By Jack Chavez, Staff Writer

The Ocean Pines Strategic Planning Committee is continuing to work on its mission statement as well as developing goals for the Ocean Pines Association.

Committee chair Bernie McGorry said the goals are driven by a survey in which residents offered their opinions on what they believe are important issues for the community.

“(There was a lot of) community things like safety, appearance, infrastructure, (which) were the top three, but also incorporating core values into future planning,” McGorry said.

“The committee debated a lot about (whether we are) the content experts or the process experts. I think the consensus was at the next board work session that we’ll recommend executive council committee chairs be involved in a future planning session where specific long-term actions or lists or strategies are developed.”

McGorry added that the committee is hoping to have a work session with the Ocean Pines Board of Directors sometime later this month.

Bernie McGorry

The Strategic Planning Committee itself is relatively new, coming online in 2021. McGorry said that he didn’t believe the community has had such a committee in “at least 10, if not 20” years.

“I signed up on (this committee) because I felt Ocean Pines needed long-term direction,” McGorry said. “It started with benchmarking other communities, creating surveys, and now it’s taking some of those survey results and making recommended goals, maybe slide updates to the mission, making a five-year plan.”

“It’ll help the budgeting and planning processes.”

The goal of the committee is to incorporate values identified by the community — including transparency and accountability — and other key issues.

In other business, McGorry said the committee planned to discuss amenity reporting and whether staff reports just performance or also includes budget. The committee decided to continue doing a better job and communicating amenity performance transparently.

“It’s more the committee continuing to refine their recommended goals that they plan to review with the board at an upcoming work session,” he said. “There are things that were identified in the survey like maintaining infrastructure, improving community appearance and current amenities along with maintaining high levels of safety.”

The Strategic Planning Committee is scheduled to meet next on June 23.

This story appears in the print version of Bayside Gazette on May 26, 2022.