DRAFT Framework Plan

May 8, 2007 - From Chris Beck:

Attached is the most current and complete version of the framework plan. Major changes are shown in word edit mode; many smaller changes for ease of reading and clarity of message are not called out.

Please send any comments or questions back to me by Monday, May 14th. The earlier comments come in the better.

The easiest way for me to receive comments is in a separate email or letter noting page and section number with specific comment (e.g., “Section H2 Tourism Image – correct typo in third bullet, 1st sentence”).

And I’m not begging for changes and comments. Quiet satisfaction and/or non-objection is fine.

Thanks,

CBeck

email: Chris@agnewbeck.com

Agnew::Beck Consulting, LLC
agnewbeck.com
907 222 5424
441 W. Fifth Ave, Suite 202
Anchorage, AK 99501

See the plan

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

May 1, 2007 - Summary: Chris Beck facilitates a select Tourism Plan workgroup. Tonight’s agenda: Get clear on where the project is headed next; review the typed version of issues group worked through yesterday: marketing, oversight, and access; go into more detail on implementation.

Read the notes of the sixth meeting

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

April 30, 2007 evening - Summary: Chris Beck facilitates a select Tourism Plan workgroup. Tonight’s agenda: Review/refine work to date: Goals and big picture strategies, Attractions, Events, Access, Marketing, Training, Oversight.

Read the notes of the fifth meeting

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

April 30, 2007 afternoon - Summary: Chris Beck facilitates a select Tourism Plan workgroup. Today’s agenda: Progress check – run through elements of the draft, make sure we’re comfortable, Goals and big picture strategies, Format, Attractions/Downtown, Events, Training, Access – in town, air, ferry, Marketing – SCVB’s work

Read the notes of the fourth meeting

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

April 25, 2007 afternoon - Summary: Chris Beck facilitates a select Tourism Plan workgroup. Notes to come

SITKA VISITOR INDUSTRY FRAMEWORK PLAN 4.27.07 DRAFT Chris Beck Based on Working Group meetings 4.24.07 and 4.25.07, public meeting 4.24.07		what's this?
Read the notes for third meeting		what's this?

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

April 24, 2007 evening - Summary: Chris Beck facilitates a select Tourism Plan workgroup. Tonight’s topic – attractions, downtown character/town itself, cultural attractions/Russian history, links to natural world, “excursions”, off season (other than events), “educational recreation” .

Read the notes of the second meeting

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Tourism Plan Workgroup Meeting

April 24, 2007 noon - Summary: On March 27, 2007 the Sitka Assembly passed the following motion:

"to direct the Long Range Planning and Economic Development Commission to request other interested parties including Sitka Convention and Visitor's Bureau (SCVB), Sitka Economic Development Association (SEDA), and The Greater Sitka Chamber of Commerce, with a formal invite to Sitka Tribe of Alaska (STA), to participate in modifying the existing plan to more adequately meet the concerns expressed by these groups. This to be done during the month of April and bring the plan back to the Assembly in May. Further requesting Mr. Beck to facilitate using an allocation of funding offered by SEDA."

A series of six meetings facilitated by Chris Beck have been organized.

Read the notes of the first meeting

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Sitka Visitor Industry Plan

Full Document The plan itself plus all supporting documents. 93 pages - it's a big file!	what's this?
Benchmark Timeline this prints as an 11" x 14" document that show all the plans benchmarks organized by quarters for the next three years. You will need to print it in color.
2-page Benchmark Timeline this prints the timeline on two 8.5" x 11" pages, that you can then tape together. You will need to print in color.
"light" plan This document just contains just the plan: Strategic Directions, Benchmarks, and a brief explanation of each.

