Last week’s meetings that were focused on starting to map out a strategic community plan for the Town of Outlook and the RM of Rudy may have served as something of a wake-up call as the region faces a future that is forever changing in the vast Canadian landscape, and the goal is to make sure this area isn’t left behind.
Held at the Outlook Civic Centre on May 15 & 17, with a private meeting for town and RM councils on May 16, the sessions were led by Okotoks-based consultant Chris Fields, who has over 25 years experience in helping communities map out their long-term futures with focused planning and initiatives aimed at growth and prosperity.
Each of the public meeting sessions drew around 20 people in attendance; a mixture of local business owners, Chamber of Commerce representatives, as well as those associated with any community groups within Outlook.
Fields’ presentation highlighted how it’s mainly up to the people within any community population – the general public as well as elected officials – to shape their destiny and begin setting the building blocks toward a positive future.
“I don’t believe you can just sit back and let fate take over; others will pass you by,” he said. “The greatest success story is your own choices. You’re the ones who are leaving a legacy.”
For any questions people may have had about these meetings going in, they may have left with a much better understanding because Chris’s message as far as growth goes was a rather simple one; don’t complicate things by taking on more than what Outlook and the RM can handle, instead pick maybe two or three things to do in one year and see if perhaps the momentum can be carried to move on to other tasks or projects afterward. This rather modest-sized approach is one of the things that helps establish those building blocks toward revamping a community’s look or its intended vision.
As with anything, it takes a human effort to get things rolling, and Fields says in every community he’s worked in, it’s usually that place’s go-to people who are the first to pitch in and work to start making things happen.
“The people who make things happen are what I call the ‘pied pipers’; the ones who’ll weather the criticisms in order to see things through,” he said.
Part of the approach Chris takes is relating community planning to how our modern world typically operates these days, trying to move away from the cynical, paranoid and fear-mongering mindset that seems to permeate our everyday lives, particularly on social media where new ideas and prospective projects are easy targets for harsh criticism that can result in them being shot down quickly.
To Fields, attitude is everything when approaching community planning, and in the end it’s about knowing that when new generations are coming up, the proper legacy has been left behind by the generations before it.
“The term ‘legacy’ is an incredibly powerful word,” he said. “What kind of legacy are you going to leave your community? How are you going to be different and not the same? I need you to be a colorful dot moving on the map if I asked you what is Outlook and the RM of Rudy.”
The presentation touched on ways that Outlook and the RM could promote itself to tourists, with Fields noting that communities should take advantage of the things that already make them stand out and appear interesting to outsiders, as well as eliminate vague terminology from any promotional items or websites; ‘hidden gem’, ‘best-kept secret’, phrases such as that that don’t really describe what is so great about a certain community area to prospective visitors.
In compiling his early data for Outlook and the RM of Rudy’s prospective plans, Chris also polled the audience in attendance during his presentations, with people texting their responses to a number of questions, and the data revealing the responses shown in real-time. These questions touched on a range of topics, including:
- Does Outlook/RM need population growth?
- Has Outlook/RM kept up with the change of pace?
- Do we listen to pessimists more than optimists?
- Do groups within the community challenge the ability to work together?
Apart from yes or no questions, Fields asked more detailed ones at the end of his formal presentation. A couple of examples included:
- 20 years from now, what should Outlook/RM be uniquely known for? Answers ranged from ‘irrigation’, ‘economy’, ‘innovation’, ‘growth’, ‘diversified’, ‘education’, and ‘Skytrail’.
- What industries do you believe should lead the charge in the future? The top choices were agricultural production, agricultural processing, and recreational tourism.
In closing his presentation, Fields said that it may take between two to three months to move on with his work in developing the plan after compiling all of the data and responses generated from the public sessions.
