Agenda
Steering Committee Meeting #1 Kick-Off
Meeting Time: 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Meeting Location: Freeborn-Mower Cooperative
2501 E. Main Street in the "Community Room"
Wedesday, June 27th, 20071. Team and Committee Introductions (All)
a. Consulting team
b. City Staff resources
c. Steering Committee
d. Extras
2. Comprehensive Plan 201—and overview of what a Comp Plan is (All)
3. Work Program—review of the work program and process (Scheib/Schroeder)
4. Project Schedule—Key meeting dates (Scheib)
5. Meeting Organization and Ground Rules (All)
6. Albert Lea’s Vision (All)To: Albert Lea Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee
From: Brad Scheib, AICP—Project Manager
Subject: Agenda Memo: Kick-Off Meeting to the Albert Lea Comprehensive Plan Update
Meeting Date/Time/Location: Wednesday June 27th/3:30 to 5:30/Freeborn-Mower
Cooperative - 2501 East Main Street in the “Community Room”
Date: 18 June 2007Hello all. This memorandum is the first of a series of agenda memos that will set the stage for steering committee
meetings pertaining to the Albert Lea Comprehensive Plan Update. We will use this format to introduce individual
meeting topics and provide a brief synopsis of the discussion topic. Future agenda memos will include attachments
and draft reports. As this meeting is intended to Kick-off the project, there will be no attachments other than the
agenda outline. The meetings will be led by myself, and/or Michael Schroeder. The following is a brief description
of what we intend to accomplish at this meeting.We respect your time and commitment to this project, and will work very hard to limit the meetings to no more
than 2 hours.1. Team and Committee Introductions (All)
This first meetings is a chance for us to get to know one another and understand special skills, interests and
thoughts that can be contributed to the process. This first meeting is expanded beyond the Steering Committee
representatives in order to introduce others who will ultimately be frequent users of the Comprehensive Plan
update. We will go around the room and make introductions.
As part of this first agenda item, we will be handing out three-ring binders to all Steering Committee members.
Over the course of this year long process, you will amass a fair amount of printed materials. This three-ring
binder will be a place for you to organize all that you need to participate and keep up to date on progress made
during the planning process. The topic areas in the binder will include project information (contact info, work
program, calendar), general information on comprehensive planning (what, why and how), background
information on Albert Lea (past plans, studies and reports), working draft reports and chapters of the plan,
meeting minutes, notes and agendas and other items of interest.2. Comprehensive Plan 201—and overview of what a Comp Plan is (All)
Comprehensive Planning is often a trivial subject. It can mean a lot of different things in addition to its core
functions in community planning. As consultants and staff, we could provide you with a quick and simple
overview presentation of what a comprehensive plan is and how it gets prepared. However, given what we
have learned from the steering committee through the process to select a consulting firm, we feel it is equally
important for you all to tell us what you think a Comprehensive Plan is. Therefore, you have over a week to
think about it, and be prepared to share your thoughts. We will structure a way to retrieve your responses and
include that in our presentation of what a comprehensive plan is.3. Work Program—review of the work program and process (Scheib/Schroeder)
We have drafted a detailed work program to guide our planning efforts. At this part of the process, we will
review the work plan and answer any questions from the committee. A full copy will be provided in with the
three-ring binder.4. Project Schedule—Key meeting dates (Scheib)
We would like to establish a regular schedule at the beginning of the process so that the farther out in the
process, we each have the ability to work around scheduled meetings. Please think about what time of the day,
day of the week, and day of the month works best for your attendance. We will try to accommodate schedules
as best possible. We anticipate roughly a monthly meeting cycle.5. Meeting Organization and Ground Rules (All)
Given the size of the Steering Committee, it makes sense that we provide some degree of structure to the
meetings. We will be prepared to lay out a series of options and include the group in agreeing upon a format
and structure for how meetings are run. It is important to us that we have a means of ensuring meetings are
fun, productive and yet predictable given our busy schedules. We will work hard to make sure that meetings
start and stop on time.6. Albert Lea’s Vision (All)
Over the course of the last several years, we understand that Albert Lea has done a lot to establish a community
vision and guiding principles. Principally, the Albert Lea Listens and Minnesota Design Team initiatives. Our
consulting team played a significant role in the Design Team process, and thus we are rather familiar with its
results. However, we feel that a good discussion for the committee to have is about Albert Lea’s vision. What
does it mean to you? How does it apply? Is there anything/part missing? What does it mean to the
Comprehensive Plan? While the intent is for the bulk of this part of the agenda to be a conversation among
steering committee members, we will use this opportunity to share our thoughts, opinions and insights on
emerging planning trends and principles that relate to what we hear.We look forward to our first meeting and hope that you all are able to attend. Please feel free to contact
myself at bscheib@hkgi.com (612.252.7122) or Bob Graham, City Planner if you have any questions.
