Developing a Walkable Community Task Force
When developing a Walkable Community Task Force, consider the following steps:
- Recruit support from a community leader. A community leader will give credibility to the task force and influence others to join the Task Force. This influential person could be the mayor, other elected official, or influential civic or business leader. For example, in Wheeling, the mayor supported the concept of a walkable community and asked that a Task Force examine and act upon policy and environmental issues. This gave credibility to the Task Force and when we invited people to join the committee they were pleased to do so.
- Identify, by name or position, the people you would like on the Task Force. Personally invite all of them to join the Task Force. It is important to remember that not all identified individuals will join the Task Force. Send each individual a convincing letter, stressing the importance of having them on the Task Force. Be sure to identify the support of the influential community leader, explain what the Task Force hopes to accomplish, indicate the time commitment involved, and invite them to an initial meeting. Follow-up the written invitation with a phone call. Community leaders such as the mayor, sheriff, city council, planning commissioners, county commissioners, city manager, members of local running and walking clubs, members of faith communities, representatives of the health department, representatives from trail organizations, state and national government officials, hospital administrators, fitness center representatives, the media, legislators, public school administrators, American Heart Association representatives, Breast and Cervical Cancer program representatives, the local cancer prevention specialist, state Bureau of Public Health, Department of Highway representatives, college and university administrators, walking and fitness advocates in the community, and anyone involved in your prior efforts to promote walking should be invited to join your Task Force. Yes, this is a long list of individuals, but you will need each individual’s involvement as you attempt to make changes in your community.
Task Force Meetings
Scheduling the meeting: Schedule the task force meeting in a convenient location with ample parking. We suggest the task force meets monthly to generate and keep momentum. In addition, schedule the meetings at a convenient time for members. It may be most beneficial to schedule the meetings at the convenience of your most active and interested task force members.
Tasks for the meeting: It is best to have a community member facilitate and/or chair this Task Force. This creates a feeling of community ownership from the onset.
Assign a member of the staff to assist the Chairman with meeting preparations, such as reserving the meeting room, ordering food, preparing the agenda, bringing minutes to the meeting, and by being at the meeting 15-20 minutes early to greet participants and have them sign-in. It is important to have all participants sign-in. This way you will have a record of attendance and obtain current addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.
Note: Be sure a staff member issues a press release and invites the media to all of your meetings.
Keep in mind that your task force members are busy. Take steps to ensure a productive meeting:
- Start the meeting on time
- Have a printed agenda for each participant
- Review minutes from the last meeting
- Stay on task, follow the agenda, allow everyone a chance to speak
- Assign action items with deadlines
- Set a date for the next meeting
- Thank everyone for attending and encourage them to bring a friend or co-worker to the next meeting.
- Follow-up on action items at the next meeting
Communicating with the Task Force
Between Task Force meetings, you will need to communicate with Task Force members. Create e-mail mailing lists, regular mailing lists and labels, and phone lists from your sign-in sheets. The Walkable Wheeling Task Force has found it easiest and most economical to e-mail agendas, minutes, and last minute meeting reminders. For those without e-mail, mail and telephone have been utilized. Make sure you e-mail minutes, agendas, and meeting notices to all interested individuals, even if they have not regularly attended meetings. At some time they may find an issue of particular interest and become a great strength to the committee.
Sustaining the Momentum
To sustain the excitement and momentum of your walking campaign, we suggest scheduling a series of community workshops. These workshops should focus on ways to make your community more “walkable”.
- Invite individuals considered to be vital resources to the success of the workshop objectives.
- Encourage attendance by offering a door prize. The door prize should reinforce the walking theme, such as, walking shoes, a pedometer, etc. The door prize may act as an incentive to get participants to join the Walkable Community Task Force. (See Appendix 12B for door prize request.)
- Be sure all participants sign-in. The Sign-in sheet should include the person’s name, organization, street address, e-mail address, and phone number. From the sign-in sheets you can create a mailing list and labels of community members who are interested in your walking initiative. In addition, use the list to send a thank you note for participating in the workshop.
For example, WHEELING WALKS conducted a workshop to mobilize the resources necessary to make the Wheeling area a safe and attractive place to walk. A West Virginia University engineering team experienced in developing a walkable community assisted attendees with generating and prioritizing a list of environmental issues to pursue (see Appendix 12C for a packet of information on this Walkable Communities Workshop). Several of those proposed initiatives had identified time lines and responsible parties assigned for their completion or monitoring. The list of proposed initiatives was then given to the Walkable Wheeling Task Force to monitor progress and to address as needed.
Note: It may be beneficial to hire an expert on environmental issues to assist the task force to create, prioritize, and develop an initial walkable community work plan.
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