 

Stakeholder Meeting

January 13, 2007 - Summary: The Stakeholders spend the morning working in small groups to further refine the Strategic Directions. After lunch, the whole group looks at all the benchmarks together and places them on a 2-year+ timeline.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Steering Committee Meeting

January 11, 2007 - The Steering Committee plans the agenda for Saturday’s Stakeholder meeting. They also discuss a proposed revision to the “Partnerships” Strategic Direction.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Steering Committee Meeting

December 28, 2006 - The Steering Committee plans for the January 13th Stakeholder meeting, and strategizes about getting a broad diversity of former Stakeholders and Conveners to attend.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Steering Committee Meeting

December 19, 2006 - The Steering Committee begins to plan one more meeting for Saturday, January 13. The purpose of this meeting will be to gather a representative cross-section of the community to see the plan as a whole, understand how it works, and to further refine some of the elements of it. They also take initial steps toward implementation strategies.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Stakeholder Meeting

December 18, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders work in small groups to further define the Strategic Directions and benchmarks. They also revisit the issue of setting target visitor numbers.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Steering Committee Meeting

December 13, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Committee discusses possibilities for resolving the issue of setting a target visitor number within the plan. They also strategize about how to make the most efficient use out of the next Stakeholder meeting, which is the last scheduled meeting.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Stakeholder Meeting

December 11, 2006 - Summary: Kayla and Matthew have “mined” ideas and concerns from the history of this process and they have placed them all with appropriate Strategic Directions. The Stakeholders spend some time reviewing the Strategic Directions, and they discover some ideas that they agree on some new action focus areas and benchmarks.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Steering Committee Meeting

December 5, 2006 - The Steering Committee discusses ways to incorporate community feedback into the plan, how to resolve the issue of establishing a visitor number benchmark, and the idea of hosting a scenario workshop to test the cohesiveness of the plan.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Stakeholder Meeting

December 4, 2006 - The Stakeholders review the Strategic Directions and feedback provided to the group from Chris Beck and some missing voices. They work to incorporate that feedback into the framework they’ve developed.

Read the notes of the meeting

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Stakeholder Meeting

November 27, 2006 - The Stakeholders heard a presentation from Floyd Tomkins regarding visitor influence at the harbors. Mike Litman gave a presentation regarding visitor impacts on the community relating to emergency services and city services. Mim McConnell presented an updated spreadsheet on visitor statistics. Cleo Brylinsky presented the survey that was compiled by the Union College Anthropology Students last summer.

Read the notes of the meeting		what's this?
Mim McConnell's spreadsheet on visitor statistics

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Stakeholder Meeting

November 13, 2006 - The Stakeholders heard from Chris Beck regarding feedback from the missing voices.

Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?
Chris Beck's handout distributed during the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

November 7 , 2006 - Summary: Discussion last evening's Stakeholder meeting for which Clarisa Sandhol took minutes. Long discussion of data shows that better data collection is necessary for Sitka. Lack of expected presentations shows that presenters need better notification of presentation date.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholders Meeting

November 6, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders heard a presentation from Mim McConnell regarding Visitor Statistics.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Progress Report Ready for the Public

November 3, 2006: Download of the full report of the planning progress to date. This report will be circulated through November for feedback and endorsement. The second document can be used as an outreach tool for gathering responses to the plan.

Progress Report	what's this?
Outreach Document	what's this?

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Stakeholder Meeting

November 1, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders finished their work to identify broad strategic directions.

See a one-page DRAFT Strategic Directions and Goals worksheet		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

October 31, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Committee heard concerns from several Stakeholders about how to create a feedback loop for community input into this process, and shared their ideas about how the input from the missing voices would be incorporated. They also discussed the flow of the November meetings

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

October 30, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders refine a few of the blocks they had identified last week, and the begin to identify strategic directions that will both address the blocks and help the community move toward its common vision.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

October 24, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Commitee debriefs last night’s Stakeholder meeting, acknowledging there was some frustration, but generally feeling enough work was done to proceed to strategic directions next week. They decided that Steering Committee will facilitate the November meetings, but they are still searching for a note-taker. They also have a lengthy discussion about how specific the strategic directions and goals should be before taking them around for community endorsement, and they plan more details for Chris Beck’s November visit.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

October 23, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders revise a few elements of the vision statement and then continue their work to identify the broad root causes – or blocks – in the community that prevent the community from achieving its common vision.

