TOWN COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at 7:00 PM  nDD  Council Chambers - 15000 Washington St., STE 100 Haymarket, VA 20169  ntp:lwww.townomnaymarket.org  MINUTES  CALL TO ORDER  Town Manager Emily Kyriazi called the meeting to order. She stated that this evening was the kick off tot the strategic planning meetings. She introduced Dr. Stephanie Davis to the podium, to help the Town Council navigate the process on strategic planning. She stated that Dr. Davis had a presentation on the importance of strategic planning and why Council needs to go through these steps for the Town. At this time, Mrs. Kyriazi handed the floor to Dr. Davis.  III. AGENDA ITEMS  1. Strategic Planning Work Session: Stephanie Davis: Virginia Tech Associate Professor, Center Dr. Stephanie Davis gave a power point presentation on why iti is important to do strategic planning, especially for small towns. She stated that she has worked in local government for almost 20 years. She shared that one of her interest is why do elected officials do what they do, why do they make the decisions that they do and how can we help and learn in how to build better communities. She stated that she has a real interest in small communities. She shared that she is familiar with communities having very little resources coming from a small town in southwest Virginia. She shared how does the Council find resources and build on capacity. She stated that it can be done administrative having the staff support either internal or external, financial and the leadership capacity which is the Council's role. by developing and implementing the vision for the community. She stated that her work is to develop a good strategic plan for the Town. Dr. Davis continued with her presentation on developing a strategic plan option for the Council to work off of. Dr. Davis asked for the Council to share why they ran for office. Each Councimember provided various reasons as to why they ran for office. She asked if anyone of the Council has been through a strategic planning process before. She gave reasons why Council's do strategic planning. She stated that consultants like herself will come up with the Towns mission, vision, establish your values and goals and come up with some short term action items to achieve those goals. She continued to state that strategic planning document provides an accountabilty tool, a communication and prioritization tool. Dr. Davis explained each tool in detail. She stated that the accountability tool will help the Town Manager and future Council Members with an agreed upon plan that was set in place at the retreat. This is sO there is a unified agreement and smooth transition. She stated that communication tool is to involve the public in giving input and sO that staff and Council can communicate with the citizens the unified plan for transparency. She continued with prioritization tool will help with the budget and CIP process. She stated what the Council will be working on with the strategic planning. She stated that they will be working on a mission for the Town, come up with their vision for the Town, they will develop some values that guides the decision making oft the Council, come up with some broad long range goals, and come up with some short term action items to achieve those goals. She discussed the strategic planning components with the Council. She stated that goals would be 3-5 years out and strategies would be 1-2 years which would items that will be funded the upcoming budgets. A short discussion followed on vision, goals and planning components. She continued with the value components. Dr, Davis stated  for Public Administration & Policy    that the first steps is a consensus on the strategic plan development, which the Council already has. Then Council needs to do pre-retreat work, which she will walk Council through the pre- retreat activity packet. The next step would be to hold the retreat and then a draft report will be constructed for citizen input. Dr. Davis went over each item in detail that will be discussed at the retreat. There was a discussion on the date for the retreat. Dr. Davis stated that it looks like the best day for the retreat would be Saturday, October 26 from 9am-4pm in Town Hall. After her presentation, Dr. Davis asked for any questions and encouraged conversations on the strategic planning amongst Council Members. There was a discussion on the timeline of meetings and draft plan options. The Council also discussed ways to inform the citizens oft the  strategic plan and how to get their input.  IV. ADJOURNMENT  With no further discussion, the Haymarket Town Council adjourned their meeting.  Submitted by:  Approved by:  Lm  Lymhiepthng Kimberly Henry, Clerk of Council  Kennethl Luersen, Mayor