Producing a High Quality Regional Economic Development Plan

Introduction

Your involvement in SET offers your regional SET team an excellent opportunity to build stronger relationships across a wide variety of people, institutions and organizations. These connections will be critical as you focus your time and effort -- through the series of SET modules -- to create a sound economic development blueprint for your region.

First Year Target

While many factors will shape your region’s success in this important undertaking, the most critical benchmark that your region will reach during your first year is the establishment of a high quality regional economic development plan. The essential components of a high quality plan are interwoven into the SET curriculum to help guide you toward the development of a plan that will serve as a solid foundation on which to build your region’s economic future.

Guiding the Process

SET provides two overarching guiding documents to help facilitate the plan development.

• Producing a High Quality Regional Economic Development Plan: Outlines the fifteen essential elements of an excellent plan.
• SET Regional Plan Template: Provides a suggested format for the actual plan document with references to the related Modules where each section is explored. With this template, regional teams can begin to organize useful input for each section of the plan as they go.

Connecting the Pieces

These two documents are intricately connected as each draws strength from the other. The document below shows the linkages. The orange boxes to the right side in each section of the document help identify areas within the template where the various elements of the High Quality Plan can and should be showcased.

Fitting the High Quality Elements into the SET Template

Exploring Examples

The curriculum team has used a variety of sources for examples of regional plans that demonstrate the essential elements of a high quality plan. To date, no plan has surfaced that has all of these unique qualities. However, several examples excel in certain aspects and thus provide good examples of how SET regions may wish to design the corresponding segments of their plans.

To see the examples identified, choose one of the links below depending on which way you would like to view the examples

• Examples of High Quality Plan Elements
• Examples of Well Written Sections of the Template
• A Look at One Plan through the Lens of the Nine SET Modules (expand)
  • Phase III (expand)
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 2
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 3
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 4
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 5
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 6
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 7
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 8
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 9
  • Phase IV (expand)
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 1
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 2
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 3
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 4
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 5
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 6
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 7
  • Southern Tier Example: Module 8
  • Southern Tier Full Plan

SET High Quality Plan Examples

• A Review of the Western Nevada SET Plan
• Northern Neck Regional Plan - With Review Notes

Providing Feedback

An assessment tool has been developed that will allow for a review panel to evaluate and offer suggestions to your plan. This panel will be made up of other SET regional team members, trainers, and curriculum authors. The assessment tool is here for your review.

High Quality Plan Peer Review Tool

If you find examples that you would like to share or have additional comments or questions about these, please email rachelw@srdc.msstate.edu.