Weather may have been a contributing factor to the lower than hoped for attendance as Big Valley’s Strategic Plan Steering Committee unveiled its vision for the community in a draft strategic plan.
Presented to the assembled stakeholders on Nov. 29 at the Big Valley Community Hall and facilitated by Victor Moisan from the Community Development Unit of Alberta Culture and Tourism, community members had the opportunity to provide feedback on the vision, mission and future goals for Big Valley.
The report was generated from the input of an eight member committee who participated in a strategic planning workshop held in Big Valley on Oct. 31, 2016.
Respect, integrity, fairness, leadership and involvement were identified as the core value words which helped to build the vision, mission and guiding principles for the strategic plan.
Participants reviewed the community’s current strengths and weakness, asked for clarification regarding identified accomplishments and discussed outside opportunities and threats that could either help or hinder the achievement of the long term vision.
The revealed vision is to build a welcoming, safe, thriving heritage community with a sustainable future.
Creating viable business attraction and retention plans, enhancing public safety and continuing with beautification and infrastructure improvement strategies has the goal of attracting new families to relocate into the community.
By providing ongoing, strong leadership, council hopes to inspire citizens who are engaged in local organizations and motivate those organizations to work collaboratively to achieve common goals.
Policies will ensure adequate training for Council and staff, provide for succession planning and help to uncover original approaches to generate public interest in running for council positions in future municipal elections.
These actions will support the mission of a strong municipal council providing services and leadership through public consultation and reliable governance and a community that plans for the future
The Strategic Plan will become Big Valley’s single most important guiding document.
It will influence all budgeting, human resource and operational activities, and therefore must provide direction to the Municipal Council and Village staff as they establish the goals, strategies and action plans to help the Village of Big Valley work toward achieving the stated vision and objectives.
The Strategic Plan Steering Committee has recognized that local community and economic development will require ongoing efforts, a unified vision and the ability to adapt to local, regional, national and even global changes.
They hope they have captured Big Valley’s unified vision and look forward to further input from stakeholders.
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