Strategic Planning for Local Government, second edition, outlines the strategic planning process in local government and helps local government leaders anticipate and shape the future of their communities. It covers practical ways of obtaining information, analyzing that information, and developing a vision for the community that can be translated into programs and line items in a budget. This e-book offers many excerpts from local government plans and working documents that serve as examples you can build upon. These models can be customized for your local government. Videos highlight the role professional local government managers play in building communities we're proud to call home.

This book shows how and why strategic planning is working in cities around the country. It illustrates how this technique enables a city to plan its future proactively and shows how local governments use it to solve current problems and make sure they continue to reach their goals. Using seventeen case studies from a diverse mix of cities, it outlines the components of successful strategic planning, including program design, needs and capabilities assessment, implementation, and ongoing evaluation. In this book, you'll see how planners use strategic planning to synthesize population trends, economic conditions, business trends, strategies, and objectives. The authors emphasize that the planning process is not entirely theoretical; real world factors-like support from politicians-is crucial. This casebook includes discussion questions with each case. Also included is a chapter devoted solely to a strategic planning model. These features make the book valuable not only to planners on the job but also to students in planning and public administration.

This "how-to" book on planning and managing GIS within local government describes and details the key components of a successful enterprise, sustainable and enduring GIS. It describes the strategic planning process an organization must undertake prior to GIS implementation. The heart of the book is the formula for success that offers a systematic methodology for examining and benchmarking a GIS initiative and the practical and repeatable strategy for success. There are many obstacles to successful GIS implementation, and unfortunately, the local government landscape is riddled with false starts, poorly planned implementations, and glorified mapping systems. This book documents the reason for failure and possible remedies to overcome the challenges to implementation. It discusses pathways to change, ways of improving organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and lays out the organizational approaches, management processes, and leadership actions that are required for GIS to become an indispensable part of an organization. This book is about aiming high, so you can consistently hit your mark by formulating goals and objectives that will tremendously influence the success of a GIS initiative. It details the factors crucial for building an enterprise GIS vision statement that includes governance, data and databases, procedures and workflow, GIS software, GIS training and education, and infrastructure, and how to develop performance measures related to the stated objectives of an organization. The book combines theory with real-world experience to offer guidance on the process of managing GIS implementation. Through key components, this book introduces a new way to think about GIS technology.?

You'd think strategic planning would be obvious. It has long been a common practice in the corporate world. It has, however, only recently been applied to the public sector. Local governments find such planning increasingly useful as they strive to overcome the constraints imposed by traditional, short-term government planning practices.These 24 articles examine sound (proven) public sector strategic planning theories. They demonstrate the different kinds of planning used in 16 successful governments, and provide assessments of the future of this important tool.

More than ever before, citizens are looking for leaders at all levels of government that they can trust to genuinely represent their aspirations for their communities. Perhaps there is no better environment for this desire to be fulfilled than at the most local level. The process of building that trust starts with taking the time to fully understand what residents desire from their local government and then putting an effective plan into action that delivers on those expectations. Community-based strategic planning is the process of moving from resident aspirations to an actionable plan that local government leaders can work to execute. In this book, Rick Davis and Dan Griffiths lay out their combined decades of experience with local government to outline the ins and outs of a community-based approach to strategic planning. This isn't a book about what might work in theory. Instead, it outlines a practical approach that has been employed by local governments throughout the world. Using stories and examples from real communities where they have worked, Rick and Dan offer a systematic process that can be applied by cities, towns, counties, school districts, and other municipal governments. Whether a municipal manager, elected official, or even an involved citizen, this book will serve as a guide for developing a strategic plan for your community.

The term strategic planning describes a process through which people first agree on a desired future and then organize their resources and efforts toward meeting those long-term goals. A strategic plan defines what you want to accomplish for your organization or community and provides a road map for moving forward and staying on track. The authors, as trainers and facilitators, have helped communities of all sizes and varying characteristics work through strategic planning processes. This book is their way of offering those potential benefits to others. A free PDF download of the table of contents is available (https://www.sog.unc.edu/publications/books/strategic-planning-elected-officials-setting-priorities-2017!/details). See the Local Government Board Builders Series webpage for other books in the series and related School of Government publications (https://www.sog.unc.edu/resource-series/local-government-board-builders-series-0).