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| Photo courtesy of Nicole Duplessis Among those in attendance at Saturday’s Community Visioning meeting were, from left, Julie Daigle, representing the Power of Prevention organization; Ken Murchison, a city councilor; and Jan Murchison, a civil engineer. |
By Nicole Duplessis
Special to the Aroostook Republican
The visioning meeting held at the Caribou Recreation Center on Dec. 7 proved to be a productive one. Members of the community gathered to follow up and continue from where they had previously left off.
“What they have to do today is develop the goals,” Kathy Mazzuchelli, director of the Caribou Recreation Department and moderator for the meeting, said. “They will be laying out the blueprints as to how they can accomplish what they want to do.”
As a refresher, Mazzuchelli reviewed the vision that had been created at the previous meeting. The vision is, “The community to work, play, grow and call home in all seasons.” Attendees of the meeting agreed that the vision was good as is, and moved forward to review the mission statement.
The mission statement is as follows:
The City of Caribou, where the residents, service organizations, businesses, schools and local government are actively committed to:
• welcoming, encouraging and promoting the growth and investment of commerce and industry;
• supporting, enhancing and expanding Caribou’s strong foundation of all season recreation opportunities;
• promoting a community where you can grow your family, your business and yourself; and
• providing a safe, healthy welcoming atmosphere for individuals and families to live.
Upon reviewing the mission statement, attendees agreed that the verbal aspect of the mission was complete. The discussion evolved into whether or not the mission statement should include images for each aspect. Mazzuchelli included photos while demonstrating the mission statement to see how it altered the vibe of the content.
“We’ve got pictures in there that demonstrate the aspects we’ve talked about,” Mazzuchelli said.
The purpose of the photos would be to provide a visual. Photos seemed to receive positive feedback from the attendees. Many expressed how they thought visual content of the community would be beneficial.
Next, groups were formed to discuss and lay out goals. Each group received a large piece of poster paper in which they were to write down perspective ideas regarding the different aspects of the mission statement.
“The goals will help define how each of the elements of the mission statement might be achieved,” Mazzuchelli said. “You can’t make them too specific because that limits you.”
As groups worked to develop goals, Mazzuchelli discussed ideas with different groups. There were many similarities among the groups, such as maintaining a business friendly community and nurturing entrepreneurship. Attendees highlighted on commonalities and discussed which ones were most important. From here, goals were organized.
The next visioning meeting will be held on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2014 at 10 a.m. at the Caribou Recreation Center. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
