Regional Fact Finding Mission

LIBERTY, August 11, 2009 - Representatives from the Center for Houston's Future attended Liberty County Commissioners Court on a fact finding mission as a part of a Regional Scenario Planning Process.

The Center for Houston's Future has launched an ambitious, 18-month regional scenario planning process, the purpose of which is to define the alternative futures, or scenarios that the greater Houston region might face between 2015 and 2040. Dennis Odell, Community Development Coordinator for Liberty County and member of the Center's Scenario Building Team, speaking in Liberty, commented, "Exploring Liberty County and listening to people speak about their concerns are two ways our Scenario Building Team has of gathering information it will use to develop scenarios for our region's future."

Speaking in Liberty County, Donna Rybiski, director of Strategic Initiatives and Community Engagement for the Center said, "The future is our choice, not our fate.

Scenarios are tools to help visualize what is real and possible. By using scenario plans we can focus on the big picture, and clarify the critical choices that must be made today to ensure the health and prosperity of our region tomorrow."

Scenario Planning is a proven approach to strategic planning that results in the identification of possible and plausible alternative pictures, or scenarios of the future and what it might look like, both good and bad. With scenarios as a guide, businesses, governments, non-profit organizations and educational institutions will be able to make better, more informed decisions.

The first phase of the Scenario Planning Process was conducted between March and May, 2009, when more than 60 one-on-one, confidential interviews and four focus groups were conducted. Interviewees, who were asked identical questions, came from all walks of life

Questions were designed to elicit the opinions and wishes on the region's future, major uncertainties and potential pitfalls, and to tease out underlying issues that the region might be forced to address. Subsequently, interviewee responses were analyzed by a 30-member Scenario Building Team at a two-day Strategic Retreat. Dennis Odell, a former Liberty City Councilman and past President of the Liberty Rotary Club, was appointed by County Judge Phil Fitzgerald to be the representative for Liberty County on the Scenario Planning Team.

Emerging from the Strategic Retreat were three key Scenario Themes and more than 40 very specific questions that the scenarios should answer. All questions revolved around the three themes which included: what our economic support system will look like; what the relationship of the greater Houston region will be with the outside world; and, what the nature of our relationships will be within the greater Houston region.

The Center is presently in the second stage of its Scenario Planning Process wherein research is underway to inform the three key scenario themes and to help answer the more than 40 questions. The entire Scenario Planning Process will continue during the coming 12 months.

The Center invites the public to visit its website, to read about scenario planning, to see who is involved with the process. Just click on www.centerforhoustonsfuture.org.

The Center for Houston's Future is a non-profit organization that seeks to advance the greater Houston region as one of the top ten global communities in which to live and work. The Center engages the broad community to think long-term and act strategically about the future well-being of the greater Houston region.