled a wide variety of data regarding all facets of the County and life here, and assembled it all in a document that we got last fall. And finally, today, it's available to everyone.

I am, as you can tell, a little frustrated about the length of time it has taken, and (my opinion) the low level of priority that the Board has assigned it. A committee to implement the Plan was formed, many months after it was received, and I'm on that Committee.

The Strategic Plan Implementation Committee has met each month this year, and discussions there have been more energetic and – dare I say it – hopeful than would be the case in most committee meetings. Opportunities and possibilities abound in the Plan, and once we begin talking about it, we realize that many of them can actually come to pass.

So take a look at it. It's on the Otsego County home page, and it's called the Strategic Prioritization Plan. You might have been at a meeting during it's creation, which means you built it (thanks, by the way, if you're one of those people). Let me know what you think. The actual plan is actually less than 40 pages; the rest is data, and very interesting data about where we live and work. Go take a look.