Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/19/2013 - Strategic Planning

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Ramsey Final Report Grant No. 05 -1237 City of Ramsey Ramsey Open Space Technology The four forums fostered discussion and debate that prepared the community for a series of community - wide discussions using Open Space Technology. Michael Herman of Chicago, IL, internationally -known teacher and practitioner of Open Space Technology (OST), served as the consultant for this phase of the project. Successfully employed for over 20 years in a variety of settings, OST has proven particularly valuable in situations where participants need to have ownership of the process. Herman, for example, came to Ramsey not long after conducting OST sessions between the warring factions in Nepal that had resulted in a cease fire to a long- standing civil conflict. The success of OST hinges on the "invitation" that is extended to potential participants. These invitations are framed as open -ended questions that require community consensus which is reached through small group discussions that focus on creating consensus. Because of the importance of the initial invitation, several phone conversations were conducted with Herman to carefully frame the Ramsey invitation. In addition Herman provided staff and the Ramsey steering committee with a guide and checklist he has developed for planning OST sessions. The extensive checklist included everything from audio /visual needs to the number of marking pens and flip charts. Without this checklist, planning would have been a great deal more difficult. In the preliminary conversations with Herman, the project planning group discussed timing, topics and even the proper place to hold the sessions. OST has proven particularly effective when participants have a large block of time to address a problem. A major concern was how to balance the need for this uninterrupted time with how many hours residents could reasonably commit The final decision involved opening with a Friday evening, all -day Saturday event followed by a series of evening events. This initial session would serve to define the topics for the further sessions. Another issue centered on the timing of these follow -up sessions, which involved a compromise between scheduling them so closely that it curtailed attendance and so far apart that energy was lost Minnesotans' uncertain summer schedules made this difficult. Michael Herman convened the initial OST session on Friday evening, May 4 and Saturday, May 5 to discuss the invitation question: "What do you want in our backyard ?" The invitation is attached to this report. More than sixty people attended the two -day session. They included city staff and Council members, Planning and Park Commissioners, city residents who had attended the forums, and people who had not attended the forums. The session even attracted people from neighboring communities. Many of those attending were city activists who had been involved in various community issues, while others had never attended a single city meeting.