Concept: How the community defines its desired future, and determine the steps it needs to make progress toward that desired future.
Questions to ask yourself:
- What will be my role in this process?
- What does the community expect from me?
- What do I expect from the community and its core team members?
- What is a realistic timeline for completion? How will we recognize and celebrate achievements?
- What Extension and external partners need to be involved?
- Is the community’s plan/program SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely)?
- How will we document long-term impacts?
- Has the community identified who will give leadership to implementation and follow-through after I leave?
Questions to ask the community:
- What is the nature of the challenge? For example, is this a design process? Organizational development? Community planning? Budget planning? Economic development strategy?
- What assets do we have that can contribute to the success of the project?
- Considering the nature of the challenge, what planning tools are appropriate?
- What has already been done (i.e., existing plans) and how do those plans affect this project?
- How does this fit into regional plans/planning activities?
- How does this fit into public and private sector plans/planning activities?
- What are the points at which we must evaluate our progress and the project?
Check-out questions to make sure you are in sync with community expectations:
- Shared expectations?
- New stakeholders?
- New assets external/internal?