Imagine Monroe Sounding Board

Overview

Over the past several years, Monroe has experienced increasing growth with new local businesses opening and more people moving into the area. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented Monroe with new challenges that are not yet fully understood. To better understand current community priorities and needs, the City completed a citywide visioning process, entitled Imagine Monroe, that culminated in the development of a vision statement which will be used to inform the development of a mission statement and core values. These documents will form the foundation for policymaking, budgeting, land and infrastructure planning, and programing for the next thirty years. 

To ensure this process equitably reflects all voices in Monroe, the City convened a Sounding Board of representatives with a variety of lived experiences to work together to identify community priorities and needs, and recommend a revised  vision statement to Mayor Geoffrey Thomas and the City Council.

The Sounding Board completed its work and City Council approved the Imagine Monroe vision statement on December 14, 2021. The Mayor and City Council would like to thank the Sounding Board members for their work on this important task. For more information and to view the Imagine Monroe vision statement, go to the Imagine Monroe Visioning Project page.

Imagine Monroe Sounding Board

The main purpose of the Imagine Monroe Sounding Board was to:

• Provide input into the outreach and communications plan for the City’s visioning project. 
• Reflect the interests and needs of Monroe’s diverse community networks to ensure broad participation in the process to update the City’s vision statement. 
• Review findings from the visioning process and recommend a draft vision statement before these documents were finalized by Mayor Thomas and the City Council.

Sounding Board’s role

Sounding Board participants:

• Reviewed materials, complete pre-meeting activities, and come to meetings prepared to discuss, listen, and learn.
• Developed an understanding of the City of Monroe’s current mission statement, vision statement, and core values. 
• Communicated with and represented the needs and priorities of their networks in the City of Monroe. 
• Partnered with City staff to develop and recommend a revised vision statement that reflect current community priorities and needs.

Members