Editors Note:  Periodically we post perspectives pieces in which we offer some broader thoughts on where our community is going.  We do this not only for each other, but to show our friends what is happening here.

As many know, our Strategic Planning document has been published, and concrete steps have been announced to move its items forward (see page 15 of our Courier dated Feb 26 to March 4).  This is a very important document for all of our lives, and not just because of the concrete steps, such as completely repositioning our health care, that are being and will be undertaken under its banner.

Every few weeks, the Committee, which is a Board Committee with heavy resident and staff participation, will be releasing an update on activities and plans in the Courier.  Residents will also be hearing about that in various fora, including the RA Council and the Community Meeting.

Indeed, such an update is in the most recent Courier.  It includes the very important news with respect to the critical health care partnership, that:

After a significant amount of due diligence, we have narrowed potential partners down to 3 providers. We are continuing due diligence and believe a final recommendation will be made to the Board in June for their endorsement.

Similarly with respect to the physical redesign of the Creighton Center (which is of course deeply integrated with our conceptual redesign:

A Request for Proposals (RFP) has been developed and has gone out to several national and local architectural firms. An ad hoc committee of the Strategic Planning Committee will oversee the RFP process and final recommendations on an architecture firm. We expect this process to be completed by the end of June as well. 

The is no need to note what a wonderful acceleration this represents.

The Report notes that the “Collington Culture and Stakeholder Engagement” implementation rollout will begin in September, and the other two will start in 2019. This delay will enable us to take full advantage of what we are learning about how best to work together in the initial groups and apply that will the next ones.

Speaking for my self, I feel very confident that these processes will be rich in resident input, and that the transformative quality will be clear from how things work out  Just look at the Landing Bistro and the new Physical Therapy staff and spaces.  These both reflect the values and principles processes established in the Srategic Planning process.  I hope that these will similarly increasingly influence everything here at Collington.