They plan to do this with their recently announced Bicentennial Visioning Project, the newest Legacy Project for the Bicentennial Commission.
“The concept is very simple,” Hamilton said. “The bicentennial should be an opportunity to make Indiana better. And to do that, many things, of course, have to be done, but one of them is to look at the long term and ask what our goals should be.”
By long term, Hamilton means setting goals for decades in the future. Five decades, to be exact.
To imagine what Indiana will look like in 2066, people working on the project will reflect on the big-picture questions having to do with the state’s welfare.
Where are we headed? Where should we be headed? How do we get from here to there?
To answer these, Ellspermann and Hamilton are currently in the process of assembling a team of thought leaders from different areas of expertise such as education, business, civic engagement, philanthropy, arts and health.
“We want to bring these people together for several hours to talk about each of those subjects and the changes taking place in each sector,” Hamilton said. “The end product will be a booklet putting forth the vision that these thought leaders have articulated.”
Norm Heikens, an editor for the Indianapolis Business Journal, has been hired to lead the team and edit the final report.
“This report is not intended to be a political manifesto with specific policy recommendations,” Ellspermann said in a press release. “Rather, we see it as a resource document with a collection of big ideas and broad goals for Indiana’s ?future.”
In order to best represent the dreams of the Indiana population, Hoosiers from throughout the state are being considered as potential thought leaders.
Hamilton said diversity will be important when selecting the thought leaders.
The general public will also have the opportunity to participate by submitting their own big ideas through a website being created for the Visioning Project.
“We don’t mean to be exclusive about this,” Hamilton said. “We want to hear from other Hoosiers, so the meetings that we have will be open to the public, and they can participate to the extent they want.”
Hamilton said that youth involvement is important for the project’s success. Bicentennial Scholars are currently being selected from universities and colleges in the state to assist Heikens as interns.
“They’re the ones that are going to run the state in the years ahead,” Hamilton said. “Those of us that are putting the project together will be out of the way, and these young people will really have the difficult task of implementing the plan.”
Currently Hamilton, Ellspermann and Heikens are working to determine what sectors the project will be focused on. Once that has been established, they will be able to select the thought leaders best suited for the job. The project is expected to be completed by summer 2016
