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Tue 7 Nov 2017 3:35AM

Mission Statement Take 2

T TracySchmidt Public Seen by 402

Having tried to use the mission statement we voted on last, it was very long and hard to say.

I would like to propose a simpler one that focused primarily on the uniting/connective tissue concept and the shared solutions for the region idea. I'm not sure 'open source' is the right term, or shared is. Or maybe cooperative? I didn't know whether to put 'tech' before solutions because I think the silver to gold solution for the transportation issue could be low-tech, so I didn't want to box us in. But maybe we should since this was all started as tech-centered? What we're ending up doing is approaching developing the region as a tech hub by attracting the tech-savvy people who will want to live here and participate because of the innovation we'll be doing.

Mission Statement Proposal:
UniteWNC’s mission is to cultivate a thriving region by uniting diverse regional efforts and facilitating the creation of future-forward, open source solutions.

As a reminder, these were the values that came out of the summit and we voted on and approved a few months back.
UniteWNC values:

Quality of Life - We seek opportunities to use technology to improve the quality of life for everyone across our region.

Sustainability - We are committed to finding and implementing progressive technology solutions that protect, preserve, and enhance our resources.

Collaboration / Cooperation - We actively reach out to individuals, organizations, and communities to invite participatory problem-solving.

Learning - We rigorously pursue new information and diverse perspectives both regionally and globally.

Partnership - Partnerships built on trust, integrity, transparency, and a commitment to inclusion are essential to our success.

SC

Steve Cooperman Wed 8 Nov 2017 3:03PM

Following up on last night's conversation in which we worked on the values, I'd like to see if we can incorporate equity (i.e., creating a world that works for everyone) somewhere, could fit under Quality of Life or Cooperation. Any thoughts?

T

TracySchmidt Wed 10 Jan 2018 8:59PM

I also want to get the equity piece - but when I try to plugin the phrase - "sustain and expand our quality of life" It sounds in my head like we're trying to colonize or something. Any other way we could say that? "Our mission is to facilitate community-informed and locally-developed tech solutions to sustain and expand our unique quality of life in WNC. "

T

TracySchmidt Thu 9 Nov 2017 12:12PM

I think both this proposed mission and values need rewriting and new proposal based on Tuesday's meeting. And yes, I agree equity is a part of quality of life.

C

Cheri Thu 9 Nov 2017 2:09PM

Can we pull the mission and vision from your write up of "What is UniteWNC"?

T

TracySchmidt Tue 28 Nov 2017 2:50AM

At the fall retreat, we discussed that rather than a traditional economic development-based approach to growth, we are approaching growth as 'wealth' - which may not always be in $$ terms but quality of life and that by focusing on supporting and encouraging quality of life, we will in turn attract others/companies/investment that value the same and want to take part in a region seeking out this type of wealth.

Other potential mission statement:
Enabling community-minded technology solutions to expand and enhance our unique quality of life.

@stevecooperman - was there another option you had jotted down?
This was one proposed by @sharon32
Our mission is to (help grow)[serve as] the connective tissue that achieves a positive and progressive collective impact from the many thriving, diverse localized community-betterment efforts currently in place.

Anyone else who attended the fall retreat - other thoughts on the mission statement?

T

TracySchmidt Wed 29 Nov 2017 1:40PM

What about this as a tag line: Region-driven solutions to sustain and expand our quality of life

JM

Jim March Wed 29 Nov 2017 7:10PM

I still like the "technology solutions" part: Community-minded technology solutions to expand and enhance our region's quality of life.

T

TracySchmidt Wed 10 Jan 2018 8:57PM

I keep trying to explain what UniteWNC to folks and keep playing around with how different mission statements sound. What about this one?
"Our mission is to facilitate community-informed and locally-developed tech solutions to sustain our unique quality of life in WNC. " I'm starting in earnest on the 501c3 status so hoping to get some of this more solid.

S

Sharon Thu 11 Jan 2018 4:14PM

How about "Community-focused technology solutions to sustain and enhance our region's unique quality of life." This clearly expresses UniteWNC's value-added contribution and ties it to what is already here. We're not Austin or Portland, we're Appalachia-rooted and bringing that culture of local community-problem solving into the future.

T

TracySchmidt Fri 12 Jan 2018 1:52PM

I like this too. This could be a shortened version of it. I also like getting the concept in of the front-end part of 'facilitate community-informed' and the back-end part of 'locally-developed' because that's two halves of the whole of our approach.

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