Jasperites Work on Strategic Plan
Last Friday the Forward Jasper Steering Committee, along with a diverse group of Jasper County community and business leaders, met with Dr. Marj Davis at Mercer University School of Engineering to begin developing a specific plan for strategic improvements for our community.
Dr. Davis will lead a series of interactive workshops designed to create a strategic plan to create common (shared) understanding of the current situation and the desired situation in our community, and reach consensus on how to move forward.
Forward Jasper has met several times over the last two years, and nearly 30 people came together Friday to begin ironing out a plan.
This will include developing a set of specific action goals that are most important to the community, along with implementation time lines, responsibilities, and resources needed.
The series of workshops will be key to building a cohesive, empowered team of community leaders who can work well together, create desired actions, explain the vision to others, and solicit support, funding, and buy-in from all elements of the community (citizens, government, industry, agencies, services, sponsors, and volunteers).
Dr. Davis’ methodology will include best practices in leading participants to understand the current status of our community while engaging teams in setting priorities, and demonstrate effective technical communication strategies for implementing plans.
Those taking part in Friday’s meeting included David Dyer, Steve Jordan, and Rusty Bullard from the Development Authority; Jasper County School Superintendent Mike Newton; Piedmont Academy Headmaster Tony Tanner; Mark Andrews, Vice President of Economic Development for Southern Crescent Technical College; Jasper Memorial Hospital Administrator Jan Gaston; Jeff Greeson, Vice-President of Energy Services, Central Georgia EMC, and Kathy Mudd, chair of the Monticello-Jasper County Chamber of Commerce (COC) and newspaper publisher.
Also in attendance were Jasper County Commissioners Gene Trammell and Bruce Henry, and County Manager Karen Degges; Monticello Mayor Bryan Standifer, Mayor Pro-tem Bobby Jacobs, and Councilmen David Wease and Larry Thurman; Stone Workman, former Monticello councilman, Robert Jordan, civil engineer and business owner; Waymon Cody, Supervisor, Monticello Water Department, Juanita Gazaway, Secretary, Alcovy Shores Water Authority; Mark Walton, engineer and Secretary/Treasurer of the Jasper County Water & Sewerage Authority.
Attendees also included Skip Davis, vice chair of COC; Walter Smith, retired colonel, U.S. Army and local business owner; Jehan El-Jourbagy, current Monticello-Jasper County Citizen of the Year; Deb King, General Manager of Turtle Cove Property Owners Association (TCPOA); Don Jernigan, active member of the community and the recreation department, and Charles Green, President of Men’s Golf Association- TCPOA.
Friday’s meeting was an outgrowth of several previous meetings dating all the way back to 2008 when Georgia Tech worked with locals to do an Enterprise Innovation Institute Study. Results from other previous meetings include the “Site Set for Bioscience” report by Technology Park Atlanta; a Forward Jasper Strategic Planning Initiative in April, 2012 led by Georgia EMC’s Susan Peacock, including notes from A Community Conversation: Jasper County Is Moving Forward.
The group will meet again in Monticello next month, with two or three more meetings planned to develop an action plan. For more information, interested persons may contact any group member, or Mr. Dyer at 706-468-0657 or ddyer01@bellsouth.net.