To download a copy of this process in pdf format, click here.
Project Get Ready Cities follow a general three step process in taking action to accelerate the adoption of plug-in vehicles in their communities.
1. Get Ready: Form a coalition of leaders in your community, including utilities, municipal government, citizen activists, auto dealers, transportation authorities, local employers. Select a “champion” for your coalition.
2. Get Set: Create a charter, or five year plan, for your city readiness with clear goals and milestones. Project Get Readyʼs menu can provide a foundation for this charter, which can be amended to fit your community. Share ʻlessons learnedʼ and progress in your region with other partner cities.
3. Go!: Start executing your charter.
In order to become an official Partner city, the ‘Get Ready‘ phase of the three step process must be completed. When cities sign on to Project Get Ready (PGR) we also ask that the local champion submit a one-page description of their plug-in readiness plans for us to post on the PGR website. This one-pager is basically an executive summary of a regional five year plan and should include the following components:
* Outline work in progress: What’s the current status of your region’s plug-in readiness efforts? Who’s currently involved?
* Who is and will be represented in your initiative: Moving forward, who will be partnering with your local PGR initiative?
* Goals/milestones: For years 2009-2013, what major milestones will your city/region reach? What goals must be attained to reach these milestones?
* Working groups: If possible, outline initiative working groups that will be facilitating action in your region (vehicle acquisition or infrastructure planning for example).
* Contact information for regional champion.
What’s next?
Partner cities have also asked us to break down the ‘Get Set’ and ‘Go’ steps of PGR. Once a city has written their one-page description plan the following steps are recommended:
* Convene regional coalition of stakeholders to discuss the PGR menu, work through each ‘must have’ line item, describe how to make each item regionally specific and attach action items with a leader to drive deliverables (include stakeholders such as city administrators, state/province representatives, planning department members, building/inspection officials, local business leaders, car dealers, utility representatives, fleet owners etc).
* The local champion then develops the first iteration of a 5-10 page charter outlining a 5 year plan and defining working groups, milestones and goals. For example, in Raleigh the following steps were taken:
1. A meeting in Raleigh was convened where each ‘must have’ line item of the PGR menu was addressed in 4 discussion groups: vehicle acquisition, infrastructure planning, project structure and consumer adoption. Each menu item was discussed and reformatted to be “Raleigh specific”. During this time the following questions were answered: Who in Raleigh could make this action item
happen? What regulations/laws would need to change/be activated? What are potential funding sources? Who else in this region should be involved in this discussion? What next steps need to be pursued in order to execute? Who will be responsible for these next steps? When do these next steps need to be completed?
2. Based on this meeting, the Raleigh champion is writing up a 5-10 page charter. It is the 5-year plan for Raleigh readiness, with milestones, goals, and it defines four working groups. The first is a builders forum (to interact with developers, contractors, etc.), then a charging infrastructure group, a fleet purchasing group, and a citizen outreach/education group. Working groups may differ depending on the region!
* After an initial charter has been drafted, convene a wider group of stakeholders to gain feedback, iterate and finalize the charter.
* Gain signatures of regional stakeholders on charter essentially saying: “I believe that this is the best path forward and will support region x’s Project Get Ready effort by doing y (funding working group 4 with $2000, for example)”.
* Share progress and lessons learned with Project Get Ready and participating cities/regions.
* Execute!
We are beginning work with the new Clean Cities Coordinator in San Antonio to start Project Get Ready. It was mentioned that the number of cities involved has gone down since it’s inception – why is that?
Thank you.
Posted by Gary Krysztopik August 13th, 2009 at 6:28 am