Volunteers meet to learn about Agenda for the Future initiative.
Clermont County residents from all walks of life soon will be asked to spend an hour talking about where they live, what could be better and suggest ways to make improvements.

The Agenda for the Future is an initiative by the Clermont Chamber of Commerce Foundation that will continue the work started 25 years ago known as Clermont 2001. Later the name was changed to Clermont 20/20.

The objective in 2014 is to look at the county, determine strengths and weaknesses and create an action plan to address problems. The goal is to make Clermont County better, said Matt Van Sant, Chamber president.

 The Clermont Chamber of Commerce Foundation, with a grant from Duke Energy, is training volunteers how to conduct “conversations” across the county. These sessions will encourage people to talk about their community and county, said Dave Gooch, president of Park National Bank and a leader of this initiative.

Volunteers met Dec. 11 and again Jan. 14 to learn more about the initiative. Training sessions will be conducted throughout January with conversations to be scheduled in February, Gooch said.

The results from all the conversations will be used to write an action plan to be published early this fall, Van Sant said. That action plan will allow people to get involved in various ways to address the problems identified in the effort to make Clermont County better.

For more about this initiative or to learn how to participate in a conversation, visit www.clermontagenda.org.