Download a one page summary of the refined Vision statement.		what's this?
Download a one page summary DRAFT of the Blocks to the Vision statement.		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

October 17, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Committee reviewed last night’s Stakeholder meeting, and specifically discussed the possibility of making some of the vision statement elements more directly relevant to the visitor industry. They also discuss the addendum request for the facilitator’s contract, and plan for the facilitation team’s absence in November.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

October 16, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders finish the Vision Workshop, although some of the category titles may need further revision. They begin the Contradictions Workshop, where they begin to identify things that block the community’s ability to realize its vision.

Download a one-page summary of the DRAFT Vision for the Sitka Visitor Industry		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

October 10, 2006. Summary:The Steering Committee is preparing to ask the Assembly for additional funding to finish this part of the process. Much of the conversation focuses on what will happen at the next few Stakeholder meetings, the plan to get community-wide endorsement of the SH’s strategic directions, and the outcomes that are expected in the next two months.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

October 9, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders finished their work to revise the mission statement and began to create a vision statement by envisioning how Sitka would look in 10 years as a result of this group’s work.

Download a one-page summary on the Visitor Industry Impact workshop		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

October 3, 2006. Summary: The Steering Committee spent a considerable amount of time talking with Chris Beck about the process overall. Chris offered some feedback about where he thinks the process is at and makes some suggestions about next steps which initially seem somewhat contradictory to the process that’s been established, but eventually the group recognizes how his suggestions align with the current process plan. The SC also discusses a letter that was sent to the Assembly from the Chamber of Commerce expressing their concerns about the process.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

September 25, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders hear a presentation and close the following topic:

• Environmental impact of building a dock and disturbing sludge at mill building quarry (Cruise D)

They also finish the consensus workshop on Quality of Life and begin a workshop to identify contributions made by the visitor industry to Sitka.

Download a one-page summary on the Quality of Life workshop		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

September 19, 2006. Summary: Again the Steering Committee debriefed last night’s Stakeholder meeting and discussed ways to fill in the missing voices in the Stakeholder group.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

October 2, 2006 - Summary: Planning consultant Chris Beck gave a presentation on how tourism plans have been put together and implemented in other AK communities. The SH finished consensus work on what the visitor industry contributes to Sitka. The following pieces of needed information were answered:

• Definition of quality of life (Community B)
• What control and planning tools have worked in other communities (planning C)
• How have plans been implemented elsewhere? (Planning J)

Download a one-page summary on the Visitor Industry Contribution workshop		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Stakeholder Meeting

September 25, 2006 - Summary: The Stakeholders hear a presentation and close the following topic:

• Environmental impact of building a dock and disturbing sludge at mill building quarry (Cruise D)

They also finish the consensus workshop on Quality of Life and begin a workshop to identify contributions made by the visitor industry to Sitka.

Download a one-page summary on the Quality of Life workshop		what's this?
Read the notes of the meeting.		what's this?

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Steering Committee Meeting

September 19, 2006. Summary: Again t he Steering Committee debriefed last night’s Stakeholder meeting and discussed ways to fill in the missing voices in the Stakeholder group.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

September 18, 2006 - Summary: Stakeholders spent some time reflecting on the information phase and the common ground they have found so far. Concern is voiced about community perspectives that have been consistently missing from this process. A new process plan and schedule are presented. Stakeholders begin work to define “quality of life.”

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

September 12, 2006. Summary: The Steering Committee debriefed last night’s Stakeholder meeting and discussed ways to fill in the missing voices in the Stakeholder group.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

August 30, 2006. Summary: The Steering Committee and facilitators agree on the future steps and schedule for the process from now through December. They also hear an update on plans for a Stakeholder and public party to be held in September.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

August 24, 2006. Summary: The Steering Committee is updated about the budget request approved at the last LRPC meeting. They discuss hosting a party for SH and the public on September 16. They attempt to define local, non-local, and big business, and strategize about if and how to have presentations from the cruise industry, STE, and SCVB. They also have a brief discussion about designing the end product for this process, and seeking input from people who most likely will use the document.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

