Between now and Spring 2007, the Tualatin community will complete a City-lead, community-wide visioning process. Tualatin's Visioning process will lead participants along a structured path to examine where the community is today and where it wants to be in the future. Through the visioning process, the City will explore with the community key questions that include:

• Where are we now?
  What are Tualatin's strengths and weaknesses?
  What do Tualatin's citizen's value about Tualatin?
• Where are we going?
  If we keep on our present course, where will we end up?
  What are the trends that could impact Tualatin?
• Where do we want to be in the future?
  What kind of preferred future does Tualatin's community want to have?
• How do we get there?
  What goals, actions and strategies can Tualatin create and use to achieve the Vision?
  Who can help us, what roles will they play, and by when will these actions occur?

The community's response to these questions informs and shapes the outcomes of each phase of the project. Community input will shape Tualatin's Vision Statement, and Tualatin's Strategic Action Plan that provides a specific path to achieving Tualatin's Vision.

Allowing many opportunities for public engagement, the community visioning process is designed to be iterative - that is, to circle back at points to confirm, correct, add-to or clarify the work done in the previous step of the process. The visioning process features ongoing communications with community members that will help build project momentum and increase the number of citizens participating.

Checking in with the community at key points in the process will ensure that community values and issues are well understood, refined and confirmed. Likewise, the community will have opportunities along the way to review and comment on development of the project's products such as the Community Profile the Vision Statement and the Strategic Action Plan. These documents will inform and build upon each other, culminating in the final versions that will be presented to Council by the Tualatin Tomorrow Steering Committee in spring of 2007.

Tualatin will have a Vision Statement that reflects the values of Tualatin's citizens, and a Strategic Action Plan that will serve as a road map to achieving the Vision. This information can empower Tualatin's citizens, civic organizations, City government and other community members to move forward and take actions that move the City towards achieving the Vision. To see the results that other Oregon communities have achieved through their visioning projects, go to the Tualatin Tomorrow home page.

The Tualatin Tomorrow Visioning Project started in February 2006 and is scheduled to be complete in April 2007. It will involve three phases:

Foundation Building: Winter to Spring 2006
Envisioning Tualatin's Preferred Future: Spring to Fall 2006
Action Planning: Fall 2006 to Spring 2007

These Phases are designed to have some degree of overlap, as can be seen on the project schedule.

The Tualatin Tomorrow Steering Committeeis a group of volunteers that represent a cross-section of Tualatin's community, including youth, seniors, homemakers, and business persons. It includes long-time residents as well as people who a new to the community. This Committee functions as caretakers and custodians of the visioning process. Steering Committee members will be present at community meetings and other project events throughout the course of the visioning project.

The Steering Committee meets on the third Wednesday of every month. It will provide feedback on the process, review and validate findings and provide ongoing communications with the City Council. As a Steering Committee member, each person is a representative of the whole community and not of a particular group, affiliation or interest. Committee members can participate as individual citizens in visioning activities, but in doing so receive no special standing or status based upon their Committee membership. Councilor Chris Barhyte is a Committee member, and serves as the City Council's liaison to the Steering Committee.

The Tualatin VisionCorps is an expanded group of community members that, together with the Steering Committee, will foster the development of the Vision and Strategic Action Plan. The VisionCorps will be involved in a wide range of activities including handing out event flyers, participating with the speakers bureau program, providing foot patrols and planning special events. The VisionCorps also will be involved in the activities and events designed for to develop the Vision and Strategic Action Plan. The VisionCorps provides the opportunities to involve the entire Tualatin community.

Prior to the project's launching, the Tualatin City Council selected the Steering Committee members and participated in defining the roles, scope and approach of the project. The Council will receive regular Steering Committee updates on the project and will be presented with the project's final documents: the Community Profile, Vision Statement and Strategic Action Plan at the conclusion of the project in spring of 2007.

The most important participants in the visioning project are members of Tualatin's community. Through outreach, networking, publicity and other methods, the project staff, the Steering Committee and the VisionCorps volunteers will "get the word out" about this project and invite others to participate. As the project unfolds, the City hopes to reach more and more people - attracting a larger number of participants.

The City has hired a Consultant Team that will assist the City in completing this community-wide project. This team has expertise in public involvement and outreach, communications and in community visioning. Together with the City's project manager, this is the project team that will manage the project.

The Tualatin Tomorrow project is funded by Tualatin's general fund.