December 24, 2008
Press Release - December 24th
TNCC launches new phase in the Regional Sustainability Visioning Project and issues a call to arms.
San Miguel and Ouray Counties, Colorado (December 22, 2008) – The New Community Coalition (TNCC) announced this week the launch of the next phase the Regional Sustainability Visioning Project (RSVP) and issued a call for community action.
“It’s absolutely essential for our community that we act immediately towards sustainable economic solutions,” says Kris Holstrom, Director of TNCC. “If you live or work here and you’d like to continue to do so, we’re asking you to put on your thinking hat and roll up your sleeves. When times are tough there’s a window of opportunity for us to meet these challenges creatively. The whole notion of sustainability is big picture. Many of us have in-depth knowledge of our own ‘slice of the economic pie. As a community we need to share our ingredients and come up with a recipe for the whole. We’ve got to do this together and we need everyone’s input!”
RSVP’s kickoff meeting is scheduled for January 13, at 6 p.m. at the Mountain Village Council Meeting Room. An impressive 13 member Steering Committee, formed to oversee the project, is hoping to attract a large and diverse group of community members to the meeting.
Telluride Mayor and Steering Committee member, Stu Fraser emphasizes the importance of the project to our community at this time, saying, “It is becoming more and more obvious that in order for us to become a more sustainable community we need to focus on what has made us who we are today...a town that believes in being realistic and understanding our strengths and our weaknesses.” Fraser continues, “We are a tourist based economy that relies upon sales tax and real estate transfer tax to maintain our infrastructure, to support the arts, to build affordable housing, to focus on achieving our environmental goals, to have a viable economic base and to provide the services required by our citizens and guests.”
The conversation will begin with a presentation – called “Our Changing Regional Economy” – on the current conditions and trends in the Telluride regional economy. Interest groups will be formed and tasked to research the health and wealth of their specific areas of economic activity and to then develop a vision of economic sustainability for the future, all culminating with a community presentation and discussion to be held at Telluride Conference Center in March.
Steering Committee Chair and San Miguel County Commissioner, Joan May says, “In order to build a sustainable local economy, we need to understand what the indicators of a healthy economy are.” Mountain Village Mayor Bob Delves, also a member of the Steering Committee, echoed the sentiment, “Our local economy is surprisingly shallow and fragile. As a community, we need to develop a common understanding of what really drives our economic engine, and then find common ground on which to build economic sustainability.”
“The mission of RSVP is three fold”, says Kris Holstrom, Director of TNCC. “First, RSVP aims to develop a vision of a sustainable economic future for the Telluride region from individual, group and community-wide perspectives. Second, RSVP will ground the conversation and visioning process in current community conditions, trends and the best available research. Third, RSVP intends to lay the foundation for future community conversations that will develop specific actions to be taken toward the community vision. “Basically,” says Holstrom, “we’re asking: Where are we now? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?”
“The kickoff meeting is a community conversation about a sustainable future in changing times,” says Dave Johnson, RSVP Project Coordinator. “Much of the work of this process will happen through group meetings and interactive Internet dialogue, and it is designed to include as many community members as want to participate,” added Johnson.
The concept, which is a follow up to last March’s Thinking Outside the Box Canyon event, is based, in part, on the process described by Jonathan Schechter, Director of the Charture Institute, a non-profit public policy think-tank based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and loosely modeled after the “Sustaining Jackson Hole” program. RSVP is a project of TNCC made possible by grant funding from the Telluride Mountain Village Owner Association (TMVOA).
TNCC is seeking extensive involvement during this process, specifically during the January 13, Kickoff Meeting. “This should be a priority for all citizens of the Telluride region,” says Holstrom. For information or to join the ongoing discussion, please visit www.telluridersvp.net or contact Dave Johnson at (970) 708- 9449.
October 06, 2008
Thinking Outside the Box Canyon: Press
Here is the local press coverage for the Thinking Outside the Box Canyon event that I could find. If there is anything else out there, please let me know.
• Joan May Daily Planet letter March 11, 2008
• Post-Event article in Daily Planet March 18, 2008
• Post-Event article #2 in Daily Planet March 18, 2008
• Joan May Telluride Watch commentary March 24, 2008
• Plum TV article March 24, 2008
One of the common themes that runs through these articles is the enthusiasm of the participants for continuing the conversations begun at the Box Canyon event. It is that desire to continue that is the genesis for the RSVP effort.
If you attended the Box Canyon event, feel free to add your comments on what you thought were the most important things you experienced.
UPDATE: Joan May pointed out one additional article I had overlooked:
• Post-Event article in the Telluride Watch March 18, 2008
