The Middleburg Futures Group (MFG) met in early May for a day and a half, aided by a facilitator paid for by the Town Council and MBPA, to develop a strategic plan with goals, action items, timelines and a path for moving forward to accomplish these objectives. The vision is a clear and simple one: A thriving, vibrant town of Middleburg with a diverse, growing, sustainable economy that will preserve our culture, values, and way of life. The Futures Group mission is to improve the business climate and community life of our town, preparing it for the challenges associated with the growth and changes taking place in surrounding areas and building on our core, inherent strengths, and history.

You may be asking yourself, "why this group?"

The MFG committee is a voice for our community with a broad representation, to include: Town Council, Historic District Review Committee, Planning Commission, Economic Development Advisory Committee, Streetscape Committee, Middleburg Arts Council, Go Green Committee, Middleburg Business & Professional Association, Salamander Resort, National Sporting Library & Museum, retail and service businesses, and the citizen community. We are a motivated volunteer group dedicated to serving all town stakeholders. Our passion for Middleburg and our belief in the town's tremendous potential energizes us. The Futures Group is essentially an action-oriented advocacy group for the community. We are working to improve the community and secure its future success for everybody.

As members of these various groups, we made a critical discovery in our time together – we're stronger together than we are as individuals. As a unifying body, our integrated approach to moving Middleburg forward has already yielded an often-overlooked important result. We're all working together towards a common set of outcomes which represents all voices. The Futures Group also serves as a communications mechanism for these individual groups in a way that jointly leverages our capabilities. Before the Futures Group, collaboration happened infrequently and on an ad hoc basis making it hard for these groups make progress. We now have a process and energized forum for partnering together to address the challenges that face Middleburg.

We dove head first into the issues by conducting a detailed survey which yielded over 1200 responses. After analyzing the responses from locals and visitors, the results were clear: Both natives and visitors cherish Middleburg for the same reason, we are an authentic community. Below is a sampling of our goals for the next year. We will achieve these and gain momentum through well-defined, targeted quick win projects. They may seem small, but small things often yield big results. These projects are an important foundation for the long-term goals of community fulfillment, economic stability and planned sustainable growth.

We've all heard the concerns raised over several retail vacancies on main street. The Futures Group will be working to brand and market Middleburg. With that effort, we will focus on supporting current businesses and existing events. Our goal is the capture the unique essence that makes Middleburg special and put it to use in a consistent and compelling brand presentation for the brand of the town.

This brand will not just help us better represent what Middleburg is, but it will also help us to project what it wants to be. As we develop and implement this, we will work to attract the right visitors for our current businesses. It will also help us attract businesses who would fit and succeed here. Prospective businesses will soon see that Middleburg is forward thinking and focused, which speaks to the character of the town and our community.

Furthermore, we will be working to deliver an improved Middleburg Experience. This will include enhancing our streetscape, improving way finding signage and town guides for visitors. In our recent meeting, we performed an exercise where we walked through town as a new visitor. It was an eye-opening experience. We each saw the town differently. Middleburg is beautiful and genuine. It's an escape from the ordinary when you considered the multitude of planned communities surrounding us. We do not want to appear planned, but we do want to feel well organized and user-friendly. It's our goal to add outdoor seating and enhance the landscaping to complete the attractive feeling that pervades the downtown.

Now it is time for the hard truth. The easy part is behind us. We've heard your input. We've researched and organized the plan, set objectives and outlined a process to move us forward. Now, we must do it, and we are excited to start this journey with you. This is the only way both The Futures Group and the community will succeed. We need your help as volunteers. We encourage you to reach out and get involved if one of these projects speaks to your interest or your expertise. We look forward to you joining us on this journey.