Interview with Marsha Smith, Executive Director of the Rotary Charities of Traverse City and Rotary Camps & Services of Traverse City

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(NOTE-Allusions to the region’s Grand Vision abound in this year’s annual report.  The citizen-led six-county initiative is just that, a vision for the next 50 years of what we’d like this area to become.  In the following discussion, Marsha Smith, who has ably directed the GV over the past 4 years, discusses its many faces and future.  This annual report would not be complete without it.)

Q – Rotary Charities has made a sizable investment in Grand Vision implementation.  How does the investment align with the mission?

A – When compared to the historic mission of Rotary Charities (i.e. promoting quality of life in the region) it makes perfect sense.  Charities has always been multi-dimensional. We don’t just help human services or the arts.  Grand Vision is also multi-dimensional.  There is no single focus, rather a network of terrific connections.  GV also aligns with our strategic plan and mission focus, which is all about alignment of resources,  forming strategic partnerships and collaborations.

Q – What does it mean when 15,000 people articulate a vision for the region?

A – It represents a people’s mandate to transform this region based on community needs.  When 15k people participate, 12k of whom took the time to complete surveys—this stands the test of verifiable community needs.  Incidentally, the surveys were scientifically validated.

Q - How have you seen the Grand Vision change as we move from visioning to implementation?  How do you see your role changing?

A – GV is just a picture of what people say they want.  In some ways the easy work has been accomplished.  The hard job is implementation.  As that has happened, our role has changed—in the sense that we’re not a traditional helper, but a facilitator.  We play a role of convening and collaborating, as well as providing resources.

Q – How do funders from outside the region see Grand Vision?

A – As a model for the state.  Along with the state’s Six Pillars of Prosperity, this is all about how partnerships can be formed.  It’s also about the leverage that can be brought together when organizations work collaboratively and not competitively.  How many millions of dollars have been leveraged?  The EPA’s Cam Davis talks about that in a video produced at a recent Grand Traverse Regional Conservancy event (ref. video ________in this year’s annual report).

Q – What makes you most proud about being involved in the Grand Vision?)

A – Personally I’m most proud when I see efforts like HARP (Honor Area Restoration Project), a citizen-based initiative started in that community.  They have a vision for Honor and how to make their part of Benzie County better.  USDA monies are being used to develop a non-motorized connector between the village and adjacent shopping center.  A recent front page story in the region’s Benzie County Patriot newspaper detailed the transformational project.  That all started with a boost from the GV.  And a $5k Rotary Charities planning grant provided the seed money.

Q - How can Rotary Charities’ investment in Grand Vision projects be leveraged?

A – Leverage is not only just in terms of dollars.  It’s also represented by in-kind contributions, citizen action, and any number of outcomes that are virtually impossible to envision at the outset of some of our grant making..  We’re just trying to be the catalyst to get this huge ball rolling.  This is all about leverage
Q – Several of the grantee profiles in this year’s annual report reflect the Grand Vision.  Talk about them if you will, and how association with the Grand Vision affected their ability to leverage funding?

A – The threads of Grand Vision are evident throughout the grantees profiled in our 2011 annual report.  From the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, to the Discovery Center, Frankfort’s Elizabeth Lane Oliver Center for the Arts and Traverse City’s Bay Front Plan—-all our reflections of initiatives in the Grand Vision.  In many cases, state and/or federal funding would not have occurred without the massive citizen-led planning effort of the Grand Vision in place.

Rotary Charities everyday role in the Grand Vision is a community based one, as an objective leader and facilitator.  Historically our mission has been to care about the well being of our community.  And because we’ve been here for 35 years and have achieved some credibility, that association with the Grand Vision has also accounted for the leveraging of dollars.

It’s also all about creating this special sense of place.  We have an extraordinary bounty of natural assets.  But only by protecting and using them wisely will they be here for generations to come.  It is up to us.  And that’s one of the guiding principles of the Grand Vision.