The first in a series of community visioning workshops was held Sept. 15 at the Short-Poynor Community Room in Noel.
Through a partnership between the University of Missouri Extension and Drury University, a group of architecture students are guiding Noel community members through a visioning process to imagine where they would like their town to be in 15 to 25 years. Students led community members through an exercise on Sept. 15 to get the conversation started.
Jay Garrott, a student advisor from Drury University, encouraged community members to "set aside your skepticism about 'how are we going to get there (and) what's it going to cost ... just dream. What do we want Noel to look like?"
Attendees were divided randomly into five groups and asked to play a game in which they had to reach a consensus about their desired goals for the future of Noel. First, each group had to come up with an overarching goal for the city, such as "to promote a self-sufficient economy." Groups were given cards with phrases such as this to choose from and had to arrive at one goal for their group. In the second phase of the game, groups were given more cards and had to choose five objectives to support their goal. Finally, in the third phase, groups received even more cards and had to choose seven methods for reaching their objectives. In each phase, groups had to reach a consensus about the future of Noel.
Students will use the data from the game to help put together their early ideas and recommendations for the town, which they will present at the next meeting on Oct. 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the same place.
"I feel like it went really well," said Dirk Deaton, chairman of the Noel Betterment Club. "It's a good start. Tonight the purpose was to start the conversation. I've got high hopes for the next several months."
Garrott said, "I think tonight's meeting went well. We had a very good turnout."
For the next meeting, people will have a better understanding and start to expand the dialogue, he said.
"I think the dialogue we had here was excellent," he added, noting some issues were touched on such as attracting new businesses to Noel and finding new ways to pay for improvements. The city needs to look at how it can diversify, because it has a strong tourism component, but only for four months of the year. It would be good to see how the town can draw in tourists year-round, he said.
Garrott also noted five members of FEMA were in attendance and participated in the discussion.
Architecture student Mohannad Almazroa said the group of students played the game the day before the meeting.
"It's nice to see that some of the things we observed, you guys wanted the same things. I feel like the community wants more, but they don't know how. There is good potential there."
Denae Murphy of the Noel Housing Authority said, "It was a nice team-building effort for the people who came. I think this group offers great potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come back with at the next meeting on Oct. 4 and I wish more of the community was involved."
General News on 09/22/2016