Session 3 - Community Scan
October 21, 2008
Outcomes: Begin developing a snapshot of the region’s current status.
The “Lee’s Summit 360: Charting Tomorrow” Strategic Planning Committee met for the third time today at Lee’s Summit High School. Committee Co-chairs Jon Ellis and Vicki Cundiff welcomed the stakeholders’ group of 240 citizens. Derek Okubo, National Civic League, led a discussion about the concept of “Community Scan.” The Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council (EDC) prepared the data for the highly-detailed presentation.
The presentation included information about Lee’s Summit’s and the region’s: Quality of Life, Growth, Environmental Sustainability, Transportation, Health & Human
Services, Crime & Public Safety, Housing, Fiscal Sustainability, Diversity, Cultural Arts, Economic Development, Schools, and Regional & National Issues. Money Magazine ranked Lee’s Summit as the 78th Best Place to Live in cities of our size. Information was presented about branding and development opportunities for Lee’s Summit.
Small groups were asked to discuss the following questions and report back to the larger group:
What information stands out? What does it mean for you?
- What are underlying factors that we must consider when analyzing the data?
- Based on this information, your knowledge and perceptions, what are the strengths of Lee’s Summit that we can build from? What are the opportunities that we have before us inside and outside of Lee’s Summit?
- What are the potential dangers that we have to consider? What are the threats within the region that could impact us?
- Without any intervention and we find us down the road in 15 years, what is our potential future in Lee’s Summit?
- Based on this information, your perceptions and what has been discussed in previous meetings, what does your group think are the key areas that we must focus our planning on? Pick four priority areas.