Most of us doing community and economic development have been involved with a community-based group attempting to bring about some sort of charge in their community. These could be groups appointed by public officials, convened by a local nonprofit, or perhaps a group that has come together on their own. Extension often gets asked to provide some sort of assistance along the way - facilitation, identifying subject matter experts from the university, etc. There are many "tools" we can bring to the table to assist in one way or another.
A few years ago I was working with a group called the "Community Visioning Committee." This was a group of community leaders that came together on their own and identified some aspects of their community that they thought needed addressed if the community was going to have the sort of economy and quality of life they envisioned for the future. They got to a point where they had a very ambitious agenda and they were feeling overwhelmed about how they were going to get it all done.
It was at this point I was able to step in and help them determine, for each of their proposed strategies, the most appropriate role they could take. I used the following four roles to help them think things through. For each strategy they were concerned with, they could take on one of the following roles: (1) Implementer, (2) Convener, (3) Influencer, (4) Cheerleader. The following is a more detailed explanation of each of these roles.
Implementer - There were a couple parts of their vision for the future that they were going to have to do themselves. These were initiatives for which there was no other group or organization well-suited to address.
Convener - There were also aspects of their agenda for the future that required two or more existing groups or organization to come together. These other groups or organizations need a convener to bring them together.
Influencer - In many cases, a specific desired action is out of the range of power of the group. An actions that require public policy change is a prime example. In these cases, the group can only exercise influence.
Cheerleader - In a few cases, there were areas of concern to the group that were already being addressed by one or more groups. In these cases, the group became a vocal cheerleader and inquired as to what other help they could provide.
Going into the effort, the group was worried that they would have to be the "Implementer" for their entire agenda. Helping them think through the most appropriate role they would take allowed them to focus on "how" they could best do what it was they wanted to accomplish.