I'm excited to be leading the City of Nixa into another 5-year strategic planning cycle which will kick off this month.

Past strategic planning efforts required attendance at many meetings to collect public input. But not everyone has the time to attend several long strategic planning meetings. That's why this year we are changing things up - so everyone can have a voice.

On February 11th, we will launch a community-wide brainstorm which we are calling "Imagine Nixa" which will be supported by a website - IMAGINENIXA.COM. Through that website and other efforts, we will engage the community in discussions over three months. This will help us gain deeper understanding of what our community wants the municipal government to do in order to make Nixa even more amazing.

Attendees to the Nixa Chamber of Commerce Luncheon on February 11 will be the first to learn about this brainstorming process, but stay tuned because we will also do much more between now and May to show you how you can participate. We will collect input with a giant “wall of ideas” which will travel to events like NIXPO and Sucker Days, and you can post ideas to it when we take it to several locations around town. We will also visit various community groups to collect input. You may even request that city staff visit your group. The community brainstorm phase will end at the close of the Sucker Days festival (May 15-16).

I encourage you to start thinking of ideas now, so you can speak up when we open the community brainstorm. Your ideas will help us determine the specific action steps we will include in our strategic plan. We will then unveil the strategic plan this fall and begin taking action to make it reality by 2025.

I can't wait to learn how you imagine Nixa's future!

Sincerely,

Mayor Steele