Chairman's Message
Robert (Mike) Bates, Central Missouri Professional Services
August 2010
Look ahead to 2030 – what do you see?
“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.”
Alan Lakein (author of best-seller “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life”)
A question often asked in interviews is “Where do you see yourself in 10 years – in 20 years?” Ask yourself that same question. What if you could “flash forward” 20 years to the year 2030? How would you picture your life, your career, your family? How would you picture our community?
That’s a question the Chamber has asked more than 200 individuals in various focus groups. Soon we will be asking that question of the public in a public forum as we “flash forward” 20 years to create our vision for Jefferson City and Cole County. Input from the community is vital to the planning process. We value each opinion – positive or negative.
It’s natural when you love something to wish things would never change; however, that is impossible. Even if we don’t change, the world around us is changing whether we like it or not. In other words, “doing nothing” will not keep things the way they are. Look at the facts. Our older population is growing and our younger population is shrinking. If we “do nothing”, 20 years from now our community will not “be the same” – it will have changed! We will have a shrinking workforce because most of our current population will be retired and we won’t have workers to replace them. Many of our small business owners will be retired – who will replace them? We will not have the same school-age population. Will we need to close some of our schools? If we don’t have the workforce, will employers leave the community? These are tough questions we must ask ourselves.
We cannot afford to “do nothing” hoping things will stay the same. If we do, we’ll be facing negative changes that we have brought on ourselves by lack of planning and a lack of enthusiastic support for creating a fantastic vision of our community for 2030 and beyond.
The Chamber has chosen to “bring the future into the present so we can do something about it NOW.” Be a part of that plan. Attend our community focus groups on August 10 at Lewis & Clark Middle School or August 12 at Blair Oaks Middle School. Each session will be held from 7-9 p.m. See you there!
