Community dashboard gaining momentum but ..

I am aware that various anchor initiatives (DMC, J2G, CHNA, Housing, Transportation) in Rochester have similar goals and that the organizations/teams driving these initiatives have great intention to collaborate. I am also familiar with the difficulty of teaming and collaboration. That's why alignment of goals, indicators, strategies and measurements is highly valued in best-practices such as Lean 6 Sigma.  While leaders of the various organizations and projects have publicly declared their commitment and intentions to collaborate and to align goals, efforts and measurements. 

Beyond the rhetoric, where is the "beef"?

A credible confirmation of this is for these leaders to agree on a common set of measurements. What are the "Top 5" metrics that we are committed to monitor as indicators that the initiatives/programs/projects are making progress towards stated DMC goals? 

While goals like Livable City, Health & Wellness, Learning Environment expressed in early DMC concept briefings are perhaps nebulous and subject to debating as to what indicators are meaningful to reflect their progress, indicators such as job growth (at least 35,000 new jobs) and increased tax revenue ($7 billion) are obvious. 

The question is then how are we measuring these clear-cut indicators? What is the base-line?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a community dashboard to show the "Job" and "Revenue" trends?  And other indicators could be "Affordable Housing", "Transportation".

The September 23 CNG meeting with Minnesota Compass is a good start. The necessary next step is to have buy-in and active sponsor ship from community leaders.  MN Compass have organizations like 3M Foundation, Bush Foundation, etc. fund their effort and lend support and legitimacy.  And they had conveners for various advisory groups such as Eduction: Alice Segren, Commissioner, Minnesota Department of Education, Housing: Time Marx, Commissioner, Minnesota Housing.

To make it real for Rochester, we need to find local sponsorships and conveners of equivalent stature and community standing. That is above my pay grid.

In the meantime, I will continue to work my "home-brewed" dashboard.