Photo by Deb Gau More than 80 people gathered at the Marshall YMCA Monday night to share their ideas for Marshall’s future. After breaking up into small groups, community members read out their ideas for community goals, as well as challenges the city needs to address.

MARSHALL — There was a good-sized crowd gathered at the Marshall Area YMCA to talk about Marshall’s future. But the discussions were all going to be a little more personable, event organizers said.

“If you like to have good conversations, you’re in the right place,” said facilitator Mary Jo Winner.

Small group conversations took up most of the evening at a strategic planning meeting for the city on Monday. More than 80 area residents shared their thoughts on city and community goals for the next few years.

“We want to make sure we have shared goals for the community,” said Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson. Hanson said the ideas from Monday’s meeting would be used to help shape a strategic plan for the next five years. The strategic plan could also help the city update its comprehensive plan.

The community planning meeting was held in a “world cafe” style, with the crowd broken up into small groups to discuss open-ended questions. By the end of the night, there were pages and pages’ worth of notes ready for event facilitators — and the city — to think about.

“We’ve got a lot of data and information and feedback to look through,” Hanson said.

In small groups, Marshall area residents were encouraged to answer three open-ended questions. Facilitators asked groups to think about what kind of changes Marshall needed to make in the next three years to move the city forward; how they could help achieve those goals; and what kind of obstacles the community faces.

Although the meeting generated a lot of ideas for the city go go through, there were some common threads brought forward by local residents. In the next few years, Marshall needed to include its diverse populations, develop its workforce, and encourage new businesses and younger people to be active in the community, residents said. The issue of developing policies on renters’ rights, and possibly offering space to “incubate” ideas or new businesses in Marshall were also ideas that were discussed by more than one group.

Groups said outreach would be a big part of making some of their goals a reality. Other ideas brought forward included forming mentorship groups for young professionals or new businesses, having a detailed community calendar, and working on environmental sustainability for the city.

While many of the ideas brought forward to help Marshall in the future focused on people and businesses, some of the examples of obstacles facing Marshall were a little more physical. Groups listed a shortage of housing, a need for updated infrastructure or an expanded highway in the area, and a lack of “things to do” in town among the challenges. However, multiple groups also said communication — including both sharing information with the community and fighting misinformation — was a key challenge Marshall will need to work on.

Hanson said the feedback gathered Monday will be used as the city continues its strategic planning process.

She said city staff members have already started having planning meetings, and sessions with community leaders and city council members will also be held starting this week.