IMAGINE.DOWNTOWN AKRON:2025

Citizens of a community can participate in a government planning processes in many ways: by attending town meetings, by sending letters to the editor of the newspaper, by calling-in to radio talk shows. The most successful cities have enacted visions that emerge from small gatherings in which thinkers and leaders trade ideas with elected officials.

Imagine. Downtown Akron is:

• A citizen-driven planning initiative that builds on the work of 400+ volunteers who participated in Imagine.Akron:2025 in 1999-2000. Citizen participation in the community planning process has been an effective tool for successful cities all across the U.S.

• An assembly of leaders and thinkers who have been asked to spend time in small groups to conduct a focused community conversation that picks-up where Imagine.Akron: 2025 left-off. It asks, "What steps may be taken now -- to assure that Akron will be successful when it turns 200 years old in 2025.

The Imagine.Akron:2025 report, issued in September, 2000 suggested :

• Goals that the City of Akron should achieve if it is to retain the confidence of its citizens
• Strategies that will enable the private and public sectors to achieve such Goals
• Resources that will be required for success.

Since the report was issued, sufficient time has passed for the private, public, and non-profit sectors to further consider how the Imagine.Akron report can be implemented, and to consider events that have occurred subsequent to 2000 that may now require an adjustment in course.

Imagine.Downtown Akron will issue its report in April, 2005 to the Community, to the Media, to local Foundations, and to the Mayor and City Council of Akron.

How the Project Will Do Its Work

There is a Board of Governors that has planned the project and will oversee it.

Two Cabinets have been established to coalesce work in two areas:

• Infrastructure (hardware)

• Events (software)

These cabinets are to take a "macro" view of how Akron will engage the topic through 2025.

There are Eight Workgroups that will take the "micro" view of how Akron will engage each topic through 2025.

Each Workgroup can have a Moderator who will organize meetings and direct the conversations within the group to enable the freest flow of ideas and the widest participation by all members.

Each workgroup will have a Resource Representative who will provide information on existing services; and share research from the field.

Membership in each workgroup will be selected from people who live or work in Akron and others who have volunteered to participate. It is not necessary to be an expert in a topic to be a member of a workgroup. In fact, deliberate efforts will be made to assign interested laypersons from diverse backgrounds to participate in each workgroup.

Meetings of each workgroup should generally be about 90-minutes in length and held at sites and at times selected by the moderator. Meetings of Imagine.Akron are not subject to the same requirements that govern meetings of elected legislative or administrative bodies.

Attendance at meetings of the Advisory Committee and workgroups will generally be limited to members of the group. Audiotape and videotape recording devices are generally not permitted at meetings of groups, unless prior arrangements have been made with Imagine.Akron.

Each group is expected to meet three to five times between November 1 and March 1, 2005.

When the report of the workgroups is complete, there will be an Assembly, a "Conversation In The Round" where the greater community can come together to comment on and discuss the plans for implementing the goals of Imagine.DowntownAkron.