Rotation #16- Strategic Initiatives

Today was a very fun day, as I got to spend it with Josh Wright discussing the department of economic development, Rodney Campbell on his job as a Public Information Officer, and Adelina Martin as the Special Events Coordinator. All fall under the department of Strategic Initiatives.

Economic Development

Strategic Initiatives involve a wide variety of duties; economic development and tourism, intergovernmental affairs, special events, communications and marketing, strategic planning, heritage, arts, and culture, and performance measurement. Of these areas, Josh and I focused on economic development, which is basically encouraging businesses to operate in Marana. Businesses are essentially the building blocks of a community, because people will move and live where there is work, and then those who live in the community will shop at the stores and restaurants in the town.

Economic development is essentially creating a great quality of life that will cause people to want to stay. Marana develops relationships with businesses in town for this very reason. It is important to realize that companies are made up of people. It is with these people that it is important to have a faithful and consistent relationship from the very beginning. Communication is key, because no one likes surprises. It is important to have a very open relationship with clear goals and intentions.

Structurally, it is also important to encourage businesses that complement each other. A business might feel good about setting up shop in Marana if a business that provides a complementary part of their operations is also based in Marana. This is called a "cluster". It is important to focus on clusters so that similar companies can share resources.

Public Information

I met with Rodney to disucss his job as Public Information Officer. He is in charge of newsletters, media interaction, and working on events. For the most part, he serves as the 1st point of contact. He has a very good relationship with the media.

We discussed the latest addition to his team; a graphic designer! This is especially exciting, because a graphic designer will give some consistency to the Town's publications. This includes internal newsletters as well. He spoke to me about the importance of choosing a graphic designer who understood the image the Town wanted to have, and knew how to translate that onto a paper using color and eye-catching layouts. We also discussed how he wants to add to the Town's collection of photos, which will be helpful whenever an article wants an image to accompany a story about a certain neighborhood, project, or event. I will get the chance to help out with this later during the summer.

Special Events

Adelina serves as Special Events Coordinator. It was a position that used to be in Parks and Recreation until the Town decided that the larger events (Founder's Day, 4th of July, and the Holiday Festival) should be about bringing in tourism, commerce, and serving as staple attractions to the area. She still works in Parks and Recreation, splitting her day between the two offices. I got to attend an Arizona Parks & Recreation Assocation meeting in the afternoon, and even stayed afterward in the evening to help with the Splash N' Dash event for Parks and Recreation, which occurs every 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month. It is super fun. I watched 6 year old kids run better times than me. :) There are definitely some active and athletic kids in Marana!