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 On November 11 and 12th, over 100 practitioners of regional stewardship gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah for the Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS) semi-annual National Forum on Regional Stewardship. The theme for this forum was Selling the Vision, Creating the Reality and focused on how regions move from public input to implementation of their critical programs. 43 regions were represented in Salt Lake City and every practitioner had experiences of significance to share and learn.
The experience of Envision Utah was the context for lessons learned in Salt Lake, other regions shared their experiences and challenges of defining critical issues, assembling the appropriate leadership around those issues and obtaining public input on how best these issues should be addressed in the region. The issue of determining regional values and the role they play in moving from vision to execution was a valuable lesson from the forum.
Prior to the formal programs, many participants toured mixed use developments, transit-oriented design projects and examples of affordable housing in Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Back. Dine-around dinners were organized to bring participants together on specific issues of interest. After the dine-arounds, on Thursday, tours of Temple Square and the Genealogy Library were arranged; as well as an opportunity to attend a practice of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Highlights from the two-day program&
On Thursday, Governor Olene Walker welcomed us to Utah. She described the relative urbanization of the state, with most of its population living in the 80 mile urban corridor from Ogden to Provo, known as the Wasatch Front. She noted that Utah had more people under the age of 18 than any other state, more school-age children than other states, and a population that tended to live longer than those in other states. Together, these posed major budgetary problems and had tremendous growth implications for Utah's future. During the tenure of her predecessor, Governor Leavitt, Envision Utah became the vehicle to address the state's growth challenges.
Robert Grow, the founding chair of Envision Utah (as well as member of the ARS Board of Directors), spoke about the regional visioning process used by Envision Utah. He noted that regional visioning was the natural evolution of place-making and that values and constraints analysis were the key inputs to visioning. Values provided the basis for the vision; constraints analysis tied the vision to reality. He noted eight process lessons from Envision Utah: (1) Learning from others and sharing strengthens the effort; (2) Multiple issue initiatives have the longest staying power; (3) Stakeholders need to be included early enough to feel they're having legitimate input; (4) Know what the inputs to decisions are&what are the real causes of why people live where they do? (5) Governance is a network of relationships; (6) Fear is a poor long-term motivator, you need to instill the idea of a better future; (7) Always model your problem-solving, that is, use legitimate technical processes to prove the proposed solutions; and (8) Regional change is not for the faint of heart, it requires optimism and persistence.
Dee Allsop, of President and CEO of WithinWorldwide, provided insights to how values lead to vision. He led the effort in Envision Utah to assess residents' values and the relationship of those values to action. Allsop noted that vision emanates from values. They identified the shared core values of residents of the Wasatch Front to help guide leadership decisions. He noted that values are the central guidepost for human decision-making; they matter because they provide motivation, they inspire action; they are widely shared, thus coalitions can be built, the base of support can be expanded and outreach to others can be more easily facilitated. Values are enduring, thus providing continuity for decisions.
After a networking lunch, where forum participants had the opportunity to touch base with the morning speakers and each other, they attended one of two concurrent sessions. One addressed strategies for stakeholder involvement; the other focused on the alignment of neighborhood revitalization/redevelopment and regional economic development to achieve collaborative efforts among unlikely allies. Thursday afternoon there were sessions to review and discuss the finding from three recent ARS monographs: Livable Communities, Regional Business-led Civic Organizations, and Regional Indicator Projects.
Friday morning's opening session was devoted to lessons learned from the recipients of the 2004 Regional Stewardship Awards. Birmingham, Alabama; Fresno, California and the Gateway Cities Region in Southern California shared their experiences in developing cross-jurisdictional, multi-sector collaborations. Each winner discussed their challenges and the initiatives to address them.
Also on Friday morning, folks participated in one of three workshops addressing network governance, multi-sector regional initiatives and planning tools. The Network Governance participants heard how Austin, Texas is trying to apply the lessons from Envision Utah and the challenge of relying on a single champion. The Multi-Sector Initiative session focused on the critical success factors for regional change that have occurred in John Gardner Academy projects. The Planning Tools workshop focused on how design, visualization and consensus-building tools can help create sustainable, healthy communities.
At Friday's closing lunch, Dee Allsop provided an overview of the recent presidential election and its implications for regional stewardship. George Vradenburg, ARS's incoming Chair, discussed initial plans for the Spring forum to be held in Washington, D.C. in May.
A new aspect to the Salt Lake City forum was the opportunity for ARS members and forum participants to interact after the formal adjournment. ARS staff and Board members extended their stay to meet with a number of participants to informally discuss projects and ideas to enhance regional stewardship in their communities.
Forum participants commented on the substance of the program and the level of energy at the sessions. When the Forums started five years ago many of the practitioners had ideas for creating multi-sector regional initiatives; many of the efforts have now had a chance to successfully mature which means the Forum participants come with tremendous lessons to share with their peers.
Forum participants were asked to evaluate the National Forum, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. It's heartening to meet and talk with others who are fighting the good fight, wrote one participant. It was powerful to learn about the challenges and best practices of other regions, wrote another. Over a 40-year period, this is one of the best conferences I have ever attended.
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