BUILDING BRIGHTER
Shaping our Board’s Engagement through the CEDS Process
BUILDING BRIGHTER
Shaping our Board’s Engagement through the CEDS Process
Shaping Our Board’s Engagement & Strategic Direction
Session Two Overview
At our May board meeting, we broke into small groups to discuss the CEDS process and the impact we hope to create through our
active engagement in the process.
We distilled and organized your collective contributions into four categories which addressed the following discussion questions:
Your contributions will be shared with TIP Strategies, the consulting firm facilitating our CEDS process. We are also using the information you have shared to inform the design of our fall retreat and our approach to the board's ongoing work.
In addition to the important recap of your work together, below you will find a CEDS video update from Gary Ballew, which includes helpful information on how to get involved.
Please take time to review the content and ideas that you and your peers have contributed and respond to each of the three questions below. Thank you!
1. Our Why: Why is the CEDS process so important for the GSI Board to invest in?
2. Our Process Goals: How will we work together as a team to maximize the value of this process?
3. Areas of Interest: What do we want to learn about our community and our economy through the CEDS process?
4. Stakeholders in our Community's Vision: Who should be involved in the CEDS process? How might we ensure we
engage a diverse selection of people throughout our region?
Our Why
"Why is the CEDS process so important for the GSI Board to invest in?"
"We hope this CEDS plan will develop something sustainable and relevant that will impact the safety and economic vitality of our region (jobs, roads, schools, tourism, health).
We want an inviting community in which children, grandchildren, and all others can thrive."
Our Process Goals
"How will we work together as a team to maximize the value of this process?"
Cultivate Curiosity: Areas of Interest
"What do we want to learn about our community and our economy through the CEDS process?"
WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?
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What does success look like in terms of comprehensive economic development?
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What is the ultimate vision for this community as we align with all interested parties?
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What will need to have happened or changed in our community for us to look back and say, "We did it. We improved the economic vitality of our region."
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Which other communities have been wildly successful with economic development? What can we learn from them?
DOWNTOWN
CORE
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COVID-19 challenges: What does a vibrant core look like NOW?
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What does it mean to each of us to keep downtown vibrant?
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How might it change as you wear different hats?
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How might we find an effective path to encourage businesses and employees and consumers to return to downtown cores (including Valley/Liberty Lake and other municipalities) for work, shopping, general activity?
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What is stopping us from building housing downtown?
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Is there a parallel study that assesses all pockets of housing that are needed? Do we need to change our zoning? Who is supportive of that? How does GMA play into this discussion?
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How might we respond to the homeless problem so that we can re‐establish downtown as an attractive/inviting place for visitors and local citizens?
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How do we most effectively address the uncertainty across the board in the post-covid context (possibility for new ways of doing things)?
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How might we learn the most about the existing economic development ecosystem that is in place? What can we do to strengthen it and actually help make a difference from an acquisition and retention perspective?
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What types of development plans currently exist? How do they fit together? How are the plans resourced (Cities, Counties, and State)?
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How well do existing economic development plans fit with the interests of the broader community?
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What are the major disconnects between planners and community members on infrastructure, upcoming opportunities, and potential threats? How do we bridge them?
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How might we build support for a tax or other community funding mechanism for economic development? Are there growth or anti‐growth ideas out there we don't know about?
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What are the central goals that everybody agrees on?
UNDERSTAND
OUR ECOSYSTEM
HOUSING
CHALLENGES
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What are the biggest housing issues and infrastructure needs?
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As housing prices in Spokane go up, what will "new" potential residents think?
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What are the root causes of homelessness in our region?
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What is needed for housing to be affordable? What are the repercussions if there isn't access to affordable housing options?
DIVERSE &
INCLUSIVE PROCESS
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How do we ensure that we have a diverse, inclusive process? How do we know if we've done that effectively?
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How might we highlight cultural assets and identify opportunities?
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What groups are GSI not including in our current footprint that we should specifically target to ensure diverse input?
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
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Coming out of the pandemic, how can we help folks get back in the workforce?
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How can we attract more qualified labor to this area?
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How can we dignify basic trades in high school that need more people (machinists, plumbers, electricians, health techs)? How can we prepare students better in high school to graduate and be qualified to get these jobs?
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What policies/methods might work best to increase the effective labor force and address the acute shortage of labor throughout the inland Empire?
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How is ED funded (private/business/state/local/federal)?
CHILDCARE
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How does childcare impact economic recovery?
BUSINESS RETENTION
& GROWTH
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How we are going to help grow and build our existing business in addition to looking for the new shiny object?
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What do our existing businesses need most? How do we best support them?
