Mount Sequoyah is seeking your input for its future. It's a mountaintop spot in Fayetteville. It's known for hosting artists' events. There's lodging, it's just a good place to be.
And Mount Sequoyah is developing a strategic plan for the future. A survey at mountsequoyah.org allows members of the public to help guide that next chapter. Mount Sequoyah was founded in 1922 by the Methodist Church. The spot since 2016 has been a secular nonprofit. Ramsey Champagne, Mount Sequoyah's interim executive director, says Mount Sequoyah serves as a variety of roles for the community.
Champagne: One of the things that has been really interesting since I took this interim position is hearing from the community how beloved Mount Sequoyah is and what an icon in the community it is, and how many misunderstandings or misapprehensions there are about exactly that.
And so while we still have really close and beloved relationships with the Methodist community and the Methodist Assembly, we are an independent nonprofit and we've been an independent nonprofit since 2016. We were formed in 2016 as an educational nonprofit, and we had a pretty stable revenue stream and sense of who we were. And then COVID happened and COVID, as it did for so many of us, really disrupted how we did business and what we were thinking about.
And so what I keep saying to folks is that in many ways, we are simultaneously 104-year-old organization, a 10-year-old organization and a 4-year-old organization. And as such, we're in this really interesting developmental point of getting to ask the question of who do we and who does our community want us to be? And that's what the strategic planning process is.
Kellams: I think it was April or May. I was up on Mount Sequoyah, and simultaneously there were people setting up for a wedding reception. There was a family reunion going on. There was maybe an art show going on and then just, you know, the lollygaggers like me with their dogs. It was a lot of different things happening that one Saturday morning.
Champagne: Yeah. One of the things that I love the most, I actually live right down the hill. And we walk our dogs around the campus almost every day and on a weekend, I can't go on campus without seeing some of my kids' friends, without seeing people enjoying the space.
And so in many ways, Mount Sequoyah really does still function both as this phenomenally dynamic multi-use space like you're describing and is one of our few remaining third spaces where people can come and play and feel the peace and look at the overlook.
Kellams: Yeah. Foxes too.
Champagne: We have foxes. We have deer.
Kellams: Oh, God, deer, got plenty of deer. All right. If you're simultaneously a 104-year-old entity, 10-year-old, 4-year-old for the community with residents around you. I mean, that's a lot. That is a lot. And so when you're thinking about strategic planning for the future, how do you go about that?
Champagne: So this is part of the reason that we're talking right now. Because we are so many things to so many people and fill so many roles, it's essential that we hear from our community, that we hear from our neighbors, that we hear from the folks who use our space, that we hear from the folks who don't use our space to get a sense of not only what do I and our staff and our board understand us to be, but what does the community as a whole understand us to be? What are we doing well? What are we doing that actually we don't need to be doing? And what are we doing not as well as we should be?
And so we're about to roll out or we just rolled out this survey that I would love for people to take. It's about 10, 15 minutes long. You can choose which ways you're connected to Mount Sequoyah and get tailored questions as a result of it. And then that will really help us guide and shape our strategic planning process so that our strategic plan is as reflective of what our community understands us to be as we can possibly make it.
Kellams: Where can someone find the survey to take?
Champagne: So if you go to our website,www.mountsequoyah.org, click Get Involved and then select Strategic Planning Process. Or if you want to type a whole big thing in,www.mountsequoyah.org/strategic-planning-process.
Kellams: Mount Sequoyah is this gem, right? I mean, from the buildings to the grounds to the pool, to the tennis court. And that's wonderful. And I wonder, does it ever. There's also a responsibility here because people love it so much. There is so much infrastructure. I would think sometimes it would just be a little bit overwhelming.
Champagne: Yes. And what I can say is when I, about a month after I took this role, I was back home and I was talking to one of my childhood friends' mothers and she was so excited to hear about this organization and so invested in what we are doing and the work that we're doing. And just thrilled that I was part of something as powerful and dynamic as this.
And she asked. She was like, "Ramsey, how did you know this was a good choice?" And I was like, "Honestly, Ellen, I don't know that I did. It is a big choice. It is the right choice."
And what I can say is that from the moment I stepped into this role, the level of care, heartfeltness, creativity, curiosity and collaboration that everyone connected to the mountain brings, this sense of shared responsibility is palpable. And it's present. And it makes the moments of overwhelm minor and blips.
Kellams: What would be the next step after the conclusion of the survey?
Champagne: We are going to go into a facilitated retreat with our board and our staff. We're going to revisit our mission and our vision. I love our mission, but I have some concerns that it might be so broad that it doesn't really help us make strategic choices as we move into this next phase.
And so really looking at based on the community feedback, two of the questions in the survey are designed to fill in or populate word clouds. That will help us look at our mission statement and our vision, and really think about our mission and vision aligned with who the community understands us to be.
And then we're going to start doing some action planning and really mapping out where do we want to be in three years? Who are we as an organization, and how do we back plan from there and really think about this structurally and strategically and operationally?
Kellams: I'm excited to hear what's next. Thanks.
Ramsey Champagne is interim executive director of Mount Sequoyah. You can find the survey for the strategic planning at mountsequoyah.org/planning-process. Our conversation was recorded in the Anthony and Susan Hui News Studio yesterday.
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