With the 2010 release of the Blueprint for Change, the Wisconsin Way is undertaking an aggressive effort to brief members of the Administration and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Leaders of the effort are also working on a plan to maximize distribution of the document to organizations and their members and to ensure that the Blueprint for Change receives statewide media coverage.
The Wisconsin Way has come a very long way from that first enthusiastic forum in 2007 held in La Crosse. There is now widespread public and media recognition of the fundamental economic dislocations that prompted the initial effort. Thousands of citizens and hundreds of organizations have had an opportunity to participate in and shape a serious discussion about what Wisconsin might do to secure a much brighter future. And, that discussion has generated a comprehensive plan which aims to reduce the property tax burden, strengthen Wisconsin’s economy and preserve public services that are critical to our quality of life.
Much, however, remains to be done. Citizens must be given an opportunity to engage with the Blueprint for Change. Policy-makers must be briefed on, and engaged in, these discussions. And, the widespread interest in, and support for, this public initiative must be energized and focused on translating our aspirations into state and local policies that serve our citizens as they strive to meet the demands of this very challenging 21st century.
Background
The Wisconsin Way: October 2007 – August 2009
The Wisconsin Way held its first public forum in La Crosse, Wisconsin on October 10, 2007. More than 350 citizens attended that first discussion about what sort of future we wanted for our state and what we thought we needed, and were prepared to do, to make a brighter future a reality.
Since that auspicious and fascinating first gathering, the Wisconsin Way made significant positive progress in two critical areas. First, the Wisconsin Way helped raised public and media awareness of the issues that prompted the initiation of the Wisconsin Way initiative. The Wisconsin Way has, for example, hosted 28 public forums, engaged in more than 100 organizational meetings, met with the news media in every major market in the state, and briefed state and local elected officials on an on-going basis. More than 7,000 people have attended and/or participated in these meetings, which, in turn, have generated more than 70 print and broadcast news stories. In addition, the Wisconsin Way has developed, and continues to build, a robust Web site that has already been visited by thousands of citizens statewide.
Second, the Wisconsin Way identified possible long-term approaches to Wisconsin challenges and opportunities and begun the process of focusing a public conversation on the long-term solutions identified by the public and experts. The initial Wisconsin Way public forums generated several hundred pages of ideas, concerns and recommendations. Based on that input, discussions with dozens of organizational leaders, meetings with a variety of experts, the Wisconsin Way hosted a second round of public forums and organizational discussions. The Wisconsin Way then produced a draft blueprint for change which focused on three specific strategic needs — economic development, tax reform and modernization, and government spending and management reform and modernization.
The draft blueprint identified strategic initiatives in each of the three areas and listed possible action options under each of the initiatives. In all, the draft blueprint contained 15 strategic initiatives and more than 70 action options and served as a focal point for ongoing discussions with citizens, experts, policy-makers and organizations. After the draft release, the document was distributed either in print or electronically to more than 200,000 citizens.
In addition, the Wisconsin Way hosted two major conferences in 2009, both of which highlighted the approaches discussed in the draft and encouraged elected officials, citizens and experts to comment on the strategic and action options included in the document. Both of these conferences are available by selecting 2009 Conferences on the left navigation menu. In addition, the conferences were also covered by WisconsinEye and are available at www.wiseye.org.
The Wisconsin Way: September 2009 – January 2010
The Wisconsin Way continued its aggressive outreach efforts throughout 2009, meeting with individual local elected, civic and business leaders around the state and with numerous organizations and associations to discuss and get their input on the initial draft, committed to producing its Blueprint for Change by early 2010. To that end, leaders embarked on an ambitious multi-layered effort focused on three specific initiatives. We engaged in discussions with institutional leaders, academic experts, and Wisconsin Way sponsors and supporters designed to help further refine the strategic initiatives and action options laid out in the draft. Our goal in this undertaking was to test and enhance the practicality of the initial blueprint ideas by bringing three questions to each of the major initiatives and action options, including:
1) What exactly are we trying to accomplish with this idea/proposal/recommendation?
2) How exactly would we (i.e., government, business, academia, etc.) accomplish the recommendation legislatively and/or administratively and/or managerially?
3) How do we protect the public interest in terms of oversight and/or quality control in the implementation of this idea/proposal/recommendation?
These meetings were very informative and continued throughout the year.
In addition, we engaged as many different public groups as possible with the refined version of the draft blueprint in order to get even more input. To this end, we held several meetings and briefings with business, governmental, civic, labor, educational and media leaders in most of the communities we visited during the first round of Wisconsin Way forums.