August 15, 2006. Summary: The Steering Committee debriefed the 8/14 Stakeholder meeting, and began to discuss the transition from the information phase into the visioning and strategies phase. They also plan to make an assertive effort to get all the Stakeholders up to speed about what’s been covered during the summer meetings – especially the tourism industry folks who have been absent this summer.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

August 14, 2006 - Summary: Stakeholders heard presentations on a number of topics. They closed the following topics, agreeing that they have enough information now to make decisions on these questions later:

• Harbor dept – who are the owners, # of users of harbor by visitors, plans - moorage (Business U)
• Current resources from harbormaster/possible development of harbors? (Planning W)
• Does local government have regulations in place to regulate cruise industry? (Cruise T)
• Basic studies (like McDowell Group studies) that deal with numbers and dollars concerning visitor industry. Include other studies (business H)
• Need pertinent sections of Sitka Comprehensive Plan (Business I)
• Copy of a generic tourism plan outline  (visitor experience A)
• Review findings of "Gateway Plan" (NPS) (Culture J)
• VIS tourism study (Planning R)
• McDowell reports (planning S)

Stakeholders also heard presentations on these topics, but they remain open for further information:

• Sitka harbor usage by time (Economy P)
• Carrying capacity of harbor system (Community C)

The Steering Committee and Stakeholders also agreed to table 24 questions until the next phase of the process. The questions they tabled asked questions that were more about strategy than current information.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

August 10, 2006. Summary: The SC meets a group of anthropology students from Union College who are studying tourism in SE Alaska for 3 weeks. They have offered to help this process, and agree to do a small survey of visitor impressions. The SC also discusses a budget revision, makes a plan to ask the Assembly for more money, and considers hiring Kayla to write the end report for this process.

 

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

July 7, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Committee reviewed 46 requested pieces of information and developed recommendations about each, which they will present to the Stakeholders at an upcoming meeting. They also discuss possible research projects for visiting anthropology students who have interest in helping with this process.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Steering Committee Meeting

June 20, 2006 - Summary: The Steering Committee debriefed last night’s Stakeholder meeting, including a reflection on the subcommittee structure, and the need to make the list of Stakeholder concerns more visibly connected with the requested information needs. The SC is on the STA meeting agenda tomorrow night. SC members divvy up some of the remaining specific information requests they will make available to the SH, and discuss some potential survey options.

Read the notes of the meeting.

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Stakeholder Meeting

June 19, 2006 - Summary:Stakeholders heard presentations on a number of topics. They closed the following topics, agreeing that they have enough information now to make decisions on these questions later:

• What are ordinances on noise? (business category)
• Visitor traffic pattern studies (planning category)
• Zoning laws as they relate to businesses (business category)
• Is it legal/possible for local government to not allow shops to close in the winter – can we limit # of types of shops, i.e. jewelry/fur, etc. What tools are available to address these issues and what has worked in other places? (visitor experience category)
• Do non-local businesses that leave/close before 12/31 contribute to property taxes and/or inventory taxes in Sitka? (business category)
• Will the visitor industry affect rural status? (community issues)
• Are passengers directed to certain shops/businesses by the cruise ship industry? How? (Cruise ships)
•  Who owns or manages resources? (Resources and Environment)
• Can we maintain local control over resource use and environment; what mechanisms are available to influence or control resource use and environment? What can we learn from other communities? Proactive vs. reactive responses?  (Resources and Environment)

Stakeholders also heard presentations on these topics, but they remain open for further information:

• Value of locally produced goods (economy)
• Target species of charter boats (economy)
• # of full-time charter boats (5 year trend) (Economy)
• Cruise industry – who are they, how do they work? (Business)
• How are ships scheduled to come to Sitka? How is port length determined? (Cruise ships)
• What is the optimum length of a port call for the community/ship? (Cruise ships)
• Does the community have say in numbers/volume of ships/days? Through what mechanisms can they have a say?(cruise ships)
• What control and planning tools have worked in other communities (in AK and elsewhere)? (Planning)

Read the notes of the meeting.

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See more of the timeline