Powerpoint for the Indicators Project

[Aaron Gilbee]

Hey gang,

I have developed a budget and a general plan for the indicators project. The final outcome of the project is a community scorecard system that will easily and simply assess environmental, social, and economic capital linked to the city's 2030 vision and be based upon the indicators identified by community participation in different forums.

Here is a link that goes to a presentation of the PPT. http://www.slideshare.net/AaronG/the-buffalo-indicators-project-2536689

Please fire any questions you have at me, so that I can resolve unforeseen questions that might come in future meetings with fundraisers. The indicators project will be publicly introduced next Tuesday at the Buffalo Business Gets Green meeting. I intend to introduce it in the 30 second forum that they have there.

Warmest regards,

Aaron

[Laura L. Fitzgerald]

Aaron,

 

It looks good to me. I do have one question though: on slide that begins "Sec 3.4" did you mean for the last statement to read: "to make (word missing) informed choices about adjustment to the plan on a continuing basis"?

 

Laura

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[Aaron Gilbee]

That is directly copied and pasted from the comprehensive plan. 

Warmest regards,

Aaron

[Brian Reilly]

Aaron, when you introduce, I'd suggest you put it out there as a concept and method you have and solicit interested folks to help you align it with the actions and actors responsible for that vision.

One of the things I do is run the office of Strategic Planning and it's partly my responsibility supposedly to implement that vision or see that it is implemented. I think it's languished under the prior head of OSP and in the community...however, to devise a measurement system unconnected to those responsible for implementing the vision wouldn't be nearly as strong or likely to succeed compared to the opposite.

there's lots to consider when trying to launch something like this to ensure likelihood of success and maximum impact.There will be other things to get your potential collaborators to help you with too...

i've viewed the powerpoint and will send to my Director of Planning. Perhaps then you could come to present it to my planning staff?  You could announce at BBGG that one of your next steps is to present per invitation of the commissioner. However, I'm thinking that social indicators are difficult to devleop and have less of a natural constituency in Places. At least at first because they're less tangible than economic or environmental ones which are both grounded in physical planning (enviro probably more than economic).  This is something for us to talk about--toward that I'm thinking about whether place-based indicators could be embedded in the closest to the ground level plan that we're rolling out very soon---the Summary of Neighborhood Implementation Plans, or "SNIP."  (it's smaller than a small area plan...which itself is smaller than a district plan, which is smaller too than the city's comp plan (Queen City Hub)).  this might be able to bring home sustainability to the block level--WOW----you just made me think of that at 6am. 

Now, the devil is in the details to see what you devised and how it might fit and MOST importantly how the measures would be collected at that block level...we're willing to explore this with you.

I'm going to ask you to come in and meet with staff--look at what we're trying to track in the SNIPs and together devise some specifics that we could collect data on and measure...I think they can then feed into indicators (for some of the areas in the comp plan...not all maybe not even many...but for sure some)

hey, on the downside, did i understand the $100,000+ pricetag?  that would be a remarkable long shot.
and it wouldn't come from the city. i'd suggest an approach that I might have before--that you consider who would benefit (say activist group or gov't agency whose mission involves wanting to see the change an indicator measures...say Riverkeeper or DEC examples.There are probably, say, "50" such organizations with a direct mission to see the needle move on that indicator and they probably work every day toward that. You're proposing to put in place measurements to see IF and when the needle moves...that should be valuable to their work. Be valuable to 50 organizations...there will be a way to find a funding stream to you for that is my guess. I'd suggest you talk the Community foundation's program officer for the environment too--i think they're devising goals if not measures for environment if not sustainability. align your indicators in ways that you can show reinforce those and you'd be the first (to my knowledge) outside the foundation seen to be trying to operationalize them.they're a funder, and they'd like that. They might then be persuaded to fund indicators. As might the other "50."

I think once you identify these orgs and review their missions to identify what types of indicators they're likely to have a stake in, you could use a meeting in Open Space with them as co-conveners to draft a set of indicators based on the comp plan. It'd be worth a three day effort because that would give everyone enough time to probably run thru your model process in the powerpoint. what an amazing outcome of one openspace if you could pull it off!  and after demonstrating that, I would think you'd wow a funder into putting up a grant for you to act as a network coordinator of sorts to interface between city planning and these natural indicator partners. To ask upfront before demonstrating this would put you in a long line of other competing foundation applicants with long track records (some of the very 50 you would be involving).

@ BBGG you can mention that the City has agreed to explore how this indicators effort might be incorporated into its neighborhood planning first...and then perhaps beyond that after learning how it works at the ground level..  you can say the commissioner of economic development has been not only aware and supportive of the concept, but had some initial comments and referrals for you (Indicators Consortium, Maureen Hart's stuff, etc.)  I think it's important, and would appreciate the public acknowledgment, that "the city" has been aware of, supportive of and somewhat involved in your work (and that work was aided and supported in its development through people involved in the Open Space efforts the city launched last year)...it will be stronger to roll out if it's not seen as merely an outside activist-type effort to "keep the city accountable"--mostly because there's not much of an activist constituency outside city hall trying to follow up on those initial community workshops and implement the city's Comp plan...we're going to need to work together to get people re-engaged both inside the hall and in the community.  I think embedding this in the SNIPs is a promising way to connect to real "constituencies of Place", and places like BBGG to "constituencies of interest."

you might invite BBGG participants to join you in a focus/brainstorm group to compile a list of the 50 orgs and even companies who might have a stake in such indicators as a base of support for your ongoing work and eventually potential co-conveners for the open space I'm suggesting. that would be a good, tangible outcome of your presentation to BBGG that some people could commit to.

let me know your availability during the week after Thanksgiving (to my city email address) to talk with my community planners.

let's see what we can do together.
brian

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 9:39 AM, Aaron Gilbee <aaron...@gmail.com> wrote:

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