Testimonial: South Fork
Taking a Facilitative Approach to Helping a Fire-Ravaged Community Restore Tourism
In June, a massive wildfire in southwestern Colorado threatened the town of South Fork where approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people were forced to flee their homes. The wildfire, one of a dozen that impacted the state of Colorado this summer, had grown to a size covering 117 square miles of the town whose main industry is tourism, typically drawing hundreds of summer visitors each year.
One week after the wildfire threatened South Fork, the evacuation was lifted, and residents were able to return to their residences under a pre-evacuation condition. Most of the tourists left South Fork, hurting the local businesses. The Chamber of Commerce and a local foundation looked to Rebeca Cantu Helmstetler, [PROFESSIONAL TITLE], for putting together an economic recovery plan with an objective to renew business traffic with remaining tourists while convincing other tourists to return. [BREAK HERE]
In response, Rebeca gathered key people together for critical brainstorming and planning sessions. Using Leadership Strategies, Inc.’s (LSI) facilitation principles, Rebeca facilitated the planning sessions with the outlined model developed below – building off of LSI’s “5 Ps of Preparation” – to prepare for and conduct the sessions:
South Folk Economic Recovery Planning Session
5 Ps of Preparation
A. Purpose (Answers “Why are we having this session?”)
To gain consensus on a handful of ideas that represent the community’s recommendation on what should be implemented ASAP to help bring more traffic in and convince tourists to come back to the area.
B. Product (Answers “What do we need to have when we are done?”)
1. The recommendations (1-3 most likely)
2. High-level action plan for implementing the recommendations
C. Participants (Answers “Who will be attending?”)
1. About 20 (4 groups of 5)
2. Board of Directors of the town
3. Chamber members
4. Foundation
5. Townspeople
D. Probable Issues (Answers “What issues will be addressed?”)
1. Why would tourists want to come back to a smoky town?
2. Why would tourists want to make the drive back to South Fork?
3. Everyone will have their own agenda (retailers, service organizations, restaurants, etc.).
E. Process (Answers “What steps will get us there?”)
1. Critical question:
q What are our recommendations for getting tourists to come back to the town, and how should we implement them?
2. Preparation questions:
q What could we do to get tourists coming back?
q What has worked in the past?
q What is our major lead attraction?
q What theme might we used to get people back?
q How much tourism have we lost?
q How would we implement our recommendations?
q Who would take the lead?
q What have other towns done in the past to get tourists to return when hit with the tragedy?
q Who is on board?
3. Order the preparation questions:
q How much tourism have we lost?
q What have other towns done in the past to get tourists to return when hit with the tragedy? (Pre-work)
q What is our major lead attraction?
q What has worked for us in the past to attract tourism?
q What could we do to get tourists coming back?
q What will we do to get tourists coming back?
q What theme might we use to get people back?
q How would we implement our recommendations?
q Who is on board (in agreement to move forward)?
q Who will take the lead?
4. Define your detailed agenda:
q Getting started
– Welcome (Opening statement from Rebeca)
o Inform, Excite, Empower, Involve (Remember to use “you” and “your” at least four times)
– Involvement question (Make it a Type B)
o What makes our community highly attractive to tourists?
o Dump and Clump engagement strategy (Working in teams from the beginning)
q How much tourism have we lost?
– Chamber President
q What have other towns done in the past to get tourists to return when hit with the tragedy? (Pre-work)
– Rebeca
– Ask, “What do others know about what other towns have done?”
q What has worked for us in the past to attract tourism?
– Teams – 5 minutes, 3 top things people from your group have done in the past to attract tourism
– Place on a flip chart and report back
q What could we do to get tourists coming back?
– Round-robin brainstorm, allowing people to pass
– Remember – “If you think we should do something that we or others have done in the past, let’s add it to the brainstorm list.”
– Number
q What will we do to get tourists coming back?
– Review
o We can do maybe 1-3 things as a community; we want to choose those 1-3 by first reviewing the entire list and dropping out any that won’t likely be one of our 1-3.
o Review the list and ask if anyone would like to recommend this idea as one of our top 3? If not, we’ll cross it out and move on to the next. If so, have someone speak for it and move on to the next.
o (You may end up combining things as part of the review – to avoid splitting the vote.)
– Lobby
o Pass out dots (1 red-3 points each, 2 blue-1 point each)
o Give each person 30 seconds to answer: “What do you think we should do and why?” (Put a check mark each time something gets lobbied.) – Can lobby for as many as they want in the 30 seconds, but have them focus on the why because that’s what changes people’s minds.
– Vote and count
o Put up the dots, call for break while you and an assistant count them (No more than 5 minutes for people to put their votes so that you don’t get people standing back and waiting so that their votes can have more of a sway)
q What theme might we use to get people back?
– Brainstorming themes
– Vote by hand on the ones they like the most (Each person can vote three items)
q Who will take the lead? (With each recommendation)
– Nominations for leaders (Allow self-nominations)
– People to help each leader
q How would we implement our recommendations?
– Build the list of next step actions
– Ask for the who
Sample Action Plan (Initial activities to be executed following planning session.)
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Action (Example) |
Who |
Due Date |
|---|---|---|
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1. Create the plan around each recommendation (including budget if needed) |
Recommendation leaders |
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2. Get approval of the Board of Directors for each recommendation |
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3. Develop the communications materials |
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4. Launch the plan |
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5. |
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The planning sessions were successfully conducted on [DATES]. Since the key community members assembled together, [ONE-TWO SENTENCES SHARING STATUS]. Rebeca commented, “[TESTIMONIAL].”
For more information about South Fork’s recovery plan, please contact Rebeca Cantu Helmstetler at rc@helmstetler.com.
