CH 2020 Theme Groups: A Summary

So at this point there’s been much discussion as to what a theme is, who will make up a theme working group, what these working group will do and how they will do it. The town has answered these questions in series of blog on the 2020 Buzz site, but there’s a good deal of information to wade through, so I’ve tried to succinctly summarize them below in a Q&A format:

What is a theme? The town calls the themes the building blocks of the plan. They’re not necessarily value-laden; instead they’re areas that the plan will focus on. Currently there are six themes. You can find a list of the current themes here.

Who will make up the theme groups? Ideally, that would be you, in the broadest sense of the word. Basically group members will fall into one of four different categories. In addition to the categories below, School of Government facilitators will be on hand to help mediate discussion and outreach will done to get even more opinions.

• The theme group’s co-chairs will be neutral facilitators who will work to keep the groups on trac
• The staff resource person will be a town, University, hospital or other agency employee that will act as a liaison to the resources committee, a special group charged with helping the groups get the information they need.
• The recorder will be a designated staff person whose job it is record the meeting, produce a quick report of it and bring outreach information to the group.
• The stakeholders are you. Their job is to develop the actual content of the plan. If you haven’t already signed up, you can just show up at the meeting Thursday to participate.

What will the theme groups do? As noted above, their basic function will to be develop the content of the plan. That content will than be reconciled with other themes at meetings among all the theme groups. The content will include everything from general strategies and minivisions to specific timelines, measures of success and responsible parties. You can check out the details on what that content will entail here.

How will the theme groups do their work? The town identified six different ideas or principles on how the theme groups will work in its blog post. You can check out all the gritty details here, but they basics are: 

• The co-chairs, recorders, resource people and other staff are there to help, not to dictate. They’re logistics people, basically. 
• The process will be open and democratic. That means new ideas and new people are always welcome. That said, staying on task is important. 
• The groups will decide themselves on how they will make decisions. 
• The groups will remain open to new information. Groups will be expected to include comments and feedback received from outreach efforts. 
• The groups will work with each other. Reporting out sessions will be held where groups will share, connect and discuss with the ultimate goal of producing one plan and one vision.
•  The groups will receive information. Staff and others involved with the project will be constantly analyzing data and reporting it out it to groups as the process evolves.