Vision 2020 Has Been Great; Now What?

Effingham County Vision 2020 was established in 2005 and many beneficial programs and projects have either been a result of the initiative or helped along.

The spirit of collaboration encouraged by Vision 2020 led to the TREC Trail, Effingham Performance Center, Teutopolis Community for Progress, the Effingham County CEO Program, Effingham Artisan Fair, 911 signage countywide and much more.

Thursday, Vision 2020 was revisited, as a group of local residents gathered at the Thelma Keller Convention Center to review past successes, and see what remains to be accomplished.

Laural Manegre from The Pacific Institute returned, this time as a volunteer, to again lead the discussion. Effingham County Chamber of Commerce President Norma Lansing shared the leadership role at Thursday's event. Our Greg Sapp spoke with Lansing during the gathering...

Those gathered identified various needs to be addressed and goals to be pursued. A lengthy list of proposals was developed, but two things that seemed to shine through were growth and cooperation; everyone present wanted to see Effingham County continue to grow and all want to see different communities and interests working together to meet common goals.

Some of the suggested means to address these items included helping our current leaders teach others to lead so the process will continue; embrace similar efforts to get old and new faces together; listen to and learn the goals and then find a way to apply them or meet them; and remember that in the times when implementation of goals is slow to develop that many of the things achieved since the first Vision 2020 goal-setting took a while to be completed, but they eventually came to pass.

If you weren't able to attend the gathering, but would like to be involved, contact Effingham County Chamber of Commerce President Norma Lansing at 217-342-4147.