NEXT STEP: THE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Specific Goals and Objectives for the Plan
Components of the Plan
Sample Scope of Work and Timeline

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The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area will be created through an extensive planning process, one that will produce a comprehensive strategy, or management plan, designed to coordinate the conservation, development, use, management, marketing, and promotion of the region's heritage resources.

This plan will represent a heritage-based strategic vision for the future of the Mississippi Hills region. The Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Management Plan will establish a set of interlocking and clear strategies, projects, actions, programs, and partnerships for enhancing the existing appeal of the Mississippi Hills region to visitors over the next decade.

*It will provide a strategic action framework for coordinating the many collaborative efforts required to develop a successful heritage tourism industry.

*It will enable key stakeholders to reach consensus on the roles each will play in the implementation of the management plan.

*It will determine the optimum investment of public resources necessary to trigger the significant private commitments of dollars, energy, and programmatic support that will make the heritage enterprise sustainable over time.

Specific Goals and Objectives for the Plan
Goal 1: Build Understanding and Identity
Related objectives:

*Frame the region's key stories. Give them a larger national, global context.
*Convey the key stories to Mississippi Hills residents and to others.
*Foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of this place and its importance.
*Instill a conservation ethic among those who live in and visit this place.
*Elevate the Mississippi Hills region in the nation's consciousness.

Goal 2: Strengthen Place
Related objectives:

*Help regional communities plan for future development.
*Encourage and stimulate:
*Conservation of cultural, natural, and historical resources
*Preservation and reuse of historic resources
*Regeneration of key natural resources
*Reconnect cultural traditions to the people and their communities.

Goal 3: Increase Community Capacity
Related objectives:

*Cultivate local leadership and cross-boundary partnerships.
*Encourage wider community involvement in decision-making and leadership.
*Attract new resources from multiple sources for project implementation.
*Help local communities chart their course and achieve sustainable success.

Goal 4: Expand Economic Opportunities
Related objectives:

*Grow the economy from within.
*Pursue a regional approach to economic development that treats the region's economy as an integrated system and de-emphasizes county borders.
*Support ventures that complement the region's culture and environment and exemplify the broader heritage-related goals.

Components of the Plan
Specifically, this formal management plan will:

*Provide a resource inventory which also includes any property in the area which should be preserved, restored, managed, developed, maintained, or acquired because of its national historic, cultural, or scenic significance;

*Take into account existing federal, state, and local plans, and coordinate those plans and present a unified public policy inventory for the area;

*Develop a historic, cultural, scenic, and natural resource interpretation strategy to interpret the resources of the area;

*Recommend a resource management strategy which considers and details the application of appropriate land and water management techniques, including the development of intergovernmental cooperative agreements, that will protect and interpret the area's historical, cultural, scenic, and natural resources in a manner consistent with supporting appropriate and compatible economic revitalization efforts; and

*Contain an implementation strategy, which will include estimated funding needs and detail the ways in which local, state, and federal programs may best be coordinated to promote the heritage area.

Sample Scope of Work and Timeline
Phase-Activity-Timeframe:

Phase 1: Background Research ~4 mo.

*Task 1.1 Review of Relevant Materials
*Task 1.2 Reconnaissance Trip / Resource Inventory
*Task 1.3 Historical Research
*Task 1.4 Economic & Market Analysis
*Task 1.5 Study of Relevant Models/Projects
*Task 1.6 Preliminary Findings Report

Phase 2: Public Input Process ~3 mo.
*Task 2.1 Leadership Interviews
*Task 2.2 Focus Groups
*Task 2.3 Public Meetings
*Task 2.4 Public Opinion Survey
*Task 2.5 Public Input Results Report

Phase 3: Strategy Preparation ~6 mo.
*Task 3.1 Preparation of Detailed Plan Outline
*Task 3.2 Draft Plan Preparation
*Task 3.3 Client Review & Revisions of Draft Plan

Phase 4: Workshops & Plan Revisions ~3 mo.

Phase 5: Development of Funding Strategy & Implementation Timeline ~2 mo.

Total: ~18 mo.