The Council on the Future of Vermont held a "Summit on the Future of Vermont" at UVM's Davis Center on Monday, May 11th. The Council spent 18 months interviewing Vermonters about their "hopes, aspirations and visions for the future of the state." (Yankee's Board of Directors was interviewed in August 2008.) The Council wrote a report summarizing its findings: Imagining Vermont: Values and Vision for the Future. The purpose of the Summit was to present and discuss the report, and provide a platform for the people of Vermont to use the report's findings to move forward.Each of the 18 individuals on the Council spoke briefly at the Summit about their observations of the project. One of the Council members was Emily Stebbins of UVM's Finance Office. Emily is the daughter of Yankee director Celeste Kane-Stebbins. Emily noted that her mother was in the audience, thus making this a multi-generational event for her family.
One Council member said that she was impressed with the dedication of the people of Vermont to democracy and as evidence she noted the hundreds of people in attendance at the Summit. I had been thinking myself about the composition of the attendees. There were 514 people registered, which I categorized by affiliation as follows: 16% education, 40% nonprofit, 23% government, 14% private for-profit, 7% other or unknown. It seemed to me that the private for-profit sector was under-represented, and the other sectors over-represented.
Several speakers mentioned Vermont's motto: Freedom and Unity. Freedom and unity are often in conflict, of course, and the motto is about seeking the right balance. I heard a lot at the Summit about promoting unity. I didn't hear much about freedom.
Four people represented Yankee at the Summit: Paul Gingue, Celeste Kane-Stebbins, Pam Simek and me.
The Burlington Free Press article about the Summit: Study: Bright Future for Vermont.
UPDATE 6/18/09: The Summit on the Future of Vermont Final Report is now available (8MB PDF file).
