Pinellas Arts Strategic Planning Task Force Meeting Notes from October 28th, 2010

1. Pinellas Arts Strategic Planning Task Force
Meeting Notes from 10.28.10
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Meeting Time:
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
Meeting Location:
Hosted at the Sheraton Sand Key, Clearwater, FL
Meeting Purpose:
This initial meeting of the strategic planning task force was to:
1. Discuss whether or not to form a community based entity in support of the Arts now that the
Pinellas Arts Council has been defunded by the Pinellas County Government.
1. Discuss the possible purpose and scope of such an entity
2. Draft a collaborative purpose statement for the entity
3. Surface key themes needing community input for the next steps of strategically planning the
creation & launch of the entity
Strategic Planning Task Force Attendees on 10.28.10
Susan Latvala, Barbara Hubbard, Lara Shane, Susan Betzer, Bob Churuti, Beth Daniels, Peter
Kageyama, Russ Kimball, Doreen Moore, Duncan McClellan, Christopher Still
o Absent – George Cantonis
High Level Outcomes
1. It was decided to move forward with creating a community based entity to replace the
defunded Pinellas County Arts Council. In order to do this, the task force agreed to give their
time, energy, and appropriate resources to support the creation of a strategic plan for forming,
launching, and implementing the entity into the community.
2. 12 of 13 task force members attended the initial meeting and participated in a visioning exercise
challenging them to describe the future of arts in the community, looking ahead 3-5 years from
now. Each leader created an individual page of words & pictures and then presented their
vision to the large group.
3. Insights, innovations, projects, best practices, possible new avenues, and concerns were
discussed resulting in key themes for what the entity could do and be for the community, given
the new frontier.
4. The group spent a considerable amount of time discussing what the purpose should and should
not be for this entity moving forward. There Task Force took into account the major
considerations discussed. A collaborative purpose statement was drafted, each word
deliberately chosen to reflect the scope & direction for the entity.
Purpose Statement:
We connect and fuel the creative impulses that make Pinellas County a great community.
5. The name of this entity has yet to be determined.

2. Pinellas Arts Strategic Planning Task Force
Meeting Notes from 10.28.10
2 | P a g e
Vision Charts
The group was asked to envision arts in Pinellas County over the next 3-5 years. Each task force member
in attendance created a chart (below)

3. Pinellas Arts Strategic Planning Task Force
Meeting Notes from 10.28.10
3 | P a g e
After each vision was presented, and ideas were shared, the group spent time crafting statements to
focus the purpose of this new entity, given the common themes and visions. Each member contributed
to the specific wording of the statement. The group signed-off on the statement and agreed to be
thinking about a name of this entity.
PURPOSE STATEMENT
*We connect and fuel the creative impulses that make
Pinellas County a great community.
*(yet to be named)
The key themes that emerged from the visioning discussion included (but were not limited to):
Key Themes for Strategic Planning
(*all themes assume the inclusion of the entire Pinellas Community)
Discovering creative impulse within the community
Inter-connecting & promoting community experiences
Funding through non-government sources
Centralizing Communications
Resourcing Administration of Entity
Next Immediate Steps
Early November – Early December
Focus Groups will be organized to gather community input on ‘how to’ bring this entity to
life, focusing in on key themes and existing strengths, known controllable weaknesses,
potential opportunities, and uncontrollable threats related to each theme.
A community communication platform is being created on Facebook via the generous effort
of Nancy Loehr’s donated time and resources. The intent of the platform is to provide the
community a means to ask questions and receive answers as well as to provide updates on
the progress of the project. The Facebook page is currently under construction and is slated
to be live by no later than Friday, November 12th
at which time email communications will
be sent to the community to alert them to the launching of the page.
Early – Mid December
The data from the community focus groups will be sent to the Task Force prior to the next
meeting tentatively scheduled for the second week of December.
The purpose of the Task Force Meeting is to validate Key Areas of Focus and to create
Measure of Success for each Key Area of Focus. This will provide direction on what actions
need to take place under each in order for the entity to successfully be created & launched.