Hello,
I made a mistake last issue. I know, I know, my face is red, the egg dripping. But I wanted to correct what I wrote because I quoted the wrong costs for the City.
The total cost for Local First to do a survey, results report and presentation to the iBisbee committee, presentation to a community meeting and followup meeting is $5500. This was paid in two separate sums (the second phase dependent on the first) that came out of the economic development budget.
As noted below the initial survey and report cost $10,000 of which Local First paid $7,000 and the CoB $3000. The costs for the second phase happening tonight and in May cost $2500.
fred
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MONDAY APRIL 16, Senior Center 300 Collins Rd.
Doors open 5:00, 5:30 start
LOCAL FIRST SURVEY RESULTS: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Local First Executive Director Kimber Lanning will outline the results of a Bisbee-wide survey conducted in 2017 at the behest of the iBisbee committee.
How this came about...
Kimber Lanning has had a long history of trying to figure out how Local First could help Bisbee. Some meetings were held about 5-6 years ago in conjunction with a business group called Better Bisbee but nothing came to fruition. Based on her experience with Bisbee and other communities such as Cottonwood, the iBisbee committee began talking with Ms. Lanning in late 2016 informally about how Local First could be helpful. (Local First had already paid for a one year position in Bisbee. for Rachael Hudson who works with Jen Luria in the visitor center.)Those talks morphed into a suggestion by the committee that Local First submit a proposal for a possible interview survey to be undertaken by Local First. She submitted a three part plan in Feburary/17. Details were hammered out; questions to be asked, who should be surveyed, how results would be presented, and several other operational aspects. The cost of Part 1, the initial survey, was $10,000. $3000 of that was paid by the City through the economic development budget. The remaining $7000 was paid by Local First through a grant to them from Freeport McMoRan. iBisbee committee members suggested some 100 names of people to be interviewed. The Local First team interviewed 64 people, either in person or on the phone, none by email.
In November/17, Ms. Lanning presented her results to the iBisbee committee. She outlined four key challenges facing Bisbee are: Inconsistency; Lack of Collaboration; Economic Leakage; Workforce Gaps. She also suggested short, medium, and long term possibilities to address those concerns
After hearing her results, and after much discussion the committee decided to implement Part 2 of her proposal consisting of a community meeting discussing the results of the survey, and possible formation of committees if there was significant interest. And a second follow-up meeting in May if there was significant interest in working on possible solutions to problems outlined as a result of talking to Bisbee residents. This phase of the project was $2500 which has been paid from the CoB economic development budget. (Initially it was put on the council agenda for approval, but then pulled because expenditures of less that $5000 do not come to council.)
It was decided by the iBisbee committee members that there would be an invitation to many community leaders, business people, and other stakeholders. A community-wide meeting was discussed, but rejected because this is not just a talkathon, but an attempt to engage people to actually work on some of the areas that will be discussed. An email invitation was sent out with an ask for response to gauge how many people were coming. An announcement that the public was welcome was also put on the CoB home page as well as the CoB facebook page. The light refreshments are being paid for by iBisbee committee members (about $325)