The West Houston Association kicked off 2022 with three internally focused events in January, our Board Strategic Planning Meeting on January 18th, Committee Chair’s Breakfast on January 27th, and informal membership committee luncheon on January 31st. Participants from all the events expressed excitement for the year ahead.
The Board Strategic Planning Meeting serves as an annual touchpoint for Board Members to put aside the daily business of the organization and focus on the future. The meeting included a visioning session on issues in West Houston that need the most focus moving forward. There were several themes identified that align with the activities of the association such as mobility/transportation, quality development standards, and flooding, but there were also multiple references to the concepts of public safety, opportunity, and “Sense of Community.” The board will continue to think about how WHA should be working to improve opportunities for great experiences to live, work, and play across the Greater West Houston region while staying mission focused on high-quality development, sustainable infrastructure, long-term planning, and evidence-based public policy.
The Committee Chair’s Breakfast is an opportunity for WHA Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs to sit down together to think about their strategy for moving the work of the committees towards the goals of the West Houston 2060 Plan. The breakfast included a discussion session with Alex Gras, Chief Commercial Officer for The Cannon, who encouraged bringing in different ways of thinking to help innovate as we address challenges facing West Houston. Two key takeaways from the event are the importance of disruption in order to be pushed to think about new ideas and for increased collaboration across committees, such as co-hosting forums and cross-pollination of committee membership.
The membership committee luncheon is a new series of quarterly conversations hosted by the WHA Membership Committee where a handful of member organizations are invited to sit down and share their thoughts on what WHA is doing well and what we can do to improve. The informal discussions bring together a handful of members to reflect on their involvement with WHA and brainstorm new ways for engagement moving forward. If you are interested in participating in one of these events, please let us know.
We are already planning interdisciplinary forums, and disrupting our normal ways of doing things, including kicking off 2022 with a Sustainable Infrastructure conference co-hosted with Houston Community College’s West Houston Institute and Texas A&M University’s Office of Academic and Strategic Collaboration that is free for the public to attend thanks to the generous sponsorship of our Quality Growth Partners.