ImagiNEXT is a grass roots effort where citizens are thinking about what they want their community to look like in the future. You can be involved by gathering a group to brainstorm or applying to be part of the Selection Committee. Help us Reach Higher!

Gather a Group, Brainstorm and Submit Your Ideas

Below you will find information on how to host a brainstorming group and tips for facilitating the process. You can also download and print your own Tool Kit.

Step 1: Gather a Group
To help you prepare to form a group and share your ideas, ask people in the community that may already have formed a group that you belong to or know about, such as:

• Non-profit organizations                      •Service clubs & civic groups
• Teen student organizations                 •Church groups
• Businesses/departments/employee    •Girl and Boy Scout troops /4-H clubs
• School groups/ parents/PTAs

Or, you may want to gather a group of your own with a variety of citizens in a more informal way, such as:

• Family members                           •Parent Groups
• Neighbors                                       •Card clubs
• Social Circles                                  •Coffee groups

There is no limit to the number of people who can be in a group. You can meet wherever and whenever it works best for your group. You can meet as many times as you like to discuss your ideas and prepare a list.

Step 2: Brainstorm
Brainstorming is a technique for gathering a wide variety of ideas from a group of three or more people. With any group who brainstorms together, it is wise to discuss some group guidelines. As a facilitator or a group leader, you should explain to the group the “guidelines” for generating ideas for Community Visioning. Share these guidelines with
the group, either by reading these aloud, making a handout for each person, or posting these on a large piece of paper in your meeting room/space.

Guidelines:

• All ideas will be written down
• There are no “bad” ideas
• Don’t worry about what it would cost
• Don’t worry about who would do it
• Discourage the use of “No” and “Can’t” in the group’s discussion
• Move quickly, to get as many ideas as possible
• Don’t get bogged down in discussing or evaluating any one idea
• Brainstorming is not about evaluating; it is about generating ideas
• “Wild” ideas are OK, and can often lead to other ideas
• Don’t worry about or keep track of who offered which idea
• Don’t categorize the ideas into groups; just let them happen
• Don’t sift through the list. Keep everything that is mentioned
• No one “owns” an idea, either for discussion or for later implementation

Here are some questions for your group to consider as you begin your brainstorming session(s). You may want to ask these questions of your group at the beginning of a meeting to put them in a community visioning “frame of mind.”

Questions to Consider:

• What would make the Marion area an ideal place to live and work?
• Where is the best place you have ever visited? What did you like about it?
• What did it look like? Feel like? How could those images fit here?
• What is missing here?
• What would make you stay here as a citizen?
• If you were “mayor for a day,” and could do anything you wanted, what would it be?

Step 3: Submit Your Group’s Ideas
Once you have collected all ideas your group discusses, simply submit them on this website. Ideas can also be emailed to info@marionimainext.org. You can submit ideas until January 15, 2018.

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee will consist of 18-21 people who care about Marion and want to be part of the process of narrowing the lists of ideas down to the final 3-5 best ideas. The committee will be selected through an application and interview process. Visit the Selection Committee page for additional information and application.