Long-Term Planning Process
The Pocantico Programs have both complemented and extended the impact of the Fund's grantmaking programs. The conference center provides a setting by which nonprofit and public-sector institutions can engage people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives on important issues related to the Fund's philanthropic programs. The visitation program and the Pocantico Forum have provided opportunities for public access to the estate.
After a decade of operation, the Fund's Board and Pocantico Staff have been engaged in a planning process to chart the future direction of the Pocantico Programs. Central to Pocantico's long-term planning process is increased public access and programming. During 2006, the staff initiated a long-range planning process intended to inform the Pocantico Committee of the RBF board about possible future uses of the Pocantico estate. As part of the process, two meetings were held during 2006: 1) in June a group of outside experts from a wide range of disciplines gathered to inform deliberations on current programs and new perspectives on future program opportunities for the estate; and 2) in December, a working group of architects, landscape architects, and planners were convened by the Regional Plan Association at Pocantico for a building and landscape charrette. During the workshop, participants considered how to link the multi-faceted elements of the estate together in a flexible manner that encourages synergies among present and future programs. Members of the Pocantico Committee participated in both meetings.
The Pocantico Committee presented A Long-Range Plan for the Pocantico Center to the RBF board at its June 2008 board of trustees meeting. In approving the plan, the board adopted the name "Pocantico Center" as well as the mission, vision, and principles for the development and operation of the Pocantico Center. In addition, small-scale public programs are to be developed and tested by the staff in keeping with the mission, vision, and principles and along the lines of the programs and campus and parkland planning as set forth in The Promise of Pocantico.
Download The Promise of Pocantico.
Close-Up
With the Radical Party on the extreme right and the Socialist Party of the late Slobodan Milosevic on the populist left, the political scene in Serbia and Montenegro is "very rigid."