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With the substantial increase in minimum wages and housing prices and other cost-of-living factors, how are businesses going to remain competitive with competitors in our more affordable neighboring state of ID?
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How might we address the challenges of comparative costs across ID border (disadvantages of a border town)?
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How do we incentivize WA businesses to stay in our region?
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How might we design creative yet reasonable incentives to offset some of the costs? What barriers have gotten in the way to this point?
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How might we design marketing and promote businesses for the purpose of recruiting as well as a "buy local" mentality?
REGIONAL
COLLABORATION
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How might we capture a well-rounded perspective of the challenges industries face, find commonalities, and work towards solutions?
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How can we work better together with like organizations in Spokane (DSP, VS, Valley, City, County, U District, West Plains, etc.) to achieve the greatest level of economic development for our region?
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How can we communicate better, so we have less overlap?
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What makes this type of collaboration so challenging? What bright spots are out there that prove it can work?
Stakeholders in our Community's Vision
"Who should be involved in the CEDS process? How might we ensure we engage a diverse selection of people throughout our region?"
"We need to come together to engage‐ like quilters we have so many different, diverse members,
that add to the beauty of the quilt. We HAVE to take advantage of that and use our power to do so."
"I believe that positive change in our community will best happen through collective collaboration of multi‐faceted groups of leaders comprised of government, educational, business, and community. We cannot rely on leadership from the State or national to help us move the needle. GSI is the ideal vehicle to have those conversations and to nurture the ideas."
"We need to identify the common ground where multiple players can come together around
shared priorities. If we are too siloed, we won't accomplish the big things."
HOW MIGHT OUR TABLE BEST REFLECT THE DIVERSITY IN OUR COMMUNITY?
HOW MIGHT WE CREATE AN INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT,
WHERE EVERYONE FEELS WELCOMED, VALUED,
& SAFE TO CONTRIBUTE?
STAKEHOLDERS
LISTED IN YOUR BREAKOUT GROUPS
Big business
Small business
Community members
Government
Local Government
Non-profits
Environmental groups
Hospitals and healthcare providers
Education
University District
BIPOC Community
Women-owned businesses
Veterans
Indigenous
Rural
Key industries
(i.e. Lifesciences, Energy, Agriculture, Aerospace)
across all sectors(i.e. Manufacturing, Technology).
Workforce development teams (colleges)
Students
Retired
Union Gospel/Anna Ogden Hall
SRTC, WDC, PDA's,
broadly the economic development councils/committees in the region
CEDS Update
Ways to get involved
STAY INFORMED
As a GSI board member, you will be signed up to receive ongoing updates about the CEDS work. You will be notified when there is an opportunity to review the information and provide feedback. There will also be meetings and other opportunities to participate. It is a good way to stay engaged, stay informed, and help guide the process. There will be an opt-out at the bottom of each e-mail, allowing you to opt-out of receiving additional emails.
NAMING CONTEST
You may have noticed that the ‘Update to Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy for the Region Defined by Spokane County’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. So, we'd like to invite you to help us rename the process by participating in a naming contest! As a reminder, the CEDS will serve as a strategy-driven plan to build capacity and guide economic prosperity and resiliency for the Greater Spokane region. With that, we are looking for a short name for the CEDS (max of 3 words) that promotes community collaboration and inclusivity while also conveying a forward-looking, action-oriented effort that will continue through the plan’s implementation.
All entries must be submitted through this form or by email to Joey Gunning at jgunning@greaterspokane.org by July 14 at 11:59 p.m.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Please consider being a part of the Steering Committee. As a Steering Committee member, you will play an active role in developing the region's strategies for economic growth by attending eight monthly meetings starting in July 2021 (with a recess during the month of August). Each meeting will be 60-90 minutes, and you are required to attend every meeting, as information will continue to build upon each other over the planning process. Some meetings will be in-person, and we will do what we can to have a virtual option but cannot guarantee it. You will also be expected to put in the time to help us get the word out. This might entail attending community events to take in surveys or other activities. You will need to provide a timely review of documents and engage in open discussion with individuals you may disagree with while being an active listener. Being on the Steering Committee will require your time and talents, but it is rewarding. If you are interested, let us know, and we will provide additional information.
THOUGHT LEADERS
A broad group of community leaders will be fully engaged in the planning process. The Thought Leaders group will participate in the project launch, roundtables and interviews, strategy development, and implementation planning. This group will convene at least three times during the 10-month project.
ENGAGE OTHERS IN THE CONVERSATION
Please forward us the contact information of others you believe would be interested in this work. If you are wondering if someone should be engaged in this process, then the answer is yes! We want a robust conversation, so please help us get the word out.