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Steering Committee holds Retreats

In April 2005 the MSIC Steering Committee, the governing body of the organization, held a retreat to focus on three subjects:

1. the distinctive value of the organization
2. the desired relationship with other organizations focusing on the greater Montclair area
3. maximizing the effectiveness of volunteers

In April 2006 the Steering Committee met to review the progress made on these subjects. Highlights include:

1. MSIC's Distinctive Value
   • Providing leadership and advocacy
     • Advocate for local neighborhood empowerment
     • Act as a resource to empower other community groups
     • Provide a voice for citizens across neighborhood boundaries where another structure is not in place
   • Acting as a community resource for how to get things done
     • Serve as a centralized resource
     • Monitor area crime
     • As an NCPC, serve as a conduit to government authorities
   • Establishing mechanisms for communicating and getting things done
     • MSIC Web site, Yahoo Groups and printed materials
     • Narrowly focus on issues that can be successfully addressed—i.e., tackle achievable tasks
2. Our Desired Relationship With Other Community Groups
   • Bring together the leaders of business and neighborhood associations to begin building relationships and a shared vision of the role of MSIC
   • Determine the priority issues of each organization
   • Determine where MSIC can play a value-added role
   • Gain agreement as to future work this association of leaders might undertake
3. Build stronger engagement with the community
   • Revamp community meeting structure to increase public participation/awareness
   • Open half our Steering Committee meetings for public involvement
   • Build a stronger pool of project coordinators/managers for
     • Beautification
     • Crime Prevention 
     • Emergency Preparedness
     • Traffic and Pedestrian Safety
     • Keep the scope of projects manageable
     • SC should have mini-retreats to refine goals, define objectives and break into meaningful tasks.  We can then “post” job openings that are more do-able for volunteers who have limited time and an interest in short-term accomplishment.