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Guthrie Board kicks off strategic-plan rewrite, seeks community committee
Summary
The board began updating its strategic plan (last dated 2016), proposed a roughly seven-month process, and brainstormed a citizen planning committee drawn from schools, churches, business and civic groups; members raised using prior grant data as supplemental and holding virtual sessions to increase participation.
The Guthrie Public Library Board opened a formal process to update its strategic plan, which directors and members said dates to 2016 and no longer reflects current community needs.
Cameron, the library director, told the board the rewrite will begin with information gathering by a community planning committee and estimated the entire process would take about seven months. "This whole process is supposed to take 7 months," Cameron said, explaining that earlier grant data would be used as supplemental material but might be too old on its own.
Board members discussed membership for the roughly dozen-person committee and proposed outreach to a wide array of community stakeholders: city staff and elected officials, school representatives, homeschool network organizers, the Chamber and civic volunteers, real-estate agents, bookstore and business owners, nursing-home contacts and the Friends group. Cameron said he would start outreach in January and that initial engagement could be virtual to make participation easier.
Members suggested designing a short survey to collect both general community impressions and follow-up, targeted questions to inform the plans vision statement and priorities. Suggestions for committee members included Brittany Timmons, Justin Portney, local school contacts and representatives of community groups; Cameron said he would coordinate contact lists and solicit names.
The board invited public input during the discussion. Cheyenne, who described herself as a former teen program participant, urged updated digital services and a more interactive online presence to help younger patrons discover programs and communicate preferences.
No formal appointments were made at the meeting; the board plans to collect suggestions and begin outreach early next year. The director said the work of the citizen planning committee will inform subsequent drafting stages and staff will return with recommended next steps.
